Welcome to summer: A lakefront photo essay

Bradford Beach

Milwaukee’s magnificent and unmatchable lakefront—where else do you go on Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of summer? Especially if the inland temperatures rise above 90° as they did this weekend. Although I tend to avoid crowds, I decided to check it out this year. It was definitely crowded. Lincoln Memorial Drive was a slow crawl from end to end all afternoon. But it was in fact noticeably “cooler near the lake” and a perfect opportunity to observe how much we Milwaukeeans love our lakefront.

Bradford Beach

Bradford Beach, epicenter of the action, was pretty much wall-to-wall people. A surprising number even ventured into the frigid waters of the lake.

Beach volleyball on Bradford Beach

Defending the sand fort

Not wanting to be intrusive, I tend not to train my camera on individuals at the beach. But these young people saw my camera and invited me to take their picture.

Those who desired a less congested beach experience chose McKinley Beach, the semi-circular sandy inlet just north of McKinley Marina.

Kayakers setting off from McKinley Beach

The Veteran’s Park lagoon was hopping with activity, kayaks, paddleboats and paddleboards aplenty.

There was a kite festival going on at Veteran’s Park. I didn’t get out that far but it was easy to see the striking display of kite design and flying ability from Lincoln Memorial Drive. I did find a couple of boys having their own personal kite festival on the wide-open stretch between McKinley and Bradford Beaches.

The Oak Leaf Trail running between the lagoon and Lincoln Memorial Drive saw a steady stream of people walking, biking, rollerblading, and running.

I found this amazing and aromatic panorama of lilac bushes at the corner of E. Lafayette Hill Road, across from Colectivo. 

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Polar Bear Plunge: A New Year's Day tradition at Bradford Beach

The deceptively brilliant sunshine was beautiful, but no match for the frigid air. The thermometer was at a near record cold, around 2°, with a wind chill reported at -22°. That did not stop the many dozens of would-be polar bears from plunging, nor the hundreds of spectators who lined the frozen shore.

Actual polar bears, of course, are well adapted to their natural arctic habitat and superbly insulated with a double layer of dense fur. The nearly naked human bodies that made the plunge into Lake Michigan’s approximately 33° water were clearly not so well adapted. While those who chose to partake entered the water bravely enough, a quick plunge left many gasping in shock.

Steam rose eerily from the warm bodies as they climbed from the water and dried off before dressing.

The spectators, by and large, were suitably prepared for the conditions. We do live in Wisconsin, after all.

The geese that were loitering out on the lake were unperturbed by the cold or the commotion.

To see more photos of the polar bear plunge go to my Flickr album. 

Autumn in Milwaukee’s parks: Grant and McGovern

Two very different parks. One familiar to me; the other less so.  They are two among many Milwaukee area parks that I’ve visited this fall in an attempt to capture the glory of the season and the treasure of nearby nature.

Grant Park

I left my home in Wauwatosa hoping that the weather forecast would not prove to be a lie. The overcast sky was due to blow away by midmorning. Promises, promises. But it’s a long way from Tosa to Grant Park and sometimes you just have to take the chance.

My route to Grant took me along Oak Creek Parkway where I discovered some major stream bank restoration efforts underway. The project was intended to stabilize the creek after a recent washout and flood.

By the time I got to Grant the clouds were indeed breaking up.  I parked atop the bluff and made my way down to the beach on a very steep incline that had been reinforced in part with crude gabion-wrapped stone steps. The grassy parts of the slope were treacherous.

I walked the beach north to the ravine that empties into the lake. It is the terminus of the popular Seven Bridges Trail and route most people take to reach the beach. Although it was a weekday morning, there were many people enjoying the sun and balmy conditions, including a few children. One of them mentioned that they were a family visiting Milwaukee from South Dakota.  Grant Park is clearly a destination.

My expectations were exceeded. The colors went beyond spectacular into the realm of unbelievable. (For the photo buffs among you, I had to actually desaturate these shots because the RAW images appeared too intense. That rarely happens.)

My walk back to the car along the bluff included more lovely autumn color…

and a lucky find. I nearly stepped on a tiny snake that was the same color as the leaves underfoot. It was uncooperative but I managed to both not step on it and also to get this shot.

