Wandering over the fog with Casper David Friedrich

My morning walk along Lake Superior with the dog is normally pretty lonely and quiet. This morning, the sea smoke was roiling out of the open waters, rising higher in the crisp cold air than normal and hiding a saltie out at anchor. A tugboat slipped out of the ship canal and headed out toward the saltie. The tug boat sound its horn, an unusual sound for winter.

There was one other person on the beach this morning. I think it was Steve, a photographer and reporter for the Duluth paper. There we were, two writer/photographers looking through the fog for a story. Steve was walking over the mounds of ice by the water's edge. You couldn't see any open water, just a sea of fog.

Earlier this year I found an Edward Hopper painting, Rooms by the Sea,  while I was picnicking up at the McQuade Harbor. Today, I found a classic painting of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich. Der Wanderer Über dem Nebelmeer (The Hiker over the Fog Sea). "Fog Sea" was an apt description for Lake Superior this morning, and Steve was the perfect model.