Door County getaway

Sister Bay -- named after the Sister Islands that flank the bay, it was first settled by Indian tribes and much later by Swedish immigrants who came here because, well, it looked like Sweden to them. It does have a Scandinavian topography. All those birches and pines!  I came to this town because this is where my daughter stays with her family, but in fact you could argue that it's the nicest of the Door County villages if you like serenity and, too, a good cup of coffee in the morning! Because it's further north up the peninsula, it hasn't the crowds of, say, Fish Creek or Egg Harbor in the summer. Of course, right now, Door County is quite without the crowds everywhere. Reason enough to come here now!

View from my window onto the "Main Street" and the Bay beyond.

They have what they call a grab and go breakfast at my hotel and I do grab a yogurt, over in this beautiful hotel lounge...

But for coffee I go elsewhere -- to the Skip Stone Coffee Roasters, where they also have yummy granola muffins. 

(I feel like my old mittens, with their Scandinavian motif, really belong here.)

(Upstairs, there are a few extra tables. An older coffee drinker sits at one and reads her book. I'm thinking this so often is me when I travel solo!)

I take a brief walk, to take in the winter views. Last week's storm really blew in a lot of water which then immediately froze over anything in sight. The marina looks quite dramatic as a result.

I get in the car and drive further north. After Sister Bay, the landscape changes. Fewer houses. Young forests and cherry orchards are common. 

I take a short detour to Ellison Bay Bluff (looking out over the Bay). It's a state natural area -- plenty of birches!

And a lookout point that shows off the cliffs along the coastline here.

And then I continue, all the way to Newport State Park, which is near the northern tip of the peninsula. This is my favorite forested area in Door County. I used to bring the girls swimming here because a curve in the shore creates a protected bay which is shallow for quite a distance. A gentle slope from the forest line has golden sands perfect for kid play. And in those days it was never crowded. 

I park the car right by Newport Bay. 

Some 150 years ago Scandinavian families came here for the timber. This used to be a bustling place: the trees were felled and loaded onto ships going to Milwaukee or Chicago. And soon the forests were depleted and the settlers looked for other sources of income. 

(Newport Bay)

The woodland here is, therefore, fairly new, but at the same time, it has some saplings that are direct descendants from an ancient forest (lycopods, growing here for some 400 million years now). There are plenty of trails through the woods. I just have to decide -- which will it be, skiing or hiking? The snow conditions are rapidly getting worse -- we are in the middle of a heat wave! 40F (4C)! I mean, overall nice, I suppose, but the base of snow isn't strong enough to be supported by those kinds of temperatures. Still, I test a portion of the trail and is seems good! I take out my skis.

And I do a grand loop, skiing all the way to Europe Bay and back again. And it is quiet. And beautiful!

There are just a couple of rough patches where my ski catches on something and I tumble into what feels like a chilled soupy mix of water and ice. The trick it to get up quickly, which, at my age is a challenge! Still, by the time I'm done skiing I have begun to dry out. 

As I tell Ed later, it is so good to ski a new trail every now and then. We love our county park back home and all that it offers, but to take in a new forest is magical. And the pines and northern cedars are so fragrant! The trail here doesn't pose any hilly challenges and that is a good thing. You can concentrate on the beauty of the forest rather than on the sport that allows you to glide silently between the trees.

Afterwards, I'm hungry enough for a real lunch. For this I drive "south" to Fish Creek. I hear the Hill Street Bar sells good stuff. Since it's a tiny bit too crowded for my Covid sensibilities, I pick up a "Charlie Brown" hoagie, so named because it has charred broccoli, pickled onions and peanuts.  From here, I go to the Blue Horse Cafe and get a coffee to go. My gathered lunch treasures taste great by the fire back in my hotel.

And soon after, my younger girl arrives with her family. They stop by the hotel...

... then proceed to their rental, which is just across the street from me. (They stay in a place with a kitchen, for obvious reasons.) I join them there for the rest of the day.

