All the Options!

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

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One of the things I love about Chicago is the opportunity to study pretty much anything I want.  Four of the top twenty-five universities are here:  DePaul, Loyola, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago.  Top-tier state schools, the University of Illinois – Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University are both here, as well as excellent private universities such as North Park University and Roosevelt.  The list doesn’t stop there.  If you have a yen for higher learning, this is your town.

Not just that, though.  There’s also the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine where you can learn eastern healing modalities such as acupunture and massage, the Chicago Weaving School where you can learn – you guessed it – weaving techniques from the simple to the complex, and Middle Eastern Dance at Arabesque.  At the Old Town School of Folk Music you can learn, yes, folk music, but also traditional dance, choreography, and musicology.  The Chicago Park District has classes in everything from sports to woodworking and lapidary, and the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning will teach you all sorts of things about Judaica and non-profit management. If more esoteric disciplines call to you, learn astrology or tarot at the Discovery Center – along with investment techniques and fitness.

It’s safe to say that Chicago is a curious city.

Tomorrow, we’ll see what V holds in store for us.

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Trains

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

2016-04-23 Pic 1

Sorry that today’s post is late; I have a cold and have spent most of the weekend sleeping.

If you live in Chicago, or are here for an extended visit, you are more than likely going to encounter the elevated commuter trains – locals call it the “L,” for short.  My husband and I, above, use it to get to the airport for vacation, for example.  I used to use it every day when I worked downtown; now I simply take a bus since I live so close to my day job.

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There are many pictures of the “L” online, but the ones I like are the ordinary ones.  This view, for example, is one of my favorites along the Brown Line, because it’s when the “L” goes over the conventional railroad tracks and you can see for miles in either direction.  You whizz by too quickly to get a good look, but I always wonder what it would be like to get on those tracks and see where they go.  This direction, southbound, would end up in New Orleans.  The other way goes clear up into Canada.

What about you, Dear Reader?  Where do your trains go?

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Willis! Sears! Willis! Sears! Willis! Sears! Whatcha Gonna Callit?

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

2016-04-22 Pic 1

At one time the tallest building in the world, the Sears  Willis Tower is the tallest building in a city of tall buildings.  Finished in 1973, it’s actually separate buildings built together like a handful of drinking straws.  They don’t tell you until you’re in the elevator to the top and the famous Skydeck that there aren’t cables holding the elevator up, but pneumatics:  i.e., air.  WTF?  If it wasn’t 108 stories up, I’d’ve walked down.  As it was, my hands sweated the entire way.

For those of you who are way braver than me, there’s even The Ledge.  That’s right, a lucite box, suspended over… nothing at all.  Friggin’ A, man.  You just stand there with your feet out over God’s creation and hope that whoever nailed that puppy to the side of the building used REALLY BIG NAILS.

No.thank.you.

But seriously, this is a cool place to tour.  And, as tours in Chicago go, it’s not as expensive as an Architectural Tour, if you’re on a budget.  You can see clear across Illinois to Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, though I’m not sure about Iowa.  (That’s a couple hundred miles away, after all.)  The Skydeck has a wraparound series on the walls depicting the history of Chicago, and of course, there are the windows.  You should check out the website link I gave you in the first paragraph, because there are even video tours online that can whet your appetite.

Just don’t ask me to come out on the Ledge with you.  For that, Dear Reader, y’all’re on yer own.

~shudder~

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

 

Rogers Park

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

2016-04-21 Pic 1

According to the Chicago Tribune, “What was once the convergence of two Native American trails is now known as Rogers Avenue and Ridge Boulevard in the neighborhood. Various regional tribes often settled in Rogers Park. This neighborhood’s rich history is still celebrated today with the Indian Boundary Park and the Pottawattomie Park.” (1) What I love about living here is how green it is – and orange, and purple, and red…

It amuses me no end that they use lettuce for ornamentals, too, but that’s a different issue.

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There’s a park not far from my house which runs from here, at the southwest border of Rogers Park, all the way down to, I believe, Albany Park.  Regardless of what they call it, walkers and cyclists can wander, even using pedestrian tunnels, without risk of getting clipped by a passing car.  The trail is a couple miles long and is part of the wildlife corridor the city’s built for area wildlife to get clear up into Wisconsin.

