Seven Shades of Blue: Coming Home

Seven Shades of Blue: Coming Home

The Moment I Came Home: For the first decade or so of living in Bayfield, all I did was leave. I was writing full time for magazines like National Geographic Traveler, Backpacker, Reader’s Digest, and traveling all over the world to “places.” It was exciting but...
Swimming in the Dark

Swimming in the Dark

Anchor the “Little Dipper.” Slip into the wetsuit and step carefully down the swim ladder into the blue-black water of Lake Superior. That sudden, bracing sting of cold that passes as you remind yourself to just breathe in and out, floating alone in the...
Eyes in the Dark

Eyes in the Dark

It was three a.m. and the northern lights were out. I had anchored the Little Dipper just off shore, slipped into my wetsuit, and swam to a flat rock off the north end of Basswood Island in the Apostles to photograph Honeymoon Rock against a backdrop of aurora. There...
Earth Day History in a Sock Drawer

Earth Day History in a Sock Drawer

There are a lot of Earth Day posts out there but I’ll bet that few of them revolve around a 100 year-old man’s dresser drawer. Several years ago I was honored to spend an afternoon interviewing 100 year-old Julian Nelson, a prime figure in the creation of the Apostle...
THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun

THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun

(paintings by Margaret Florence Ludwig) THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun To see the world like an artist, spend time with artists. Years ago, I was asked to contribute a chapter to a National Geographic Society book on the national parks of Canada. I...