Grant, which is located in South Milwaukee, is one of my favorite parks and I’ve been there many times over the years. Not so with…

McGovern Park

I’d been only twice before, both times in spring when an amazingly diverse spread of wildflowers made the woodland especially appealing. This time I parked in the lot near the east edge just off Silver Spring Drive. From the lot I had to cross a football field to reach the pond and woods. I noticed that the empty field was littered with an unusually high concentration of goose poop. When I reached the pond I quickly discovered why.

There was a large flotilla of geese floating about on the water. Geese are ubiquitous enough that I wasn’t immediately interested in them. Then, as I stood on the lovely stone bridge trying to decide which way to face in order to frame a shot or two, suddenly I heard loud honking directly overhead. Before I could react a phalanx of geese swooped by and splashed down to join in the gaggle.

I didn’t have to wait long before another skein of geese appeared just as abruptly and descended. I looked for a vantage point from which to catch the next wave but although they always came from the south, they swerved over the woodland in unpredictable ways. I decided to settle in amongst the reeds along one edge of the pond and wait. It took a good half hour and about 50 shots, but I managed to catch a few in midair without trees or other distractions in the background.

When the commotion died down I wandered around the more secluded side of the pond to explore the woodland. Clouds were rolling over, plunging the woods into a gloom that made the autumn colors glow amid the still largely green foliage.

When I emerged from the woods to return to my car I had to part a sea of geese that covered the entire football field and more. There must have been several hundred. This shot shows only a faction of the flock. The mystery of the annoying goose pooped certainly was solved.

McGovern is located on Milwaukee’s north side at Silver Spring Dr. and Sherman Blvd. In addition to football, there are a softball field and basketball courts that are intensively used in good weather. The woods and pond take up a good third or more of the park and are well worth a visit, especially when the flowers are in bloom.

In fact there were a few late bloomers left!

This is the fifth in a series of posts about autumn in Milwaukee (with more to come! It’s the best time of year here, ain’t it?)

Here are links to the others:

Monarch butterflies on the Mke County Grounds

Mke River Greenway: Riverside and Gordon Parks

Havenwoods State Forest

Greenfield Park

Water communion

I am blessed. Last night, after a week of occasionally heavy downpours, I walked from my house to the Milwaukee County Grounds where I was treated to one of the more spectacular sunsets I have had the pleasure to witness. Brilliantly lit by the setting sun, a thunderhead moved off to the north, still visibly drenching the earth below it. The sun on the horizon in the west lit up the underside of the thunderstorm and created an intense perpendicular rainbow, like a scene from Close Encounters. (The image, shot with my iPhone, doesn't do it justice!)

Caught up in the spectacle, I didn't stop at the time to think further about the thunderstorm or the role that rain plays in the water cycle. But the theme of the service at church this morning brought that image into sharper focus, metaphorically speaking. I am a member of Unitarian Universalist Church West (UUCW) and it was our annual "Water Communion" service, which signals the start of the church year.

Smallmouth bass, Riveredge Nature Center, Mke River, 5/16

The Water Communion is a ritual that symbolizes not only the importance of water to all of life but also the spiritual community of the congregation. Congregants are encouraged to bring water to church that comes from a place we have visited over the summer or that represents a meaningful event that happened. During the ritual people pour their offering into a common bowl, mingling the waters.

The litany that accompanied the ritual included this: "We bring water water of sunrise and new beginnings..., water of harvest and sunset; the sweat of a job well done; the tears of endings..., water of quiet and peace...." We paused in meditation, to reflect on our water, its source and its meanings in our personal lives. As I reflected on this I was struck, not for the first time, by how much my life is blessed. I have been privileged with experiences relating to waters both near and far. 

Kayaking the Menomonee River, 5/16

Here I offer a selection of images and brief reflections. (The links embedded in the text will take you to previous blog posts.) I fulfilled a long-time goal in May of kayaking the Menomonee River. In the process I found it to be surprisingly wild even given my already high expectations. The smallmouth bass (above) was caught by naturalists at Riveredge Nature Center as part of World Fish Migration Day.

It's true that I saw many scenes involving Lake Michigan that were quite similar to this one. But in June I had the great fortune to spend the solstice in Finland. This sunset occurred at approx. 11:45 pm. over the Gulf of Finland. I was on a cruise-ship-size ferry on my way from Helsinki to...

St. Petersburg, Russia. The highlight of my two days there was the Hermitage, seen here from across the Neva River.

