Quick Trip to Boston

Myself and Jeff O. who is not a happily married man>

Many thanks to Ian L. and the wonders of Facebook for this picture. Jeff is the latest of my friends to tie the knot. He is married to an architect who is a native of Peru, but is of Japanese descent. They actually were married in a civil ceremony back in December 2008 but their reception/celebration was this past weekend. It was held at one of the art museums on the Harvard University campus. Although there was only one other Cornell friend there, it was great to see his sister, her husband and Jeff's parents, who I hadn't seen in over a decade.

Congrats, Jeff and Andrea.

Learning Not to be a Drama Queen

It's been a few months since I've posted. Lots has happened, but well, I just have to swallow the fact that those two months of my life won't be documented. So what event occurred to get me over the hump to write again? It was a potentially expensive health care issue that was resolved. Let me explain.....

In speaking with the director of the program, I learned that my health insurance covered me from the time I got on a plane and ended when I returned to the United States. My health insurance through HRS ends on 8/31/09. I would rejoin the HRS plan upon my return on 9/1/10. Because my contract and apartment rights end at the end of June 2010, I had a two month gap where I was going to be uninsured.

I assumed that I could buy two months of COBRA and the issue solved. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that to get COBRA it has to start immediately after the end of the policy and must be continuous. Therefore, for me to be insured for July and August of 2010, I would need to start paying for COBRA in September 2009. The monthly COBRA payment is estimated to be between $450 and $500 per month just for a single person with no dependents like me.

So, I wrote to SYA to see what they could do. My pie in the sky proposal was that I forgo their insurance and see if they would be willing to pay my COBRA. What came back was an even more ideal solution. It turns out that SYA's policy allows for 60 days of the plan (it's some expat American overseas plan) to be used while on United States soil. So SYA will, instead of starting my insurance on July 1, 2009, will start the insurance on September 1, 2009, which is the day after I end my HRS insurance. The SYA insurance will end on August 31st, 2010 and I begin HRS insurance again on September 1, 2010.

WHEW. That's money in the bank! Lessons learned? First, now that I was faced with potentially having to scramble for health insurance, I can understand how crazy our patchwork system is. How can it be so hard to get insurance. It should be a fundamental human right to have health care. The second thing I acutally didn't learn, it was more a case of keeping calm and having faith that things would work out. I didn't let myself play through all the worst case scenarios and I didn't start forking over the money. And just as I have experienced in the past, things figure themselves out without me having to expend emotional energy. I guess that's having life experience.

Officially a Facebook Believer

I am always slow to get on the bandwagon for cool things that everyone raves about. I'm about two years late to Facebook, but after reconnecting with a friend that I knew for all of 4 months back in 1988-89, I'm in the Facebook camp. Ok, ok, so I need to get an iPhone. I know, I know.

So, Shannyn Moore, welcome back into my world. To boot, because Shannyn has become a major liberal political commentator/figure in Alaska politics, she has had her OWN Air America show and has been seen on Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow (don't get me started on my man/lesbian crush on the latter). And, Shannyn now gets me two degrees of separation from one Sarah Palin since they have each other on speed dial.

Welcome back into my life, Shannyn.

Look Out California

Gavin Newsome, age 6 and Jerry Brown, age 36, both in 1974

Both are planning on running for the Governor of California in 2010 to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is term limited. Possibly add to the mix Senator Dianne Feinstein and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa and it's going to be a wild wild wild ride in the Democratic Party's primary. What fun!!!

India/Italy, they are both five letter countries that start with I

So, I am having a "mid-life crisis" as my friend Shahana S. publically announced in her Math Department email. I realized that if I signed my contract to teach at HRS next year, I would be doing the exact same thing for the 16th year in a row (less the one year of recovery from my accident). Now there is something to be said about routine and security, but I knew I would always regret not DOING something while I had the chance.

So, I applied to teach at a high school year abroad program in India. As you know, I applied to get to India on the State Department's dime last summer and didn't get the fellowship. This time, the Mumbai attacks of late last year caused security concerns for Americans and so the program was cancelled. Therefore the organization I applied to asked if I would consider having my application considered by their European programs in either France, Italy or Spain. Sure, I said.

So last Thursday, I interviewed on the phone with the three directors in each of the countries simultaneously for an hour. The next day, I was offered the one year teaching position at the program in Italy!! Here is a link to the SYA Italy website.