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And it’s lovely in all kinds of weather.  The heavy underbrush in the left of the photo is a native species restoration area; posted signs warn visitors to keep out because they’re letting the flora re-establish itself.  We’ve seen green heron, red fox, deer, raccoons, and all manner of birds using this place.

For those of you curious about specifics, there’s a Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society and museum, and you can visit their website, here.  Loyola University has a campus here over by the lake, and Lunt Street Beach is my favorite along the lakefront.  My neighborhood has seventeen different languages just on my block, (we counted), and there are people here of all different ethnicities, religions, orientations, and backgrounds.  You can walk down a street and see an Ethiopian restaurant, a Zabiha meat store, and a Jewish religious artifacts store.  You can find Russian books, music, and memorabilia, there’s a Georgian (as in the country Georgia, not the state) bakery, and an organic foods restaurant with its own garden on the roof.

Pretty awesome place, Rogers Park.

Tomorrow, I have to figure out something for S.  Now where did I put my list?  Hmm…  What could be a big S, right in the heart of the city?  Sssss…

References

(1) “Explore Chicago’s Neighborhoods:  Rogers Park,” The Chicago Tribune, 11/14/2008, web page accessed 04/20/2016 from the following link.

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Shedd aQuarium

Noon and Wilder Posted on by
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Shedd_Aquarium_Chicago_August_2005.jpg

Image used under Creative Commons license from Wikimedia Commons.

See how I did that?  There’s a “Q” in aQuarium, right?  So it’s a Q word.

So there.

But really, I have an ulterior motive:  one of my favorite parts about Chicago is its museums.  And the Shedd Aquarium is one of three on the “Museum Campus,” the other two being the Field Museum and the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum.  You can even craft a special memory with Extraordinary Experiences, behind-the-scenes adventures.

One of the earliest aquariums in the U.S., it is home to many species of aquatic life.  They have a large section devoted to Pacific marine life, but I’m spoiled by having grown up on the west coast.  What I love is the enormous aquarium tank right in the front of the place as you walk in, filled with all sorts of fish.  I think I like aquariums because they’re generally fairly quiet and softly-lit.  Fluorescent lighting gives me a headache, and typically places like this don’t have a lot of it and what there is, is pretty muted.

One interesting tidbit is that when you visit the aquarium, they give you a handout on what fishes are safe to eat because of mercury contamination.

Tomorrow, check back for R – because you’ll be as surprised as me, since I still have “Red Rock Canyon” on my list from when I’d originally planned to do both Chicago and Las Vegas.  Oh dear, what to do.  Hmm.  Chicago with an R…

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Polish Culture

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

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Polish is the third most common language spoken in Chicago, behind English and Spanish, and it is said that there are more Polish people here than in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland.  I’m not sure about that last fact, as I couldn’t find verification of it, but it’s a commonly stated aphorism that I’ve heard since moving here.

One thing I find interesting is that I have met Polish-speaking people who speak no English, and who have lived here for many, many years.  There are enough Polish speakers that one can thrive here without ever needing to leave the Polish neighborhoods.

  • Every October, the Polish Film Festival is celebrated.
  • I talked about pizza earlier in the challenge; another food that’s practically religion here is the hot dog.  The first time I went with a local friend to a Chicago-style hot dog place, he boldly ordered “The Polish.”  “The Polish what?” I asked.  He looked puzzled.  “A Polish,” he finally answered.  If you, like me, prefer nouns with your meals, a “Polish” means a Polish sausage served like a hot dog.  Well, not like a hot dog.  Like a Polish.  …  I give up.  🙂
  • There is a type of restaurant here called a “Polish buffet,” that I just had to try.  It’s enough of “a thing” that there are several entries for it:
  • Pulaski is a major street here, and all the school kids are taught about Casimir Pulaski.  The city celebrates Casimir Pulaski Day, the first Monday of every March.
  • The Felician Sisters Convent, formerly the Provincialate, is only a mile or two from my house.  It was founded by a Polish nun.

There are many more tidbits of history about the Polish people here in Chicago.  I encourage you to check out the links if you’re curious.

