Home Away From Home

Lots of people have a home away from home. For many downstate residents, Northport or some other part of Leelanau County is that place. Since I live in Leelanau Township and run a business in Northport, however, my home away from home is farther north, up on the shore of Lake Superior. There is the general region (the U.P.), the little village (Grand Marais, which is very much like Northport in countless ways but where I have no responsibilities), and specifically the Superior Hotel, where we have been staying for so many years.

Rick and Mary Capogrossa are our host and hostess at the Superior these days, and their "work in progress," as they call the hotel, grows cozier and more welcoming all the time. We are so happy they are there! And that we can continue to get away to the dear place that is so much like home to us!

Then there is breakfast at the West Bay Diner, cooked by Rick and served by Ellen. On our last day we shared a whitefish omelet, agreeing that it was the #1 best omelet either of us had ever had in our lives. I did not impose on Rick and Ellen to pose for pictures, since they are always super-busy in the diner (so busy one rainy morning that Ellen allowed me behind the coffee to pour coffee for thirsty customers while she waited tables in the other room), but here are a few scenes to give an idea to those not (yet) fortunate enough to have visited Grand Marais.

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After so many visits to our little home away from home, it is hardly surprising that my photographs tend to repeat images and themes over the years. Some are grand, sweeping views, and others small, colorful corners. I love them all. Here are – not all of them, but a few more to explain my love. As if any explanation can ever be sufficient to explain love.

Everywhere I look, the scenes are saturated with years of memories, and now these scenes, already, are memories, too.

Sarah: 9 years old!