LAKE ERIE DREAMIN'

Last July, my family and I traveled to my mother's childhood home, Ripley, New York. We spent a relaxing week on the shores of Lake Erie. My parents and my sister enjoyed days in the sun and surf. I enjoyed days in the shade, trying desparately not to scratch the skin off of my body. I also spent the first night of our vacation in the emergency room at Westfield Community Hospital ... blessed poison oak!

Here are a few photos of the trip ... ah! If I close my eyes, I can still hear the water lapping on the shore.

One of the things I just love to do when I visit a Great Lake (or any lake, but especially the Great Lakes) is to look for beach glass. These are little bits of glass that have been smoothed by endless years of sand and surf. I have a bowl full that I've collected over the years, most of it along the Lake Erie shoreline! This place is LOADED with beach glass. For those of us that collect it, it's the MOTHER LOAD! So, if you're ever near water and I come to mind, please bring me back some beach glass!

I'm obsessed with sunsets! There are no two alike. I think my appreciation of them began as a child at my grandparents' cottage on Carp Lake. The entire family piled onto the beach to watch the sun slip below the horizon, leaving a brilliant smattering of color as it did. We ran down to the beach a number of times while in New York. You can almost hear the sizzling as the sun slips behind the clouds and into the water.