I am probably the least outdoorsy person you'll ever meet. I feel that I am adventurous in the fact that I am up for anything, like breakfast for dinner or a last minute dance party but that is where my fearless nature ends. When it comes to actually doing activities outdoors I have major reservations. One of my goals for this year is to get out and be more adventurous and get connected to the outdoors.
It was with this in mind that I said yes to an invitation from my brother in law, Trevor (my husband's twin brother) to go watch the sunrise over Lake Michigan and then go explore these ICE CAVES that have formed on the lake. This involved three things that made me feel uncomfortable, getting up at 4am, being outside in roughly 0 degree weather, and GOING OUT ONTO A FROZEN LAKE AND INSIDE OF WAVE CAVES. I layered up, put on my Tretorn snow boots , grabbed my cameras and we were off!
We drove to what Chicagoan's call "The Beach" (being from Florida, it is difficult for me to call a Lake a beach, but I digress) and watched the glory that is the rising sun. I don't think I've ever seen that on purpose in my entire life. That was awesome. Christopher took some stop motion footage on his GoPro and we all happily shivered and tried our best to snap pictures with our frozen fingers. That was fun!
Next we headed to a part of the lake where waves have frozen, forming ice caves! It was a little surreal walking on the sand that was mixed with snow and eventually realizing we were off the "beach" and onto the water, which was frozen solid. Once I realized we were on the water, I panicked a little bit inside and became very apprehensive about exploring, but I did anyways and it was well worth it! The caves looked so cool and it's just so unreal that these are FROZEN WAVES! Christopher and Trevor were extremely brave and went out further to take pictures / get GoPro footage but I was way too nervous to join them and happily watched from the top of the ice caves (which were closer to shore).
Nature is amazing. I am so glad that I got up early to go do this! What other beginner outdoorsy things should I do next? I have hiking boots (thanks Tretorn!) and am thinking that might be a natural next step for me. Any other recommendations are welcome!
XO
That is so cool! I wish we had any lakes here that were big enough to get waves. The rising sun is really really beautiful. This sounds like an awesome adventure, thank you for sharing your photos from it. :D
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