Ann Arbor

I went to the Midwest! Kind of! Not really! Well, I went to a state I can't place on the map. Really, I can't place it. It's called Michigan. I had to skip a day of work, my coworkers think I'm the biggest flake in the world and will probably never hire another third year student as a result of hiring me, especially since I can't work over the summer, but I digress...

It's still winter out in the rest of the country so the trees are all dead and brown. But this is a classic American scene:


On this day it hit 60, the highest in months. The wetlands (which are everywhere) fostered (right word?) frogs. They were loud...remember the guy on the nature show who says, omg its so loud you have to come here to see what it's like, during breeding season of random endangered insect #456? Well, it was just like that, and I was in person, and ya it was loud, deafeningly loud. I think we decided they were frogs although I couldn't see them...

I really wanted my picnic on a great lake. Since I can't place Michigan on the map, I don't know which great lake it borders. But this is Lake Erie. What you can't see, is the nuclear power plant to the north. Clearly identifiable as a nuclear power plant. You also can't smell the smell of half defrosted rotting wetland. Or feel the slimy plastic film covering the water. But it is a lake. And this is a 'beach.'


The parking lot at the lake 'beach.' And the smokestacks (not the nuclear power plant - thats separate) in the background. You can see this is a popular place in the summer.