In short, I teach five classes to a total of 60 or so American high school juniors and seniors who are in Italy to study the Classics, Art History and Ancient History. I get a furnished apartment from August 1st, 2009 through June 30th, 2010. So it's off to Italy I go........

Now, if you see me you should ask me what Plan B was for my "mid-life" crisis.

Inefficient Sleep

The contraption to gather data on my sleep.

The results? I have minor sleep apnea. Not a surprise for those of you who have tried to sleep in the same room as me. What is a surprise is that I am out of REM sleep 45% of the evening. Even though I am not "staring at the walls like an insomniac" awake, my sleep is fitful and not recharging my energy batteries. I go into sleep school this upcoming to learn what possible options I might choose for addressing this medical issue.

Pajama Bingo

This being the 500th post of the blog, I think it's fitting to have a light hearted posting about my night spent with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence gay bingo fundraiser. Don't need to say much more other than everyone around my friend Roberto and I was winning in some form or the other. Two women right behind me both ones games of bingo AND won raffle bags of "free s***." They each walked away with over $400 worth of cash and goods. To give you a flavor of the kind of humor we had, here were the different games of Bingo we had:

Regular Bingo
"Obama" Bingo (get the boxes around the free spot)
"One Finger" Bingo (in honor of our 43rd president, where you had to get a vertical row)
"Railroad" Bingo (fill BOTH the I and G columns)
"Top Corner" Bingo
"Diagonals Only" Bingo
"Six Pack Abs" Bingo (Any block of six in the I, N and G columns
"Tops or Bottoms" Bingo (The top row or bottom row, this being a gay favorite)

Tear Down This Wall

This past weekend, I spent in Los Angeles with Peter S. (a regular on this blog) and his business partner and friend Eric M.. The purpose of the trip? The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley of course.

Reagan's Headstone at the location of his interrment

Peter S., Eric M. and myself

Reagan's Headstone at the location of his interrment

I'm not sure if this was his planned schedule or a log of what happened.

Sometime after the actual library was built, the first Air Force One was retired and moved to Simi Valley. Private Donors built a huge addition to the facility and it is glommed on quite awkwardly to the chronological tour through Reagan's life. The plane was broken into 10 parts and then reassembled onsite by Boeing.

Looking North from the Reagan Library

A piece of the Berlin Wall. We heard Reagan say "Mr. Gorbachev Tear Down This Wall" in some fashion, from some video or audio clip at least every 7-10 minutes.

On the eve of Obama's inauguration, this seemed particularly poignant when I read it.

Overall, without the Air Force One Detour, the museum is on par in size with the Carter Museum and with the same level of technology. It is clear that it was built in a different time. There is nothing interactive. But in a most critical vein, it felt like, as most of the presidential museums have been, completely propoganda. The only museum that has allowed for dissent and alternative interpretations has been the Truman library, which I think is the gold standard for presidential museum.

A common site this weekend. Both Peter and Eric are iPhone users and like the iPhone owners I know, surgically attached to their iPhones. Twitter was something I heard about all weekend.

Over and over again, different Apps of the iPhone made our lives easier. We found places to eat, my motel, driving directions to every place and Earls Donut's here in Chatsworth off of Yelp.

I saw signs all around for electric charging stations. I gather they are becoming more prevalent in Southern California. Here's what one looks like.

Instead of flying home, as I did on the way down, I elected to take the train back up to the Bay Area. I originally was to take the train back from Simi Valley, but after the foray to Earl's Donuts, I stayed in Chatsworth, which is located in the far NW corner of the San Fernando Valley. Here's a rundown of my journey home, which, was seamless. I'm quite proud of getting from LA to SF in this manner.

1) Chatsworth to Simi Valley $5.25 Amtrak/Metrolink
2) Simi Valley to San Jose $41.25 Amtrak to San Luis Obispo & bus to San Jose
3) San Jose to Millbrae $7.75 Cal Train
4) Millbrae to Glen Park, SF $3.65 BART
5) Glen Park to 30th & Mission $1.50 SF Muni

My wait in San Jose was 11 minutes. The wait Millbrae was 6 minutes and at Glen Park 4 minutes. You can't get better than that.