(moving around behind this light stroller is a challenge, but Juniper is up for it!)

( a dancing Primrose)

I eat dinner with the girls. Pasta, to keep it simple. The parents will go out for dinner -- I'll keep an eye on the kids.

(and now, taking orders from customers at her "cafe")

(while Juniper reads a book that I swear every grandchild before her has loved to pieces...)

There is a fireplace in the little apartment and I keep it on for the evening. It seems so fitting for an escape up north! I live in a beautiful state, that's for sure. The Door peninsula certainly hasn't the vast wilderness of the northern most counties, but it has its share of wildlife (both black bears and wolves have crossed over Sturgeon Bay and have been sighted here). And the landscape is just so pretty! Tourism is a big deal, but like in the Cape Cod of my memories, the governing bodies have reined in growth, so that in fact, since I've been here last (in February 2008, with Ed), not that much has changed. A few good eateries have been added, my Sister Bay hotel is certainly a new kid on the block, but otherwise, the main road slicing through the village looks like it did decades ago. 

I'm watching the flames of the fire and I'm thinking -- oh but it's great to be here now!

With love...

up north

If you lay down your right hand flat on a table and then you move your pinky finger away from the rest, you will have an almost perfect rendition of Wisconsin. So what's with the pinky? That's Door County -- a strip of land that juts out into Lake Michigan. For Wisconsinites, "up north" means the richly forested land in the northern half of the state. The term also embraces Door County, though the Door peninsula has its own identity and vegetation and, well, its own singular beauty.

I first discovered Door County when I was a graduate student at U of Chicago (so, back in the 1970s). I had a part time job (actually I had many of those) and eventually I earned enough to buy myself a used car. [I remember it well: an ancient red Volvo that cost me $600. Adam who sold it to me was a poli sci prof and he'd gotten a newer, bigger Volvo for his family. He complained to me that the newer one was far worse than his ancient machine. I would have to agree, in that this old model served me well: for the two years that I owned it, I never had to put in a single penny into its repair. It taught me a very unfortunate and incorrect lesson: that cars do not require a heck of a lot of money.] 

Those days, I couldn't wait to get out of the city. In Poland, even if you lived in the biggest urban area, you could easily hop out into the countryside for a rejuvenating forest walk. When I moved to New York I was horrified how long it took to leave the urban landscape. And as a student in Chicago, I was hoping that I could find some lovely countryside where I could drive to for some respite from the enormously loud and cranky city (this is how south Chicago felt to me back in the 70's).

How did I hit upon Door County? I have to think that my friend, the local travel agent pointed me to it. [I spent a lot of time hanging out in the Hyde Park travel agency, mostly to study and survey the airfares to Poland. I went back to visit my friends there as often as I could, but it was hard to find cheap airfares and I needed the help of an agent. So I made friends with one in Chicago and then later -- with one in Madison. Both men were really really patient with me and superbly knowledgable. For a while I thought that perhaps I should ditch grad school and work in the travel industry, but the Chicago agent quickly dissuaded me from that idea. It's boring -- he told me. All you do is look up airfares for people. All day long. Okay, fine. Possibly not a good match. And by the way, he said one day -- you should go up to Wisconsin's Door County for a real European vibe. It requires no airfare expenditure. Sold!

Not sure that I found a whole lot of European vibe-ness to it, but I loved all that I saw nonetheless.

Since that first trip, I've come here a lot: as a student, many times. With my friends. With my ex and our kids, in all those years when we could not afford more distant vacations. With Ed, during a snowstorm. So, many times. But not lately.

The trouble with Door County always was that it was a bit too wild and natural for my ex and a bit too tame and civilized for Ed.

But of course, this is what makes it so wonderful! You have the shoreline, the state parks (cedars and birches and pines), the little villages that dot the two narrow roads that meander up and down the peninsula. You have the natural world, but, too, you can count on a good cup of coffee and terrific food at the end of the day when you're done trudging up and down the rugged coastline, or playing miniature golf with your kids in the summer, or picking cherries in June. Door County cherries are like no other: mostly sour and fabulous for baking or air drying for your winter granola.

