Blue Water

Nature has long inspired humankind to imitate her beauty.  Though we have managed to produce wonderful gemstones, furs, sounds, and smells synthetically, we tend to long for those things which are naturally produced.  In particular, we have a fondness for color, whether it be the deep reds of a lovely sunset or the brilliance found in gemstones and precious metals.  In some places, natural colors lend their name to entire regions.  In Michigan and Ontario, we have what is known as the "Blue Water" region, your typical eastern Great Lakes industrialized port area so named because of its brilliant blue waters flowing out of Lake Huron into the St. Clair river.

Standing on the easternmost point of Michigan, looking south into Ontario at what the locals call "chemical valley".

While the scale of the ocean going vessels and industrial landscape manages to attract the attention of both locals and visitors alike, few such viewers never give a second look to the dazzling waters which run through the middle of the hustle and bustle in Port Huron and Sarnia.  Dazzling, of course, hardly can express the intensity of the blue which is the water here.

Pictures do not do it justice, but I thought I would try.  All of these can were taken in Port Huron.  In the shot directly above is downtown Sarnia, Ontario.

The Great Lakes are notable for producing blues in their waters normally reserved for the ocean.  Sediments and bedrocks have been partially responsible for giving us inland seas which can rival the picturesque waters of the Caribbean and South Pacific.  Some locations are better than others for observing the azure majesty, such as the dolomite-floored Bruce Peninsula side of Georgian Bay, or the lovely sandy bottomed shores off of the Leelanau Peninsula in northwestern lower Michigan.  None of these, however, can hold a candle to the gem-quality brilliance of the St. Clair river.  Though they often never give a second thought about their lovely river, the locals were right in calling their home Blue Water country.