For much of this week and for the next several days, I have been and will will be "base camped" at a motel in Duluth, MN while my wife remains hospitalized following a scheduled surgery which will, hopefully and prayerfully, bring some closure to the condition that resulted in the two month hospital stay during the summer of 2011.

While "in camp," I have kept up with my ritual early morning walks. Rather than the streets and fringe areas of my current hometown, I have been enjoying the early morning quiet of Superior Street and London Road. This morning, I took the opportunity to access the Lake Walk as a change of pace and environment. The Lake Walk is a spectacular piece of urban environment. The local media frequently and rightfully sings the praises of this attraction. On one side, there is the lake--at 5:00AM this morning no more than rippled like frosting on an enormous sheet cake with a salmon colored ribbon of morning sky marking the boundary of lake and sky. The lake's surface holds a laker at anchor and supports a pair of pleasure crafts heading out to a day of sport fishing (I surmise). The other side of the path, there is ample evidence of man's tinkering--everything from an aerial lift bridge, to modern shoreline inns, to remnants of Nature destroyed and/or abandoned harbor structures, to weighty retaining walls built either of local stone or poured concrete. This multiple colored ribbon of park-like environment marks the boundary between lake and land and, in its own way, is respectful of both.

The section of Lake Walk, where I spent some time this morning, also includes the Northland Korean War and Viet Nam War memorials. The latter includes the names of the 25 individuals, who called Northwestern Wisconsin home some 40 years ago, and who then ventured far afield returning later to stay under very different, but not wholly unexpected, circumstances--evidence of man's tinkering.