We are big fans of Lake Michigan.  We visit its beaches, walkways and hiking paths frequently during the spring, summer and fall, but don’t spend much time there during the winter.  Today, we decided to do something different and drive along the lake from Whiting to Michigan City to see what some of our favorites places look like on a cold day in January.

Our first stop was Whiting Lakefront Park.  This 15-acre park is a great place to visit on nice day.  It has a fishing pier, walking paths, tennis courts and many play areas for kids.  But what is it like on a not so nice day?  A day with 20-degree temperatures and a strong wind?  Simply put, if you go on the right day, it is a surreal wonderland that looks like it leapt straight off the pages of a Dr. Seuss book.  When strong winds from the north cause high waves along the lakefront, everything near the shore gets covered in a thick layer of ice – EVERYTHING.  Trees, benches, garbage cans and bushes, you name it.  If it’s near the shore it gets coated in ice.  It is likely that you have never seen anything like this before.  We certainly hadn’t.  The downside is when the thaw comes, the benches and garbage cans will live to fight another day.  The bushes, trees and plants sadly won’t.  It is definitely worth spending 30 minutes here when the ice is in town.

From Whiting, we headed 25 miles east to the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk.  This 57-acre park sits on the former site of National Steel and was opened in 2008.  It features a beach, walking trails and a pavilion with bathrooms that are open year-round.  In the summer you can spot surfers braving the cold waters off the breakwater, but in the winter, you are pretty much alone.  We arrived to find the park’s observation deck had collapsed due to erosion caused by the same high winds that coated the Whiting lakefront in ice.  Even without the deck though, it was interesting to see how different the park looks in the winter.

Our next stops were the Indiana Dune National Lakeshore and the private beach in Beverly Shores (they don’t check your credentials in the winter).  Both beaches featured amazing amounts of shelf ice, which forms when a portion of the lake freezes and the ice is washed ashore by waves or wind.  Shelf ice is beautiful to view, but very dangerous and should never be climbed on.  Of course, we saw one imbecile climbing an enormous mound near the shoreline.

Our final beach of the day was Washington Park Beach in Michigan City.  This is usually a fine beach with a nice lighthouse at the end of the breakwater.  Today, it was just plain cold and windy.  We started to walk to the end of the beach to get a better view of the lighthouse, but only made it halfway before we had to turn around.  The outside portion of our day was a success.  Yes, we were cold, yes, we were uncomfortable at times.  But, we got to see and experience some of our favorite places in an environment that most will not make the effort to do.  It is worth it to see how Mother Nature changes everything in the winter.

Once we got to Michigan City we decided we were hungry.  What to do?  Michigan City has a surprisingly good number of places for lunch and we were ready for some quality inside time.   Today, we decided to try someplace that we hadn’t been to before, Shoreline Brewery.