LAKE ERIE AT MADISON, OHIO
Small World Department

Lake Erie is the eleventh largest lake in the world (by surface area), and the fourth largest of the Great Lakes in surface area and the smallest by volume. This spot on the Lake is 2500 miles from San Diego and eight time zones from Lake Ladoga in Russia, the largest lake in Europe and the fifteenth largest in the world. On this next-to-last day of September I have an especially strong sense of the smallness of our planet. In this month I have flown from San Diego to St. Petersburg, sailed across Lake Ladoga and Lake Oniega and down the Volga River to Moscow, flown back to San Diego, and finally have driven from San Diego to Lake Erie near Cleveland. What a wonderful world!