Sunrise, December 21, The Third Beach

The third beach I went to I had never walked to before.  It's south of the rock beach, behind the big rock I stood on to take pictures of the waves on the rock beach.

 On top of a big rock, with the third beach beyond 

Approaching the beach

 On the other side of the big rock--the middle piece looks like a face standing guard

The waves here stretch all the way down the beach.

Icicles hang where water has splashed

I walked back through the trees, where I found rusty remains.  What is this?  It has a curved front and springs in the middle.  Or maybe the "front" is really a side, and it's an old car seat frame?

 This tree must have toppled in the strong winds the night before

 Half of it lay broken on the ground

 Large mushrooms broke off the tree

More rusty barrels.  Apparently, at one point toxic waste in barrels was disposed of in Lake Superior.  These may have been left from that time?

Sunrise, December 21, The Second Beach

The rock beach is the second beach I visited.  It was equally as awe-inspiring as the first beach.

(The beach in the background is the third beach)

 Here the sun peeked over the horizon

 Waves formed . . . 

  and broke . . . 

 while the sun rose in the background

 I could (and did!) watch the waves over and over again

Beautiful!

Ollie Turns Four!

Amidst all the Christmas busyness of the last few days, Ollie had a birthday!  Our Christmas Eve baby is already four.  He picked pizza and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday supper.  I found that I only had three birthday candles, and being Christmas Eve, there was no place open in town to go get more.  Ollie got three candles and a chocolate snowman instead, but he didn't even seem to care.  He was really into opening presents and didn't need help from any siblings to rip 'em open.  After each present he opened, Ollie said, "It's just what I wanted!"  I love it when they're easy to please.

Sunrise, December 21, The First Beach

Because we were going out of town for the weekend, I went out on Friday morning, the 21st.  The wind was howling all night long, but by morning all was still.  I bundled up against the cold, but didn't see until I came home that it was only 5 degrees.  If I had checked before I got up, I may have just stayed in bed!  But really, I didn't feel the cold.  I even have great new Lands End boots to keep my toes toasty. 

I don't know how exactly wind affects waves, but they were awesome! Sunrise was at 7:49 a.m.  The morning was mostly clear, with just a few clouds along the horizon.  There wasn't a lot of color, and I ended up focusing more on waves than on the sunrise.  I started at the beach I always start at, then walked to the rock beach, then to the beach beyond that.  The following photos are from the first beach.

First hint of color

Rocks covered in glare ice 

Icicles hanging down

Art in nature