Our Story

“Anam Cara" means soul friend in Gaelic. The name summarizes this unique property, where we’ve found it almost impossible not to fall in love with the beauty and feel of this magical place.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

David is retired from his first occupation, an emergency physician in a busy urban hospital, but he’s actually had several careers.  He’s now as busy as ever having founded two nonprofits in the last several years (The Illumignossi Project and 6 Million Lights).  He’s an artist (check out the various lights he’s made), adventurer, musician (Irish whistle and button accordion), and modern renaissance man. 

Colleen recently retired from a long career as an attorney, and before that she was a nurse.  She’s the left-brained, organized one of the two of us (e.g. labeling light switches), with a flair for simple, zen-like decoration.  She’s an accomplished musician (flute and piano) and avid reader.  The two of us raised four adventurous, kind children, now all grown, with five grandkids at last count.  

The two of us have traveled a lot over the years, often camping, with lots of canoeing, backpacking, biking, car camping and other adventures.  The story of Anam Cara actually began with a kick to David’s backside on a frigid winter evening in Joshua Tree National Park, followed by Colleen’s profane-laced declaration that she was done sleeping on the hard frozen ground on a leaking air mattress.  Done camping.  Period.  Forever.  Eventually David proposed a compromise: find a piece of property in the middle of nowhere, and build a lean to where Colleen could sleep off the ground.  Colleen said ok.  So began a multi-year search for property in the north woods, an ironic turn because for years we’d neglected this area in favor of the southwest deserts/canyons and the coasts….though we had long made an exception for Lake Superior, which is really just a freshwater sea. 

Eventually we landed on this property.  It was the lichen-covered rocky point, parting the lake’s still waters like a ship’s prow, that first attracted us.  After purchasing the property, David camped on it for several years and drew up a plan for a 12x18 foot screened structure, a vast improvement on his original lean-to idea.  He proudly presented his plan to Johnny Meilahn, a local cordwood builder (check out his cordwood homes in Copper Harbor).  A long silence followed.  As David was to discover, John is a thoughtful, artistic soul who thinks before he speaks.  John eventually said he liked the concept, but the local zoning authority, Eagle Harbor, wouldn’t allow for such a tiny, primitive structure.  Hence the elaborate “lean-to” you see today.  As for camping, we eventually discovered modern camping gear and the magic of thermarests, and are happily back to camping.  We may even be camping on one of Lake Medora’s islands as you read this!

Beside discovering modern camping gear in the new millennium, we also discovered AirBnB and VRBO and developed a strong preference for short term rentals over chain hotels, which wasn’t surprising since we always preferred Bed and Breakfasts over hotels.  When you stay at a short term rental, you learn to appreciate the individual touches, the quirkiness, the backstory and the details.  You notice what makes a stay memorable, delightful, comfortable.  

We eventually realized that in the end, it's the little details that remain with you.  It's those moments when you've slowed down and had the chance to absorb and truly appreciate your surroundings. After building this cabin, we shared this property with friends and family for over a decade. The word "magic" kept coming up in their descriptions and we’d be asked if we’d ever share it with a broader audience.  In 2021, we decided to share our cabin with others, focusing on those who can appreciate the romance of "a love of place".  Thanks for staying with us, and we'll do our best to help you find inspiration, rejuvenation or whatever you seek during your vacation at Anam Cara. We’re delighted you’re paying a visit to the beautiful Keweenaw and we’d love to hear from you - before, during or after your visit.

CABIN STORY

It's hard to avoid falling in love with the Keweenaw Peninsula if you're a lover of deep forests, wild coastlines and remote areas; or if you're a lover of winter and deep snows; or if you love quirky coastal towns like Copper Harbor.  When we found a picturesque, peaceful Lake Medora, that was a bonus.  Finding a secluded parcel with two points, two sandy coves and 2500+ feet of shoreline was the final detail that captivated us.