My younger girl, living as she does in Chicago, very quickly came to love Door County now even more than when she was my little kid with braided hair and a shy smile. She and her husband and now also their two girls come to Door County quite frequently for that getaway that you need after full weeks in the city. After their Christmas visit with us in Madison, they planned a few overnights in Door County and they asked me if I wanted to tag along. Yes I would! 

But first, this morning, I am still at the farmette, tending to animals, watching the skies cloud over again...

And eating breakfast with Ed. He'll be staying home, tending to the animals, but of course, mostly it's because he just likes to stay home.

Then I have one more distraction and it's too good to pass up! Primrose is to try out skating for the first time! The rink by the Vilas Zoo is all prepped and ready for the skaters and so we meet up there just after breakfast.

I am amazed at how empty the skating rink is. I mean, it's school break. The weather for once is just at, or above freezing. It's fabulous to be outside!  Where is everyone?! I think to myself that this surely is an ominous sign of us locking up our kids too much. They should be skating, no??

Well, at least Primrose is skating!

Her dad is a superb skater and hockey player so I am not there to help anyone accomplish anything. He can teach his girl to skate better than anyone can.

I am here merely for the fun of it. 

And to see the verdict. The first time out on ice pretty much sets your skating future for you: if you dont like it, you wont be back. So I search that Primrose face: 

Yes, she likes it!

For now, Juniper gets to just watch.

And by noon, they are done and I am off to Door County. (They'll catch up with me there tomorrow.)

Unless you are unfortunate enough to do the drive in some rush hour conditions, it's actually not too bad of a trip: about 3.5 hours to the town on the peninsula that will be my home for the next three nights: Sister Bay.

I make the drive in good time, stopping only once to pick up a drive-through Starbucks. My lunch consists of a latte and a couple of those mini Kind nut bars that I picked up for free at the Subaru dealer last week.

By four, I am at Whitefish Bay State Park. It is windy! It is cloudy! It is pretty darn cool! And it is beautiful!

I drive up to one of my many favorites here -- Bailey's Harbour. To the north of it, you can pick up any number of fabulous views...

But it's the walks and perhaps ski runs that I am most happy to do tomorrow. Such a different landscape! I am thrilled to take in a few deep breaths of Door County forest scented air!

And now the sun is setting and I am a mere ten minutes from my hotel. 

I drive with a pretty sky to help me along!

I'm staying at the Dorr Hotel in Sister Bay -- a gem of a village on the northern shore. The hotel is a new place. Nothing grand -- just three stories. But so fresh and spacious inside that it makes your heart leap as you enter it. My room is all about white and light and feels very spacious for just a bed and a chair...

The view is toward the main drag outside and of course, the Bay.

It's time for dinner. But where?

In the end I end up going to the Harbor Fish Market in Bailey's Harbor. It's open, which is a huge plus! And it's a short twelve minute drive. And it has a lobster boil on the menu today! Fish boils here are totally awesome. Obviously, any lobster meat is brought over from the northeast, but it hardly matters. A bisque, a platter of sea food meats, a cherry bread pudding -- those are my foods for the day.

I'm in a perfect spot for reflection, for maybe a long hike or that short ski run if the snow holds. Tomorrow. And the young family will be here and we will take in this beautiful pinky-jutting-into-the-water world together.  For now, good night!

with love....

three meals

Good morning, post-Christmas world! I speak for myself, of course. My Polish friends are just at the start of their days of Christmas. Even my older girl still has some Christmas moments with other family members before her. But for me, the holiday is over and my eyes are turned toward the rest of this month and the beginning of the New Year.

Outside, it's still a bit nippy, but not for long. By tomorrow, we'll be above freezing. And I have to say, as slush will replace the crunch that I so love when I step out on drifts of snow, I will miss just a little this winter chill. I mean, keep the polar vortex to yourselves up there in the northern parts of the earth. But a gentler version of winter frost is lovely. I look forward to its return next week!