This is the view north along the train tracks from Chatsworth Station. The tracks turn left into the Santa Susana Pass/Tunnel where there is only one train track. Right after that red light is the location of the huge accident that happened in mid-September where a Northbound (direction we're looking) communter train blew collided head on with a freight train coming the other way.

Returning to Old Patterns

I fully admit to neglecting the blog these past few months. Sometimes, I just get into a mental space where I don't think anything that happens or whatever I think would actually be of any interest to anyone. The thinking spirals and so what we all get is white noise of nothing. The new year and some recent events have jolted me back into a mindset where I'll just throw it out there.

First and foremost, hats off to Mom, Dad, Marl and the metropolitan Seattle area for gamely living with the snowfall of 2008. Just like all preciptation in Seattle, there wasn't just one huge blizzard which dumped a bunch of snow. For about two straight weeks, the snow fell for a couple hours at a time. The snow didn't blow around, it just floated from the sky. It was the snows version of drizzling rain. For the five days I was in Seattle, I never saw the sun. Only on the last morning, did the temperature warm up to start melting the snow.

Speaking of melting snow.....the City of Seattle elected NOT to put salt on the roads. Their thinking is that the salt washes into Puget Sound and contaminates the water and causes damage to the flora and fauna of the Sound. No salt on the roads, but sand was laid down and the plows worked to pack the snow down and then layer the surface with sand. It wasn't easy driving around town. I'm going to bet that the residents of Seattle will implore the city to forgo the environmental route next time and demand that the roads be salted and cleared for driving.

Each and every day, my father and I embarked on "EXTRACT GRANDMA AND GRANDPA". They still live independently but their house has a somewhat steep driveway. This in addition to the snow covered residential streets didn't allow us to actually get them out of the house every time we tried. I think our success rate was 75%.

After spending the holidays with Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and Marl, I flew to Atlanta to spend a week with Alyn. A huge shout out to Kevin H., a 2001 graduate of HRS who let us stay in his 24th floor condo in Midtown while he was back here in the Bay Area for the holidays. Midtown is Atlanta's version of San Francisco's Castro. And the Kevin's building has a particularly large portion who play in my sandbox. So for the week, Alyn and I lived like A-List gays. Whenever we left the building, we would always walk out the front doors just to be seen.

My week with Alyn was good. I say that in the sense that we continued to learn about each other, we were comfortable enough to actually let our tempers show. Well, I threw a hissy fit at one point, and Alyn said that he did too. However, I actually don't remember him having some huge emotional moment. Maybe I was just clueless, but I think it's more that he has that Barack Obama type calm. It's a good complement to my being a spaz much of the time.

We did touristy things, such as visit the World of Coke and take the CNN Tour. We walked in Piedmont Park, saw back to back movies and visited an authentic Korean Sauna and Spa out in the suburbs. I never would have imagined that I would have been in Georgia surrounded by many naked Korean families. But we also broached some of those hard conversations that are what really make a relationship grow and see what each other is like when we have to lay it out on the line. I'll just summarize by reporting that our lives are in different places at the moment which means that we're just going to not make any big decisions. I'm just happy that we are able to agree that we're just going to see what happens. Part of me really wants resolution and action, but this is a case where I have to accept that I just can't bull my way to getting what I want. Can you all imagine those words come out of my mouth?

So, in closing, I have one serious thing and one comical thing to reveal. My snoring prevents us from actually sleeping in the same bed for an entire night. One of us ends up on the couch. So, I am now on a mission to try and drop some pounds to see if it might reduce the volume and intensity of my snoring. Yes, I am on a game plan to lose some weight so I can actually wake up in the morning next to Alyn. I find it worthy of a chuckle. Lastly, you'll notice that I'm on a "game plan". Alyn doesn't think I should use the d-word because it just sets me up to feel like a failure and not carry through on my quest. Game plan allows for the fact that there will be times when eat something I shouldn't. It's things like this that allow me to be a better person than I am without him.

Fascinating How People Can't Follow Directions

As many of you know there is a close recount for the US Senate Seat in Minnesota. Less than 300 votes separate the incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and challenger Democrat Al Franken. The state is currently in the midst of a hand recount of all ballots. About 6,000 ballots have been challenged by the two camps. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has taken 10% of the controversial ballots and scanned them in as PDF's and are having the general public vote on what the "intent" of the voter was. I'm done with just over 100 and it still continues to fascinate me how many different ways the voter blew it or conversely, how the machine completely didn't register the voters clear intent.

