My morning started at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor's Center. The Friends of the Dunes organization were having a native plant sale. With the help of a very friendly and informative person from that group, I picked up a bunch of plants for our backyard...Blue Flag Iris, Hoary Vervain, Bottle Gentian, Big Blue Stem, Pennsylvania Sedge, Bottlebrush Grass, Purple Love Grass, Little Blue Stem, Indian Grass and Northern Dropseed...this list makes it seem like I stopped at a marijuana dispensary not a native plant sale.
Here's Oslo enjoying the car ride despite the weather. It was sunny and 70 degrees two days ago. Now it is 38 degrees and raining with winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour today...and just for fun, snow is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.
These two really could care less about the shitty weather as long as we are outside hiking somewhere. I agree with them but I am growing tired of our extended winter weather. Today we are hiking through the dunes to the beach at Marquette Park. I can already hear the sound of waves crashing over the roar of the wind.
You can barely see the Aquatorium just over the dunes from the beach.
Look at those beautiful white caps and perfect rolling waves crashing down on the beach...
...of course that puts a smile on my face. Too bad the water temps are in the low 40's. I could ride these waves.
The beach looks so clean because the waves have the water rolling right up to the dunes.
This lifeguard stand is sinking into the sand.
You can see the wind blowing Nola's fur forward and it looks like we are going to get wet feet on this hike...
...look at my ferocious guard dog Nola jumping up onto the eroded dune to avoid the waves. Oslo just shook his head and said,"Damn kids nowadays, afraid of everything!"
Another lifeguard stand getting battered by the angry lake today. On recent hikes here these chairs are about 10-20 feet from the shoreline.
Here's where all the driftwood and debris ended up today...right up against the dunes.
I'm not sure lifeguard stand #5 is going to survive this storm. It is already damaged and leaning forward into the lake.
The sound of the wind and surf put you right on the beach with us.
Nola still standing away from the crashing waves.
The waves are tossing the driftwood off the beach and up into the dunes.
I'm not sure if this wall was built by the CCC during the Great Depression but it does have the look of stone walls in this area that were built by the CCC.
We stopped at the Aquatorium for an elevated view of Lake Michigan.
History was made here by Octave Chanute.
Views from the outdoor second story of the Aquatorium.
I love those rolling waves.
Nola fixated on something in the sky. The wind is so strong I only saw one bird flying here today.
Oslo is relaxing on the cold concrete.
Looking east through Marquette Park.
"Come on boy. It's time to go"
Octave Chanute gliding over the dunes.
A sure sign that spring is supposed to be here by now. I hope this plant makes it through the predicted snow this weekend. Despite my complaints, it felt good to be outside today. There was a heavy mist, like walking through a rain cloud, but it didn't actually rain on us. So that made the hike bearable for me. I'm sure my hiking partners didn't care one bit about the weather. Like Lin Bremer on WXRT always says, "It's great to be alive". Hiking on days like this brings that to mind more often than hiking on beautiful days.
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