As many times as I’ve been ‘up north’ in Minnesota, I’ve always traveled through Duluth on my way farther along the North Shore to ski, hike the Superior Trail or attend workshops at the Folk School in Grand Marais.

This time the destination was Duluth. Bayfront Park, located down by the harbor, is at eye level with the big shipping freighters as they pass through Duluth Harbor. I shared a canopy along with three other authors at the 3rd Annual Art in Bayfront Park art fair this last weekend.

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Bayfront Park is beautiful with walkways that meander through landscaped gardens full of native plants opening up to a central green space and big sky. It has a very large, tall band shell close to the harbor which fits with the scale of the ocean going ships that pass close by. My brief explorations took me down the walkway past the vendors and out onto the dock where a marker told a bit of history of the area. A century ago, the place where I was standing was not a park, but Slip #1 and Slip #2 of a very busy shipping port. Each slip was 120 feet across and 950 feet long. Cozy space for a big freighter. Lessons in docking a boat.

This weekend’s weather was breezy, a bit nippy early on, but soon warmed up under sunny skies. Being new to the art fair tent staking discipline and not really wanting to invest in a tent or canopy for what I thought was a one-off event, I brought along my U of M tailgating canopy. Didn’t even think about stakes or weights until I saw art fair veterans putting their shops together with weights and pulleys, sturdy straps pulled taught, and tent sides zippered closed to protect their hand made pieces. Most of the tents were white with roll-up sides, interiors created to beckon and invite the art patron inside for a intimate view of the work.

Not with us. Maroon and gold hearkened the visitors with so many asking, and probably many more presuming, that we were with the U of M. Who are these interlopers? Not only are they not artists, but they are lounging under a U of M canopy with no affiliation and none of them even went to the U! As Gary said, “writers are artists, too!”

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An interesting mix, three of whom are Duluthians. Doris Sampson, known for her beautiful painting of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in the Canal Park Museum wrote a book in Finnglish, that hybrid language formed by immigrants from the last two centuries. Great liberty was taken in contracting words, mixing things up and creating new phrases that still bring a smile to the faces of Finnish-American descendants today. Doris, who is 100% Finnish speaks the language fluently.

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Sheila Packa, Poet Laureate of Duluth, has written several poetry books, edited more, teaches writing at Lake Superior College and started a publishing company called Wildwood River Press. Interesting choice of publishing company name.

And Gary Boelhower, Professor of Religion and Theology at St. Scholastica, brought his recently announced award winning book, Marrow, Muscle, Flight.  The poems are written in prose in a storytelling fashion. Understand that this book does not let you off easily. I began to read it between vendor/author duties and soon realized that while I didn’t know this person sitting three feet away from me at all, through his writing I had a picture window view into his heart. His daughter owns a yarn shop, of all things, so I think I’m on the verge of becoming a groupie.

Prior to the art fair, on Friday, I visited Yarn Harbor whose owner, Kathy, graciously purchased copies of the Almanac for her knitty patrons. Yarn Harbor is located in the Mount Royal Shopping Center on top of the hill. www.yarnharbor.com Absolutely fantastic selection of yarn in that place and I managed to kerb my enthusiasm and escape with only a slight nick on the pocketbook. The best part, not only selling books, was the only knitter from Duluth whomI know strolled into the shop while I was there. Kathryn, the fast lace knitter! She stopped by my air fair booth with her knitting late Saturday afternoon and invited me to dinner. A shrimp feast!

All in all, the weekend wasn’t a complete success for book selling, but I really enjoy meeting the lady who speaks Finnglish, spending time in the northern harbor city and just being on an adverture challenging myself to think in new ways.