Tomorrow, we try and find something to do with Q.  Hmm…

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Brave Enough To Speak the Truth About Body Image

Noon and Wilder Posted on by
2016-04-18 Pic 1

Image used under Creative Commons license

I know Oprah Winfrey elicits strong opinions, positive or negative, and I’m not here to try and sway your opinion one way or another.  Her television empire, Harpo Studios, has had its offices here in Chicago for years and one could go see the Oprah Winfrey Show right here, just west of the loop.  While not a native, Oprah has made a home here and, in the process, has become a Chicago institution.

I picked her as my letter “O” today because she changed my life with a book she wrote with her trainer, Bob Greene, called Make the Connection.  Simply put, it’s a book about getting to one’s healthy weight.  But the book is so much more than that.

Ms. Winfrey, or simply Oprah as she is known by her fans, is baldly honest in this book about her personal journey.  I’ve spoken elsewhere, on occasion, on my own struggles with anorexia and I can tell you, it’s a shaming disorder.  When anorexics do speak up about their journey, people tend to freak out, laugh, or get overly solicitous.  One woman I told literally laughed in my face and blurted, “But you’re so -”  She broke off, but we both heard the word she didn’t say:  “fat.”  It’s only the skinny ones that get the press, the ones that are near death or the models who have died from it.  “Such a shame, she was so beautiful,” people say.

Oprah’s book was the first time I came across anyone in the public eye who had the courage to be candid about their journey with body weight.  Fat people know they’re fat.  They know it, they struggle with it, and they live with it everyday.  Oprah didn’t have to be honest in her book.  With her power and reach, even back then, she could have simply said, here’s a book by my trainer, go read it and you’ll get healthy too.  But no.  Not only did she share her own journey, her own personal shame, she shared pictures.  Fat ones.  Shaming ones.  Ones that no one ever talks about, or even admits to.

I’m actually not in favor of the so-called “fat positive” movement, because being over a healthy weight is, by definition, unhealthy.  All sorts of medical consequences come from being fat:  diabetes, heart disease, gout, high blood pressure, immobility, pain, arthritis, and just plain inability to enjoy life as we were meant to.  Yes, fat people get shamed, and that’s not useful and mean-spirited.  But fat people don’t need more excuses to stay fat; we need a collective understanding that being fat is a mental disorder, not a physical one.  When a person overeats, it’s generally from a psychological cause, not a physical one.  Someone who is morbidly obese is sick, not lazy.  They need help, not shame.

So, for the record, I’m saying it now:  Oprah, thank you for having the courage to own up to your own struggles, and to be a pathfinder for others to find a way out of being overweight and to develop healthy habits.  Every fat person I’ve ever met, every single one, knows enough nutrition to choke a horse.  Clearly, it’s not information fat people need.  It’s something else.  And Oprah, though her book and her television show, shined a spotlight on the problem and it helped many, many people, including me.

Thanks.

Tomorrow, we move on to lighter subjects and highlight one of Chicago’s greatest ethnic groups.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

In the Navy! la la la

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

Wait, is that not what I meant?

Nope!

I meant Navy Pier, Chicago, baby!

What is Navy Pier, you ask?  Well, it’s not where the Navy lands, that’s for sure.  The base is north of the city in North Chicago, which oddly is not connected to Chicago in any way and is near the border with Wisconsin.  Confused yet?  It’s the Naval Station Great Lakes and home to the only boot camp for the Navy, the Recruit Training Command.  There is a Great Lakes Naval Museum you can peruse.

But, none of that is Navy Pier.  It turns out that this year is its centennial, which means there will be events and commemorations galore.  While you can click on the links to learn more, I figured I’d share some more personal insights.

Originally conceived by Daniel Burnham, the same man who helped rebuild San Francisco after the Great Earthquake in 1905, it has served many functions in its history.  Now it is a tourist destination.  I am spoiled by Pier 39 in San Francisco, I’ll be honest, but that doesn’t meant that one should leave Navy Pier out of one’s calculations when considering things to do in the city.  For one thing, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater has garnered worldwide acclaim and not only brings Shakespeare to the masses, but in particular targets young people and strives to kindle in them a love of The Bard. If you’ve got kids, the Pier is also great because of its Chicago Children’s Museum.

What I personally like at the Pier is the walk with stained glass, but I’m interested to see what things they have up their sleeve for the Centennial.  The Tall Ships are incredible to view and I’d love to take a trip on one, but my heart truly lies with the Sea Dog Speed Ferry.  It’s a Ferry, but a speed boat – so imagine a cigar boat on some serious steroids.

