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Introduction
Recent events have taken me back to my home state of Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee to a suburb called Shorewood. I’ve been taking care of my mom and the house after a recent fall she had. We were on our way home from a family vacation in Fiji and she collapsed just after arriving at my apartment in San Francisco. She was staying a couple nights to break up the flying time from our family home in Milwaukee to Fiji where we were all gathering for a week-long vacation. (for more on this, see my last Fiji: A Travelogue post)
I’ve been back in Milwaukee for a month now. It’s been ages since I’ve been back in the Fall. But there’s something about it. Maybe it’s the crisp air? Or the hard sun and cool breezes? The light starting to shift and the trees starting to turn color and drop their leaves. The different trees that are native to the area look different to my eyes. I’m from here, but I’ve been living in San Francisco for the past 25 years.
Amidst the family planning, I’ve been trying to stay connected. To get outdoors. To find time alone to take a walk and get away. It’s been tough. From the moment I go downstairs for coffee, until after I’ve cleaned up from dinner, I’ve been going at something — clearing stuff, raking, trimming trees, setting up camera systems, key lockboxes, and more. It feels never ending, like an avalanche. Emotional quicksand.
The beach here was larger and more picturesque than I remembered.
1. Doctor's Park
I took the first opportunity possible to drive "the big car," ie our Honda Oddysey minivan, north on Lake Drive, charging the battery after 6 weeks of disuse. It’s one of the more scenic roads in Milwaukee, many grand homes with big lots. Some even have real carriagehouses. At the time of writing this, Lake Drive is temporarily closed for construction north of Whitefish Bay, around the entrance to Fox Point (at School Road). A brief detour up Santa Monica (which looked like a golf course including a wide grassy boulevard) led me around the backroads of Fox Point into the parking lot of Doctor's Park.
It was my first time back here since my senior year in high school back in 1993. We used to drive up here to hang out. I don’t remember why, except that at the time it seemed far, it had a bunch of different meadows and fields — I remember playing soccer here occasionally. There’s also a nice path down to the water and a nice sandy stretch of lake frontage. I couldn’t remember which way to go when I got there. I thought I remembered a few different trails but ended up asking a local who directed me to a trail that met up with a paved access road down to the waterfront.
Using a selfie stick for this one, I held it up behind me for a “drone-like” shot as well as interspersing with selfie shots. The 3m stick could have been useful here, but after exotic Fiji, I didn’t foresee a need or use for it here in Milwaukee when I was packing in San Francisco. Silly me! Nevertheless I put the camera in a few different places including in the sand as I was throwing rocks into the water as well as in a few locations up on the rock step formations where I was sitting for a while. I figured I could edit those spots later in post and compose a few different angles of me, as if it were done in the same shot. We’ll see how that works.
Walking to Big Bay through Whitefish Bay, WI, the next suburb north of my hometown
2. Big Bay Park
I got out to Big Bay a bit later than I should have. Although I did get a bit of video, by the time I was going back home it got dark quickly. Still, it was an absolutely beautiful day here. It was before the weather snapped and we were having an Indian Summer upper 60s-70s weather. I was wearing my thinnest t-shirt and shorts (unheard of where I normally live in San Francisco). One of those perfect Indian Summer nights, warm enough for people to be out playing in the water. A full moon rise added to the vibe.It was so balmy there was a lake surfing paddle boarder, a swimmer and kayaker all out under the full moon, along with a group of friends on the pier.
On this outing, I also took a bunch of shots, placing the camera in various places. I tried it behind me to get the view of the lake and moonrise. Tried throwing some rocks. Surprisingly hard with the wavy chop coming in. Big Bay is famous for rock skipping, all sorts of flat rocks galore. But with the incoming waves, I found it harder to skip than I remembered.