Here's the link to the sample controversial ballots.

Milk March

Thirty years ago this week, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to a major political office in the United States, was killed by a fellow supervisor, Dan White. San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was also killed in the same event.

Alyn, the guy I'm dating who lives in Atlanta, is here visiting this Thanksgiving weekend. We attended the memorial service at City Hall and then particpated in the march from Civic Center to the location of Milk's Camera Store on Castro Street.

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus with Tom Ammiano (my district supervisor for a decade now headed to the California Assembly as my Assemblyman)

Candlelight March up Market Street

Myself and Alyn in front of the Castro Theater

Is this called "metacognition?"

Go to the site Typealyzer, type in the name of a blog (in this case echensf.blogspot.com) and here's what pops up!

ESTP - The Doers [ESTP]
The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

They determined this all from my blog!!

Comments on California's Proposition 8 passing

In my gut, I knew that it was going to be bad news. We here in the SF Bay area live in a bubble and every person I work/associate/teach/deal with was clearly anti-8. But in my mind, I remember the interaction I had with my Dad's golfing buddy, as well as my Philippina barber and how intinctively conservative they were. At least I know that my Dad's golfing friend came out and said he would never vote for a black man. My barber was a huge Clinton supporter. How does this correlate to the Prop. 8 vote here in California? More than anything else, it's a generational thing. Yes, the Mormon church brought in a ton of money to get it passed, but they didn't do the actual voting. It comes down to people like my Dad's friend who hasn't had any exposure to the gay community. My guess is that for him, never having really thought through the implications of what the vote was about, would simply read the premise of the initiative and, like most people who aren't exposed to a new idea, would simply vote to keep the status quo. I imagine that the simplified thinking process would go something like this.

1st Reads proposition as "Define marriage as Man and Woman"
2nd Thinks to self "Isn't that just what we have now?"
3rd Thinks "Of course marriage is for a man or woman, it's what we have now"
4th Concludes "Let's just save what's what we have"

It just doesn't occur to them that they are narrowing the defintion, they're just voting their own self interest, which doesn't affect them so there is no reason to think about it. If there was education of these people, such as my Dad's friend, some of them would STILL vote Yes on 8, but I bet many of them would change their mind. Jesus, does this mean I have to come out to my parent's friends? If I were to walk the talk, I should be wearing my rainbow flag shirt at the Chinese community holiday parties in Seattle this Christmas season.

Now, to conclude, I've posted a copy of the map of how the precincts here in the city of SF voted The typical breakdown in SF is an East/West one, with the Eastern, more "urbane" part of the city votes much more liberally than the "conservative" western half of the city. That theory holds somewhat here, as you'll see that area on the Western side just south of Golden Gate Park, is much more pro-8 than the rest of the city. That area is predominantly Chinese/Asian.

However, those are Chinese who more likely than not have been in the US for a decade or more. Notice the Chinatown area. Traditionally, that's the first landing spot for Chinese immigrants when they first land here. The study of voting found that those Chinese immigrants who have been here less than 10 years overwhelming voted for Prop 8. The most general conclusion about the voting trends on Prop 8 here in San Francisco is that precincts with the greater percentage of voters who were white, voted against 8.

So, I am sure eventually, gay marriage will become the law of the state of California as well as the United States. But I too, like everyone else out there, thinks that it comes down to education (in essence becoming more familiar to all) and the older generation slowly becoming a smaller and less influential sector of the electorate.

The Omnibus Blog Posting

I know that it has been nearly two months since I've posted something of substance here, but I attribute it mostly to the fact that I'm in the daily grind of school mode. One treat this year, is that I give a lift to another faculty member who lives in San Francisco. She is the new Mandarin Chinese teacher, hired to teach the heritage speaking classes. If I were at student at school taking Chinese, I would be her student. I am getting the opportunity to practice speaking my Chinese three or four times a week. Granted, my reading and writing skills are not improving at all, and it is those with which I need the most help.

