Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

Paddling past hundreds of green islands in the dark, choppy waters of the Baltic Sea, I marvel at how I met the woman in this photo, Elisabeth Nilsson. We met randomly at a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2006 and discovered we are related. Her grandmother in Sweden was a sister of my great-grandmother, who immigrated to Minnesota. The discovery explained why we were drawn to each other and why she bore a striking resemblance to my great-grandmother, aunts and sisters. We stayed in touch and I visited Sweden a year later to trace my family roots. On this day, Elisabeth and I packed a picnic lunch and went on a Kayak trip. We stopped on several deserted islands to dine, drink Swedish coffee and relax. We talked about our families, about Ingmar Bergman films and the Viking Age. On these lonely seas, I discovered the depth of kinship.