Beach Pictures that Don’t Look Like They’re from Cleveland.

Winds from the north paint a pretty picture that many people might not associate with Lake Erie.

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Earlier this summer Cleveland’s SCENE magazine put together a collection of photographs illustrating views of the city that many people (sadly) never see.

Thanks to accessible photo-altering applications like Instagram, even photographs of a mud puddle can look Caribbean-esque. Some of the entries in this particular article were most certainly doctored, while others sang the true, unfiltered beauty of our Great Lake in Cleveland’s backyard.

In North Collinwood we have an unbelievable resource at our fingertips. From public boat-slips at Wildwood Marina to rock outcroppings perfect for catching walleye or bass. From the grassy lawn of Euclid Beach Park to the sandy shores of the cleaner beaches, we have it all.

And we know it.

One of my preferred jogging paths is along the bluff through Euclid Beach Park, Villa Angela, and Wildwood. In the evening, just before sunset, this eastside stretch of Cleveland Metroparks’ property is most active - flush with people and their pets enjoying the view, the fresh air, and on Friday evenings, the music flowing from the “Euclid Beach Live” stage.

Everyone is friendly and life is all good when the brilliant sun sends a rainbow of colors through the sky to dance across the lapping waves.

I take A LOT of photographs of Lake Erie. I share a fraction of them with friends and followers of my social media accounts and print a few of the truly exceptional shots for display on my living room walls.

I love our neighborhood, Lake, and parks so much that more often than not my Facebook looks like a travel site for North Shore Collinwood. But instead of offering once-in-a-lifetime trips to far-flung corners of the globe, our vacation days are every day that we take a minute to walk to the water, sit in the grass, lay on the sand, and breathe.

Cleveland is a city chock full of gems, but none so grand as our lakefront. If it’s hard to believe anyone could take a beach photograph like mine or the ones in SCENE, you really should get out there more!