This past Friday, the 2008 HRS Annual Fair went off without a hitch. For the fourth year in a row, I was the lead in organizing the fair. Somehow, I have appeased the weather gods for it was another night of early fall twilight weather. Unfortunately, my planning of the fair was met by my own "October Surprise." In a moment for which I'm not proud, I lost my temper while at school. Here's what happened. I had received an email from BP reminding me that I needed to have a parking plan as well as a security plan in place. In reviewing my records from the past three years, I had done the parking plan once but two of those years, I didn’t create one. In none of the past three years, had I proposed a security plan. My guess is that in the past, upon submitting the calendar request, which I had forgotten to do this year, BP or CT, took it upon himself or herself to take care of this important task for me. However, with BP no longer in the position that she was until this past year, none of these details were addressed.

I promptly tried to get these taken care of but was stymied over and over. I was sent from one person to the other, who wasn’t able to break down who was in charge or what or whom I needed to contact. I was overwhelmed, frustrated and just plain angry (mostly at myself for having not even thought to address this major hurdle in the planning process.) I will not assign blame, but I think it would be quite useful for the players I was dealing with to sit down and figure out who is supposed to do what. In the end, I learned that the business office dealt with security, although I ended up hiring CC of the ASP to watch the Whittle Gate at $25 an hour. I learned that the administrator in charge is to help work with me on the parking plan.

This headache has led me to realize that I am ready to let another person have a crack at this leadership position. Therefore I have proposed to the administration to have them designate a person who will take over the running of the fair in 2010. I will organize the fair for a fifth and last time, with the this designated person working along side me next year to learn the ropes.

The fair wrapped up Friday evening, October 24th, around 930PM and I was home by 1015PM. At 4AM, I was in the car driving to the San Jose Airport to board a 615AM flight to Baltimore with a connection in Houston. I landed at BWI and promptly boarded Amtrak bound for NYC. Why you ask? Well, I'm officially going to go on record here and state that I am dating a guy named AW, who lives in Atlanta. Turns out AW was up in NYC for the wedding of a co-worker so I threw caution to the wind (and was in denial about how grueling all this travel would be) and took the train up to spend 15 hours with AW.

Sunday morning at 11AM, I was back on Amtrak to Washington, DC to make the 430PM wedding of my college friend Nora B. At the wedding, I was reacquainted with friends from college that I hadn't seen in over a decade. And for those who know David A., he still wears blue-button down dress shirts ONLY. Only in the past few years, have I really understood why the bride and groom always gush that my presence at their special day is all that they want. I've come to realize that it is one time in their lives that they have the opportunity to have all the important people from all the important parts of their lives in one place at one time, and perhaps for the last time ever in their lives. Because of this, I always make an effort to attend the weddings to which I am invited. Plus, I love watching inter-generational dancing!

My friends and I left the wedding around 930PM and headed to the DC Metro. From Foggy Bottom, I had to switch to the Red Line at Metro Center to get to Union Station. I can picture the next event in slow motion as it happened. I came up the escalator and turned to see the Red Line train with the doors open. I ran (well wobbled) as fast as I could to get the train. Three steps from the door, my phone falls out of my pocket, on to the ground and slides right off the edge of the platform into the gap between the platform and the train door. My phone is now on the subway tracks.

I am stunned in disbelief. I am in the Metro riding to the next stop, Gallery Place. A woman tells me that this happens all the time and that the station agents have long pinchers to pick up things that have fallen on the tracks. I get off, go back and I have the station agent use the long pinchers to retrieve my phone. And it still worked.

I made it to Union Station thinking I would catch a train up to the BWI area and then take a cab to the hotel where I had made a reservation. Arriving at Union Station at 11PM, I found out that the next train leaving DC wasn't until 315AM. Resigned, I trekked out to the cab line and it was 50 people long. At this point, a man driving a wheelchair equipped van asks where I'm going. I tell him the Red Roof Inn near BWI, he says $60. We're on. With his GPS unit, I'm there in 25 minutes and in bed by midnight. Five hours later, it's up and off to BWI to fly back home.

Election 2008

Voting absentee this year

President, Congressperson, BART District Supervisor, School Board, Community College Board, 12 State Propositions ( NO ON 8!!!! ), 23 SF City Propositions and Instant Runoff Voting for my San Francisco District 9 Supervisor. Lots to consider and after my friend John L's Gladys House proposition party (I took on State Proposition 11 on the establishment of a Redistricting Commission) and some research, I submit my absentee ballot tomorrow morning. Phew!

