Evanston, October 5
After a week of discouraging forecasts things were looking up last evening. No waves, air 68 and water 64-67 was the forecast. Although we, Jody and I, considered Ohio St, which in retrospect might have been a better choice we picked Evanston since we like that beach better. Arriving at 6:30 we were able to park right by the beach, and since the fences have been moved, walk directly in. It was still fairly dark. Things were not quite as forecast, there were 1-3 foot swells, which was not the problem. The problem was the water was 61.5. That's not really so bad but we have not had the experience with such cold water this year and, in the last two weeks I have been swimming in 80-85 degree indoor pools. The air was plenty warm for this time of year, but without the sun to warm us it felt pretty cold. We debated driving down to Ohio St but didn't want to miss the sunrise which is one of the great features of early morning in Evanston. So in the end we were in the water about 30 minutes but only really swam about 10 of them, and then relatively close to the beach. But we saw the sunrise from the water. And, figuratively, the sunset of our 2013 Lake swimming.