I have a bit of a game with the animals today. Pancake, the seventh stray that we haven't yet domesticated nor have we even trapped her for spaying purposes, comes crying this morning. So I set myself the goal of corralling as many of our six cats as I can, and hustling them inside, so that I can feed Pancake underneath one of the cars. She's come to identify that spot as a place where she might get some food. All this takes forever. Cat chores can be easy, unless some outsider shows up and throws off the rhythm of farmette life.

(Dance and Friendly Tiger, watching for signs of Pancake.)

Now, let's review the day in terms of its meals. First, the quiet one that starts the day:

1. Breakfast

What to have today? Still working on the panettone, which by now has graduated in our eyes to really really good!

[As I wait for Ed, I study my new cookbook. My daughters and I are all great cookbook readers. We carefully pick new ones for the year and gift them as Christmas presents. Ed claims there's nothing you can't cook that can't be found on the internet, but this quite misses the point. We read cookbooks to search out ideas and to learn new approaches to food. Yes, sometimes there will be a recipe worth trying, but most of our reading isn't about just finding a good recipe.]

I was supposed to meet the two young families at the Black Earth Children's Museum, but at the last minute I bowed out of that one. Instead, Ed and I took down the tree -- our beautiful, most perfect (if just a tad crooked) tree that held on to its needles magnificently for more than a month! 

Still, the satisfaction of putting things away and picking up all the post holiday debris is huge and this year Ed partners up with me to get the job done swiftly, efficiently. 

2. Lunch

I meet up with the young families (minus one working father) at Longtable -- a local place that sees itself as a "beer cafe," though we have neither beer nor coffee there today. Just lunch. It's typical pub style foods but well prepared and yes, they do have long tables!

(the two plaid girls...)

(a boy who loves to connect the numbers...)

(a boy who loves to wiggle!)

(she starts a trend among the older kids today of conducting surveys. for most of our time together we all get asked -- which do you prefer, X or Y? And then the numbers are tallied and the winning choices are announced. again and again. many surveys!) 

(the long table...)

(time to head out! the plaid girls get going...)

3. Dinner

We eat at Lucille's off the Square. This is super nostalgic for us, because the last time we were there was for a (pre)holiday dinner in 2019. The two youngest kids weren't born yet. Snowdrop had bangs, Sparrow hadn't yet had a haircut, and Primrose was just a year and a half! And notably, it was just a few months before the pandemic shut things down and changed so much for so many. 

Lucille's is a place you'd go to for artisanal pizzas and craft cocktails. And for their holiday decorations which are wonderfully over the top. 

Photos from our evening there this year: celebratory in the best of ways!

(leaving the farmette: careful, the herd is back!)

(beautiful crisp winter night...)

(oh! Look who is out on the Square! next to a very large snow bank...)

(inside now, taking it all in!)

(another very long table... )

("I like everything on the menu!")

(are we ready for some more surveys?)

(Juniper has no option on pig over work, or heart over diamond...)

(time to explore some of the decorations with the younger set...)

(the youngest of the young with the older me...)

(a boy who likes movement...)

It was a magnificent evening, capping a very fine day. 

Holiday traditions are loved by all of us, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps they are loved by me especially much, and possibly more each year. You don't have the certainty that something wont drag you down or flip for you in the years to come and so you really appreciate the gift of having had a string of days where no one is sick or hurting or incapacitated for whatever reason. You see the smiles all around you and you know that they are genuine, and that we are so so fortunate to have had these days together. Surely this month, with its bumpy viruses and a few punches and knocks in the first half, turned out to give us a fabulous and worry free second half. How good is that!

Tomorrow I'm heading out. Not for long -- just a couple of days. More on that later. For now, let me bask in the glow that comes after a day with the gang of nine plus one. Total bliss.

with so much love...