The UUCW house band played Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game for the Water Communion. I hadn't heard it in years:

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

"A community is a network of relationships and the places where those relationships interact."

Water and more specifically the Kinnickinnic River was the theme of my most important art exhibit of the year. Concrete River: Memorial and Promise on the Kinnickinnic, a collaboration with Melanie Ariens, opened at the Alfons Gallery in May and ran through July. Collaboration continued when the dance duo of Andrea and Daniel Burkholder, pictured here, performed a site-specific dance created especially to harmonize with the exhibit.

And while the Concrete River exhibit showcased the planned rehabilitation of the KK River, it was gratifying to see the last stretch of concrete channel finally disappear from the Menomonee River this summer (near the stadium, visible in the distance).

The limestone ledges and cliffs of the Niagara escarpment along Green Bay framed a week at The Clearing, a self-styled "Folk School" where I attended a writer's workshop in July. Along with few (well, more than a few) photos, I returned with a water-related haiku:

sitting on stone

scent of cedar

clear horizon

August was a busy month and water was a constant theme. On August 7 the Milwaukee Water Commons staged its annual We Are Water celebration on Bradford Beach.

"People want more community these days because contemporary life in mainstream America can be pretty discouraging. We're bombarded every day by messages that promote individualistic behavior--and the more disconnected we feel the more...we consume." To me these words from the Water Communion service extend beyond the human community to include all life.

Because we are an activist denomination, the Water Communion included a call to action. One of this summer's actions was the second annual "Convergence at the Confluence" rally to promote oil train safety. It took place at the confluence of the Menomonee and Milwaukee Rivers on August 14.

"In community we lend our strength and support to one another--in community we can do things we could never do alone!"

August 25 marked the centennial anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service. I marked the occasion by visiting the closest National Park to Milwaukee, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. There, along with some of those Lake Michigan horizons, I discovered a wealth of other habitats, including this wetland called the Great Marsh (although the discerning eye will note that it is in fact a swamp!) (It's the trees.)

September got off to a watery start when I decided to explore the Root River sections of the Oak Leaf Trail for the first time. Here you see it in high water, a condition that will be far more common when the Waukesha water diversion project is implemented and that community's wastewater will be dumped into the Root River.

Another quote from the Water Communion: "The water we have gathered comes from the world's far corners and our own kitchen sinks. It is as salty as tears, as cool as a deep spring, as turbulent as a rushing river, as calm as a deep blue lake."

My most recent water-related adventure was just yesterday, when I led a stalwart group of Sierra Club members on a guided hike along the Menomonee River. In the rain. I was concerned that no one would show up. It being the Sierra Club, however, they knew what to wear and we all enjoyed the wet. An Englishman named Alfred Wainwright is credited with a saying I am fond of recalling in these situations: "There is no such thing as bad weather, just unsuitable clothing."

One of the hymns we sang for the Water Communion included this line: "When our heart is in a holy place we are blessed with love and amazing grace." I saved what I consider my most amazing photo for last. It is an undoctored image of the sun rising out of Lake Michigan.

I am blessed. The best week of the summer was not my voyage to the foreign shores of Finland but, as I said, right here on our own Great Lake. I spent a very relaxing week staring at that horizon. I saw the sun rise each day. Each day it was different and new. It looked like this only once. My heart was in a holy place that day. (And my camera was on a tripod!)

But one last water story. My favorite.

Until she started school for the first time last week I took care of my granddaughter once a week, as I've done for the past 4 years. The best day of my week was when Lynncita came to play with me. On hot days in the summer we liked to walk to Hoyt Park Pool. Even in cold weather when all we have is the sink, she enjoys playing with water. This summer she invented a new game. I would fill the watering can with water from the hose and then she would pour the water into pails. Then she lifted the pails and dropped them to watch the water splash. There is nothing like a 4-year-old to make you feel young again!

One warm day she was doing her pail splashing thing over and over, continually asking me for more water. Then suddenly, with no warning or hint of her intentions, instead of dropping the lifted pail she turned it upside down over her head. I watched as she sputtered and wiped her eyes, wondering what would come after. She erupted with the most gleeful chortling laugh.

And then she did it again. And again...

I did not get a still photo of it. But you can see it on YouTube.

I promise it will make you smile.

I do feel blessed.