a Door day

We have a date: meet up at Al Johnson's at 7:55!

If you know Door County, you'll have heard of Al Johnson's. The restaurant with the (summertime) goats on the roof and the menu with lots of Swedish choices. In the morning, for example, you can have your Swedish pancakes with lingonberries or Swedish meatballs. 

Al Johnson's has expanded since I've been coming to Door County. Beyond the restaurant, it now houses two large gift shops with all things Scandinavian. But the draw is still the breakfast (served until late afternoon). The place gets crowded even now, when ostensibly there are no crowds in Door County. So we strategically come five minutes before an early hour...

And a table is ours! 

(Yep, Swedish pancakes and lingonberries...)

(... and Swedish meatballs!)

And yes, we detour later to the gift shop and yes, Primrose looks great in a Santa Lucia head wreath, 25% off after the season! 

Here we are then, after the season, in Door County. The younger family and me.

At this point, they know Door County better than I do. Oh, I can find my way around here alright. County Q, County F, Highway 42 and Highway 57 -- all so familiar to me! But still, there's much that I haven't seen or tasted here. 2008 (my last visit here) is a long time ago. So I let them take the lead.

Our first destination is a place I actually do not remember ever visiting: Cave Point County Park, on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula. I'm thinking -- is that coastline at all dramatic? Pausing along the way, it seems rather gentle...

But go a little further and it isn't gentle at all. Limestone cliff formations create caves and ledges and at this time of the year, icy surfaces are both dramatic to witness and dangerous to walk on. 

But, we are a cautious bunch. Juniper is strapped onto my daughter and Primrose holds on to her dad's hand tightly.

As the water crashes in successive waves, I have to marvel at how the lake changes faces so quickly here. From mellow to bold and thunderous. 

We follow a trail through the cedar forest, taking in the scent of the trees that are so common here.

A very special park within a park (Cave Point County Park is within the Whitefish Dunes State Park). 

All that waterfront drama and the cold air make us hungry. We drive over to Waseda Farms, where Juniper is thrilled to look at the goats (as they look at her) and the rest of us pick and choose items from the store that the farmers maintain there.

One more stop! -- at Sip Coffee Shop to pick up some coffee and take-out soups for lunch.

And now we are home.

Did I say home? Well no, not really home, but a place you return to often is like a second home. This is the pleasure of repeat visits: you feel your roots boring down into the local soil, or in the case of Door County -- into the bedrock. Nearly half of the county has a soil depth of less than three feet. After that you're hitting Dolomite rock.

In any case, we return to the apartment rental, where Juniper right away sets herself the task of loading up a cookie tray and balancing it in her hand as she takes her still tentative steps.

Primrose returns to playing "coffee shop." 

Hey, coffee and cakes go well together, no??

Naps, books --- all that is fitted into a brief afternoon.

(trying on Santa Lucia's crown...)

And soon it is dinnertime. Pizza, from the local place. Delicious! And no, it's not just the fresh air effect!

We still have a bit of time before the kids need to get to bed, so we take a walk -- to see the cherry, suspended until tomorrow night when rumor has it it will drop down at the stroke of midnight!

And to admire the lights in the lakeshore park.

Home again: is it time to play some more??

No, sweet Juniper. You'll have to save up all that energy for tomorrow, the last day of 2022. It's bedtime for you, for your sister, and frankly -- for the grownups too. Door County walks do that to you -- you return with heavy eyelids. Me -- also a somewhat heavy heart as I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I want to get back for New Year's Eve to the farmhouse, to Ed, to all that I left there in order to be here.

Oh, but it's been a grand getaway with the young guys! Maybe short, but so intensely wonderful to go through the vacation routines with all of them.

But really, no more reflecting on the great luck that brought me to this point. I need to get some sleep if I am to hope for a late night at home tomorrow.

Goodnight little ones, here, and back home. 

With so much love...

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....