Presque Isle State Park

We are glad to be back to the beach, and we are loving the turquoise water of Lake Erie here at our newly-discovered Presque Isle State Park. We are obviously late in finding this wonderful Pennsylvania state park, as it is widely known and loved.

But for others like us that have never heard of this Pennsylvania gem, we will provide some education. First it is pronounced "Presk" Isle. Instead of an island, it is actually a peninsula. Below is a silhouette of the state park that we saw at the visitor's center, to help visualize where and how we spent the day. There's a very narrow neck of land connecting it to the mainland. The isle balloons towards the end, but there are lagoons throughout the peninsula that make for some interesting kayaking. We also learned that there is the interior bay side that faces the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, and the bowed side that faces the wide expanse of Lake Erie.

Now that you have endured Presque Isle 101, it's time to hit the trail with us on our bikes. There is a bike lane that circles the entire peninsula, with lake views much of the way.

At the farthest tip of the peninsula is the Perry Memorial. It was here that Commmodore Perry was in charge of the 
Lake Erie squadron of ships that defeated the powerful British fleet in the Battle of Erie during the War of 1812.

With great views out to the green water of Lake Erie, it should be surprising to see so many people walking around with their eyes down. They were obviously focusing more on their cell phone screens than the Perry monument. This must be home to some unique Pokemon characters, and there were even laminated posters hung from the trees asking for some Pokemon courtesy.

Another few miles around the peninsula brought us to one of the eleven beaches on Presque Isle. The water is warm and clean and welcoming. We found that Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, so its waters warm nicely in the summer. We talked to tourists that were visiting from their home close to Lake Superior. A much deeper lake, we learned that Lake Superior stays cold all summer.

More pedaling brought us to the Presque Isle Lighthouse. It wasn't open for tours this day, but Denisa loves a good lighthouse stop.

We were hot and tired after our 12-mile bike ride, so we cooled off at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. A great new building, it also includes an aquatic lab where university students are working on experiments. It's probably more sophisticated than this, but the plants on the top shelf are automatically being fertilized by fish excrement (aka fish poop).

There is a tower attached to the environmental center, with great views from the top. There is an amusement park on Lake Erie's shores, and we could see the roller coaster tracks arching their way through the tree tops like some kind of sea serpent.

We met a local resident, who told us that a stop at Sara's was a must when visiting Erie, Pennsylvania. An institution unto itself, Sara's cafe is located right along the narrow part of the peninsula, and we enjoyed a fun lunch there.

Cooled off and fueled up, we headed back to the tip of Presque Isle, where we launched our kayak on the lagoons. Protected from the waves of the lake, it is possible to kayak a water trail all the way across the interior of the isle.

There are water plants all along our trail, and we had never seen these bright pink flowers floating above the water.

At times, the water lilies completely covered the trail, and we were paddling through these delightful blooms that stand out of the water.

We had plenty water fowl accompanying us on our paddle through the lagoon. We saw a duck fly off this nest, as we paddled by this area where the water plants were curiously flattened.

More curious to us were the emptied shells that were left in the center of that nest. We're not sure if this was a bird nest, or some other water creature that enjoys a meal on the half shell.

It's always fun to share the water with its locals, and we saw many duck pairs along the way.

But we spent the most time with the resident blue herons. We saw several herons on the water, but we especially enjoyed this guy with his s-shaped neck.

We parked the kayak in the reeds, and watched as he stalked his next meal.

As we came out of the lagoon trail, we broke out to the open bay water. We could see the city of Erie, Pennsylvania ahead of us.

We could also see that we had company on the water. The state park ranger told us that Erie is hosting the Tall Ship Festival that starts tomorrow. It seems that some of the tall ships have already arrived, and they were plying the waters of the bay with us.

We had seen the Perry monument on our bicycles earlier today, so it was interesting to get a different view from the water.

Besides the tall ships, we also shared Lake Erie with the crowd on the local paddle boat dinner cruise.

As we kayaked into the protected waters of Presque Isle, the water was as smooth as glass. That glass reflected the wispy clouds and the blue skies we have been blessed with this day.

After our 12-mile bike ride, and our 3-hour kayak loop, we did some driving around the peninsula. We wanted to see the canal, because this is where the tall ships will be sailing through tomorrow. We had the canal to ourselves this evening, but it should be quite different tomorrow.

We also drove by Thompson Bay, where a neighborhood of houses on stilts were lit up by the setting sun. For these residents, the only way to get home is via the boats that are docked in front of us.

It had been a great day exploring Presque Isle, and we hurried to one of the beaches on the west side of the peninsula to enjoy the sunset.

Just as we started this blog with a picture of Denisa on the beach in the morning, we finish with Mark on the beach this evening. We feel like we have had a full day of biking, kayaking, and wandering into more of God's wonders.