Sunset Beach: Fish Creek, Wisconsin

(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap)


While touring Wisconsin's Door Peninsula, I spent some time exploring the little resort town of Fish Creek. I experienced my first traditional Door County Fish Boil at the White Gull Inn and the next day I walked around shopping and sightseeing.

Late in the afternoon, I followed the main street down to Sunset Beach Park. Facing directly west, the beach is the perfect place to watch the sun go down. Even on a cold February day people gathered to watch the show. And it was some show.

Watching the sunset and the way it affected the people around me, it occurred to me that for all our busyness, our dependence on technology and the carelessness with which so many of us treat the world around us, we are still almost powerless to resist stopping to gaze up at a big full moon or an exquisite sunset.

I found this reassuring. A sign that we are still connected to nature whether or not we recognize the fact.

That beautiful sunset over Green Bay was the subject of my Spokesman-Review Home Planet column. Read The Pull of the Moon and the Call of the Sun

You can listen to the audio essay as it aired on Spokane Public Radio here.

Exploring Granville Island: Vancouver, British Columbia

(View of Vancouver, BC from Granville Island. All photos by Cheryl-Anne Millsap)

Exploring a city is like unwrapping a gift, with each layer revealing a different and often unexpected treat. I felt exactly this way as I explored Granville Island in Vancouver, BC.

Tucked under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge and a quick water taxi ride from downtown, the historic district (and former industrial no-man's land) is an excellent example of what land reclamation should be.

Open year round, the former jumble of railroad tracks, shanties and crumbling buildings and businesses is now home to artists, artisans, fresh fruits and flowers and delicious food.

My trip to Vancouver came with a bonus. As so often happens when I travel, while I was in Vancouver I saw something that inspired a Home Planet newspaper column and public radio essay. The gentle interaction between a young man and an older woman, both on the train to the airport, left a deep impression on me. Read: The Universal Language

You can read more about the rough and ready history and reclamation of Granville Island here.