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.

One aspect of Lake Superior that supports that its the monster is that it doesn’t give up the bodies of people who die in it. Due to the cold, the bacteria that produce gases that typically make corpses float in water don’t work very fast, and so they don’t bloat the body up enough for it to leave the bottom. 

It’s a dangerous lake, prone to vicious storms and when it gets you, it holds onto your body forever, refusing to relinquish it back to the surface. 

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot describes Lake Superior beautifully with the lyric

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called ‘gitche gumee’

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy

Actually, that whole song is very haunting and beautiful. Every November 10th my school would hold a silence for the people that died.

This is the music video including footage of the ship before she sank. Idk if it’s just because I’m a Michigander and grew up hearing about this wreck every year, but this song sends shivers down my spine and makes me tear up. It’s just… haunting.

When I was on my way to Connecticut a few years ago, I had a layover in Chicago and it was my first time seeing any of the Great Lakes in person. Around here, most lakes are green or brown. I was shocked to see that Lake Michigan was in fact, the same color as the ocean - bright turquoise. I thought there had to be dye in the water or something. It couldn’t be real! But it was, and the water is crystal clear.

Oh looks it’s my favorite topic, the great lakes