The perfect temperature for humans is about 67°F … with a nice Lake breeze.
No scientific studies on this one, I just know when I feel happy and comfortable, and when I need to get out a hand fan and beat the air by my head like a fledgling robin trying to take flight for the first time.
I don’t do hot very well, making me a lousy candidate for snowbirdatude. Good thing I live all year by Lake Superior, which still provides free air conditioning most summer days and free refrigeration most winter days.
Heat aside, summer can be a cool time of year.
It’s the best time for outdoor mingling. It’s admittedly hard to have a conversation outside if your nose seals up when you inhale – and if you get that reference, you’ve been in my Big Lake neighborhood in February.
Summer also offers up the leisure to savor the scenery.
No need to rush from car to house or office. No need to avoid falling asleep in the backyard (yes, in winter, this would be a thing, though why you’d sit around in your backyard at 20 below is beyond me). In summer, you can hang out with the husband and the dog… and the millions of mosquitos … to your heart’s content, or until those same humming buzzards drive you inside (where’s a good frozen nose when you need one?).
Summer begs you to stay outside. Mom used to fit us up in swimsuits and shoo us out into sun showers so we could get more “out” time. She also made me read on the porch in summer … since I couldn’t be pried from my books in those days. She never once made me read outside anytime after Thanksgiving (U.S., that is. Sometimes I still read outside after Canada’s Thanksgiving in October).
Some spectacular summer scenes by the Big Lake and its inland lake cousins are part of this issue’s photo feature, “Savoring a Northern Summer.” From serene sundrenched shorescapes to just-drenched moments of pure leaping-into-the-Lake joy, our host of photographers offers a few of their favorite moments during the time of year we sometimes call the season of tough sledding.
In case you needed a reason to get out and explore – as if rock picking, stone skipping, toe dipping and beach combing were not reasons enough – we present this year’s readers’ choices for Best of the Lake. Every year there are a number of delightful discoveries that our readers and social media fans have made for us in the Big Lake neighborhood. You might decide, like I’ve done, to take the list on your next shoreside journey to visit these winning picks – some for the umpteenth time and some for the first time. Which reminds me, while you travel around the Lake, please keep an eye out for our blue-and-white Best of the Lake logo in the windows or on the walls at local establishments. Give them a try and then give them a hearty congratulations on earning the distinction of being a real crowd pleaser.
There’s so much more to cover (and uncover) in this issue, but I must also direct you to my own personal three-day tour of one of my favorite Big Lake locales – the city of Marquette. No one can cover a culture- and recreation-rich city like Marquette in just three days, but I hope my sampler of suggested sites gets you to plan your own visit there quite soon. I’d love to get your insights into what you’d suggest for Marquette visitors – or for what additional cities you’d like to see on our three-day tours for future issues. Feel free to pen a note from a breezy Lake Superior beach while you enjoy the cool things about even a hot summer’s day.