Summer Memories Should Outlast My Camera

My sunburn is itching and peeling and I can't transfer the photos to my desktop.  At least my memories of the Labor Day weekend trip to the Indiana Dunes are durable.  My friend Katie organized this trip with friends, one she'd make every few summers growing up.

(here's where I'd have put the photo of Katie sporting the trend setting sunglasses / eyeglasses look which is dorky now but will someday rock the fashion world... it's inconsiderately trapped on the memory card)

The Dunes Natl Lakeshore stretches 15 miles down Lake Michigan, a plot of land famous for its beaches and sandy hills, famous to the scientific community for its biological diversity, wetlands, species variation and other such things that didn't register on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.

The view from the top of Mt. Baldy (arrrgh!  damn camera! the program should automatically open when I press "on") is spectacular, about as spectacular as you can get in the otherwise flatish Great Lakes region.  Unlike Chicago's beaches, this one had seashells, grass, and random detrius which reminded me of Florida.  What I hadn't seen before was the nuclear power plant on the eastern horizon.

Here's where I snag a photo from the tourism bureau's site, just so you know I'm not making this up:

Cooling_tower

Didn't think I'd dive in, but I did. With the nuclear activity down the block and BP's state-sanctioned discharge flowing into our regional treasure, I'm expecting that second head to start sprouting from my neck any day. Blaming BP for my blotchy red spots would be convenient and potentially lucrative, but I can't hold them responsible any more than I can blame them for my stupid non-functioning camera.