Beautiful in the post-nuclear sense

This past weekend I made it down to the nearest park located on one of the Great Lakes.

Actually, there are two parks that vie for this title. One, Lake Erie Metro Park, is located at the mouth of the Detroit River -- saying it's on Lake Erie is debatable and depends on where you consider the lake ends and the river begins. The other, Sterling State Park, is fully on the shores of Lake Erie but five miles down the road from Lake Erie Metro Park.

Both are a little short of the sand duney beauty of the parks alongside Lake Michigan on the other side of the state, but they do in a pinch.

Sunday I made it to Sterling State Park. Walking along its clamshell-strewn beach about an hour before sunset:


In the background, the cooling towers of the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant. If you don't look too closely, though, you can almost imagine you're on the ocean.