After purchasing the property in 2003, we spent several years visiting (David/Colleen and family) and camping (David/family sans Colleen).  One autumn David spent 10 days alone on the property, camped by the point without reading materials or modern entertainment, incommunicado with the world.  It was 10 days of discovery and falling in love with the land.  Several years later, when it came time to build a cabin our goal was to honor this enchanted piece of land. The end result can be credited/blamed on two teams - John, a gentle,artistic builder (and his talented team), and the two owners: David, an artist who works with light, paper and found objects - his one-off creations are your own private art gallery, and Colleen with her taste for simple zen decoration.  But really, most of the credit belongs to the land itself, because it was our true muse and inspiration. 

We did have additional supporting cast.  We’ve been strongly influenced by Christopher Alexander’s remarkable book, A Pattern Language, and how it’s taught us to understand the basics of design; why certain spaces feel comfortable and pull us in, while other spaces have the opposite effect.  Honestly, this unique book is on our list of “paradigm-changing books”.

We can also give some credit to the architectural firm of Kubala, Washatko Architects, who took our crude architectural drawings and made sure we had something that could be executed by a builder.  You can thank them and the builder for being able to walk up the stairs and not hit your head on the ceiling, which would have happened by the 4th or 5th step, if David’s drawings had been  used!  We should also give some credit to serendipity.  For example, the alcove that’s reached by the glass catwalk was not on any plans.  We didn’t even know there were two potential alcoves on the second floor until midway into the framing process.  

As we began the building phase in 2010, another serendipitous event occurred while driving up the Pacific Coast from San Diego to the small town of Cardiff On the Sea, where we were to attend a 50th anniversary celebration for our aunt and uncle.  We happened upon a tiny inn, Les Artistes Inn, in Del Mar, which was owned and designed by an architect, Slana Sae-Onge.

Spur of the moment we stayed there.  It was/is a charming mix of art, quirkiness, delight and surprise.  We came away with a couple of key ideas for design and building:  1) Make room for improvisation: Bring playfulness, spontaneity and creativity to design and building, including the use of unexpected curbside finds and found objects in nature.  2)  The concept of “layering” and magic/surprise, and how you can take an ordinary room with four ordinary walls and transform it, just by adding some little unexpected touches and by being playful and creative.

Finally, the initial building process coincided with David’s burgeoning interest in paper and lighting.  His sister had taken a lamp-making course back in 1999 in San Francisco, constructing a lamp out of paper, wood and a coat hanger. Excited by the end product, she immediately shared her new skill with David.  David recounts – “I was instantly enchanted by the magical alchemy that transformed an ordinary piece of paper into an object of glowing beauty, merely by flipping a switch. Two decades later, I still find working with illuminated paper to be pure magic! Over the years, my lamp making has evolved in two opposite directions. One is the zenlike pursuit of simplicity, especially with the healing lamps I have given away over the years. The other direction is increasingly complicated one-off creations, ranging from table and floor lamps to sconces to large illuminated sculptures. I especially love working with natural materials I come across in the forest or on beach walks, but I also love recycling discarded curbside materials.” David knew that he’d be making the majority of the lights of the cabin, and he knew that lighting would be a key aspect of the design.  However, if you told him that there’d eventually be 100+ (and counting) hand-made lamps/panels/illuminated structures in the Cabin and The Point House, he’d have said you were crazy.

There were a couple of other key principles.  We wanted a place that would be comfortable, sturdy, well-insulated and easy to maintain. We wanted to make efficient use of space.  We wanted a place that fit into the environment and was energy efficient.  Finally, if we could make use of free curbside finds, or finds in the woods, why not? Thus the trestle table, a curbside find that someone had sawn up and discarded by the curb.  Or the old recycled windows and doors that have found new use.  Or the branches and sticks and fallen trees that were used in building the cabin.  

Overall, we’re happy with the result.  There are a few things we’d have done differently if we did it a second time around, but they’re minor.  Flaws are part of the process too.  As Leonard Cohen said in a song, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” We love our place on the lake, minor flaws and all, and hope you enjoy your stay in our cabin in the woods, flaws and all.

Keweenaw Peninsula, MI

Our Family