What) Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area if Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are considered to be two lakes. It is the world's third-largest freshwater lake by volume.
Lake Superior has a surface area of 31,820 square miles, which is approximately the size of South Carolina. It has a maximum length of 350 miles and a maximum breadth of 160 miles. Its average depth is 482 feet with a maximum depth of 1,332 feet. Lake Superior contains enough water to cover the entire land mass of North and South America with 1 foot of water. The shoreline of the lake stretches 2,726 miles (including islands). The average temperature of the lake during the summer is 40 °F. Storms on Lake Superior regularly record wave heights of over 20 feet. Waves well over 30 feet have been recorded. The lake is fed by over 200 rivers.
The Ojibwe
call the lake Gichigami, meaning "big water." The first French
explorers approaching the great inland sea by way of the
Ottawa River and Lake Huron during the 17th century referred
to their discovery as le lac superieur. Properly translated,
the expression means "Upper Lake," that is, the lake above
Lake Huron. The lake was also called Lac Tracy by 17th century
Jesuit missionaries. The English, upon taking control of the
region from the French in the 1760's, anglicized the lake's
name to Superior, "on account of its being superior in
magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent." (1)
Where) It's hard to miss
Why) Pam
likes water in all it's forms and the route for this trip is
going to bring us near every Great Lake as well
as down the length of the St. Lawrence River.
It seemed appropriate to stop in and learn something about
each of these places. 