Only in San Francisco

On the ballot for this November's election is, well, here's the commentary from the BeyondChron Alternative Weekly webstie:

"Activist Brian McConnell wrote the ballot argument for Proposition R. George Bush has left us with a “gigantic mess,” he writes, and renaming our local Sewage Treatment Plant after him “symbolizes the City’s deft ability to clean up its share.” Colin Gallagher replied: “if we name a local sewage plant after Bush, what’s left to name after Jesse Helms?” Personally, the best argument I’ve heard on this measure is: “it gives shit a bad name.”"

Yes, San Francisco City and County Proposition R would name our main wastewater treatment plant after our current and soon to be ex-president George W. Bush. I have nothing further to say.

When you gain, you also must give back

The 2008-09 school year has commenced. As I wrap up my first week, I must note and comment the Upper School's move to our new building on campus. I, after a decade of sharing rooms with my colleagues and being in a small office with three other colleagues, now have a brand new, spiffy, gigantic room all to myself. I teach all of my classes in the same room and no other teacher teaches in my room. I have a desk in my room and am completely self-contained. This is true for each and every teacher.

Therein lies the rub. It's lonely. In the old building, everyone was on top of everyone else ALL THE TIME. Our Math Department office was situated right at the junction of two hallways so just being at my desk meant that I heard everything that was going on and more importantly, students would just drop in and visit.

Our new building, and might I put out there officially that it is grand, beautiful, well-designed and spacious, has changed the feel of the Upper School community. The hallways are empty and it feels sterile. Two of my colleagues are in a completely different building. Until this afternoon at lunch, I hadn't seen Steve G. for two full days. He and I used to sit right next to each other in our old office.

What we all have gained in creature comforts and privacy, we've lost the organic interactions that used to occur a couple times an hour because everyone's paths inevitably crossed each other. I liken our move being the equivalent of going from an inner city high density neighborhood to now being in a gated community in the suburbs.

I just need to accept that I need to make the effort to go and find my colleagues and get up off my behind and make those old connections happen. But I put out the charge too all member of the HRS Upper School to make the effort to remake and perhaps create a new community and school culture.

Sometimes, I'm just not smart

For some odd reason, the light bulb in my bathroom gets a bit loose and doesn't illuminate the room when I flip the switch. Every once in a while, I end up peeing in the dark. All that needs to happen is for me to twist the bulb and, voila, "LUX SIT."

However, to reach the bulb, I need to step up on the edge of the tub and then stand on the sink to reach the bulb. Here's the result from yesterday's attempt at getting light into my bathroom.

This is as good a time as any to upgrade my bathroom, eh?

Historical Bathroom

Flying back from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, I had to check out the infamous bathroom in which Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was caught soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. Ironically, the airport was plastered with signs welcoming delegates to the Republican National Convention to be held in a matter of days in St. Paul. What can we say Republicans and gay sex scandals.......

The busy restroom is located along the main concourse behind the ticketing gates just past security.

One of the seven stalls (5 to the left of the 2 pictured), but I'm unsure which one was the scene of "the crime."

Chequemegon Bay, WI

Where? How do you pronounce it? Answers respectively are that part of Northern Wisconsin that lies along Lake Superior and Che-Wa-Me-Gon.

A couple days before my trip ended, Keith and I parted ways in Minneapolis. I rented a car and drove north with no real idea as to where I would end up. I wanted to drive to the NE corner or Minnesota and take a boat to Isle Royale, but since I've always wanted to go there, I decided to save that for another time when I get to the island, hike and camp. So, I drove to Duluth, MN and headed east about an hour and ended up in the area around Bayfield, WI located on the said bay and peninsula.

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, beautiful but the San Juans of Washington State are more dramatic.

The charming town of Bayfield, WI

The Lighthouse at Devils Island

The tip of Devils Island is the northern most point in the state of Wisconsin.

The Bayfield, WI area, like many places in the North, takes full advantage of the warm summer months and packs in as much celebration and culture as possible. There is a big top set up all summer at the base of a local ski area and they have performances all summer.

I missed the Capitol Steps political satire group by one night but I did get to hear a tribute to Nat King Cole.

Next up was sea kayaking along the shore of Lake Superior. The weather perfect and the Northeasterly wind was a perfect tail wind to make the paddle home quick and easy.