Yeah, baby.

They take you out on the lake and open that puppy up and you speed demons out there will get this.  The rest of you will get wet.  ~fierce grin~

I haven’t tried this yet, but I want to try the multiple person bicycle golf cart things.  They’re called quadricycles.

As you might imagine, all these attractions are not cheap, and that’s what I don’t like about Navy Pier – it’s very expensive.  Each thing seems to cost something, and all those little somethings add up to a lot of money for a couple or a family.  Definitely look around and see what appeals to you, but be aware that it will not be inexpensive and if you’re a bargain hunter, Navy Pier is not the place to go.

Remember, tomorrow is Sunday so there is no challenge post; we resume Monday with the letter, “O.”  Hmm.  What shall we pick?

Your mind went in the gutter, didn’t it?

Yeah, yeah.  I’m onto you, Dear Reader.  Until Monday, then.

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Mag Mile

Noon and Wilder Posted on by
2016-04-15 Mag Mile 1

Image used under Creative Commons license.

Chicago has a street called Michigan Avenue that goes straight through downtown and is lined with high-end retailers, restaurants, and other businesses.  Famous around the world as a tourist destination, it’s a fun place to be.  The large white building on the left in the foreground is the Wrigley Building, which is actually two buildings connected by a covered walkway several storeys off the ground.

It’s built with four different colors of white marble that get progressively whiter toward the top.  The original Mr. Wrigley, way back in the 1900’s, did that on purpose because he wanted it to shine like a beacon at the foot of Michigan Avenue.  The gothic skyscraper on the right behind the drawbridge building is Tribune Tower.  There are rocks and other artifacts all around the base of the building at pedestrian height, including a fragment of moon rock brought back from one of the moon landings.

2016-04-15 Mag Mile 2

Image used under Creative Commons license.

Every year during the holidays, the businesses that are part of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association put on a lights festival in order to entice visitors during the coldest month of January and February.

If you like shopping, this is a great place to come and poke around.

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Largest Inland Sea

Noon and Wilder Posted on by

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When I still worked downtown, this was one of the views on my daily walks – Burnham Harbor.

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This is my husband, the professional photographer at Wolfshead Photography.  I have a lot of photos of him taking pictures, because that’s the state in which he’s most serene and at peace.  Behind him is a view of Chicago and, of course, the lake.

Locals call it “The Lake,” because it dominates everything on the east side of the city.  Lake Michigan is fresh water and is bordered by four states:  Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana.  It’s not that huge on its own.  The largest freshwater lake on the planet is considered to be Lake Baikal, in Russia.  However, if you were to consider all five of the Great Lakes that sit between the U.S. and Canada as one body of water, it would comprise the largest inland sea – larger, even, than Lake Baikal.

When I moved here from the West Coast, something didn’t sit right with me about the lake.  I could never quite put my finger on it.  It feels like the ocean and it’s even got little waves.  “There’s no salt,” a New Yorker friend of mine advised calmly.  “Pardon?”  “The lake.  It doesn’t smell right to you, does it?  It’s the salt.  There isn’t any, because it’s fresh water.  So it smells wrong to you.”

Huh.  Darned if she isn’t exactly right.

The prevailing current isn’t Chicago’s friend, coming down from Wisconsin and scooping out the beaches to deposit them in Indiana.  Most of the lakefront is built up and has breakwaters and other measures to prevent further soil erosion.  But once on a visit to the Michigan shore, I was stunned to find out their beaches remind me of L.A. (Los Angeles, California, USA).  Large swaths of sandy beach, gentle waves, even people out sunbathing and swimming.

But from late October to late April, the lake is a bitch goddess.  Boats and ships do not sail her waters or do so at their own peril.  There are several stories of awful shipwrecks on Lake Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes, as well as folksongs.  One of the most famous is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which is about “the lake they call Gichigami,” which actually refers to Lake Superior and its name in the language of the First Nation peoples, the Anishinabe Ojibwe.  Based on a real-life tragedy, the song by Gordon Lightfoot immortalizes the men who sailed Lake Superior and tried to get one last trip in before winter shut them down.

 

Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme at Noony’s blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join her as she explores Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

Noony’s theme on Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from Noon & Wilder; the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

Our friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and we’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!