Late winter beach blip

I've been curious to see what our Lake Erie beaches look like after the cold, snowy, and stormy winter we've been through. Today Bob, Gulliver, and I drove out to Perry to check out the beach at Lakeshore Reservation. I was more than a little astonished at the condition of the shoreline. In July I blipped my daughter on this beach, but it definitely didn't look then the way it looks today. The sand on these beaches is not the pretty, fine, white sand you see on tropical beaches. It is coarse, but it is sand, and children can build sand castles, dogs can chase balls, and sun fanciers can spread out their towels and soak up some sun. That's not going to happen on this beach any time soon. A major cleanup will have to happen first. This beach is just more proof of the rough winter we've had here in northeast Ohio. I have posted more pictures in my SmugMug gallery if you want to take a look.

About the blip: The beach is in the foreground with a winter-created-crater that is filled with water. In the middle ground is some ice and beyond that open water. It the distance you can see a white ridge of frozen lake ice that hasn't melted yet. This winter about 95% of Lake Erie was ice covered according to a report I heard a month or so ago.