Ocean*

I mean, Lake Michigan is big enough to be a sea. All the Great Lakes are, they’re not considered seas because they’re not all at sea level, they’re all freshwater, and they’re not directly connected to the ocean (they’re only connected through rivers and lochs)

Small lakes don’t have noticeable waves but because the Great Lakes are so big there’s enough room for the air to downdraft across it (which is also why in Michigan you get lake effect weather and so it can be a blizzard one day and 70° the next)

My grandmother, who grew up in Puerto Rico, when seeing Lake Michigan for the first time with my grandfather exclaimed, “This is not a lake, it is a sea!”

Lake Superior has tides. They’re not as dramatic as the actual ocean’s of course. But still. For every storm that kicks up 200ft spray and waves that crash over the tops of the lighthouses on the piers, there’s days when you can’t tell where the water meets the sky.

Lake Superior doesn’t have a monster, Lake Superior IS the monster.