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Door County Wisconsin

My family is pretty well spread out across the country. We don't get together that often and I have to admit that I am the worst offender. I've always tended to take trips to go hiking in the mountains or to travel to exotic locales rather than just going home to visit family. It had been a long time but last summer all of my siblings got together when my mom died, first in Northern Idaho at my sister's house and then back in "da Old Country" where we all grew up, Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Since then one of my sisters has been trying hard to organize a trip where we could all get together again this year. There were lots of different proposals made and discussed before my siblings finally settled on going to Door County in Northern Wisconsin during the first week of October. I wasn't too invovled, especially since I am not usually very excited about going back to Wisconsin. I said that I would try to make it but didn't really do much preparation.

Sandy likes to go home a lot more often than I do. This summer she suggested we go back to visit in the fall. Besides visiting her family in Madison, she had talked to her sister and brother-in-law about going up north - to Door County. I told her that my sisters had proposed exactly the same thing so we got out calendars and checked. Sandy had chosen exactly the same dates as my siblings. It was obviously fate and I couldn't fight it so I agreed to go. Next day we had our flights booked.

We started our trip with a couple of days in Madison. We spent a lot of time visiting with Sandy's parents since her dad had not been doing well since breaking his shoulder a month before. To compound his troubles, when we got there he was fighting a bad case of pneumonia so he really wasn't feeling well. Sandy (and me to a lesser extent) helped out while we were there and which give her mom a much-needed break.

On Saturday we went to Milwaukee with Lynn and Dan to see a baseball game at Miller Park. It was the next to the last game of the season and the Brewers were playing the Detroit Tigers. Milwaukee was in a down-to-the-wire race with the Chicago Cubs for the NL Central Division Championship.

Although the Brewers had the second best record in the National League and the Tigers were well below 500 it was an exciting game. The Tigers took a 3-0 lead but two home runs by Christian Yelich propelled the Brewers to a 6-5 win. Incredibly with only one game left Yelich was a serious contender to win the triple crown. He led the league in hitting and was tied for second in home runs and RBI's. No one has led the National League in all three categories since Joe Medwick did it way back in 1937. Even though other stats have become more important for evaluating offensive performance in the modern age of sabermetrics, it would still be quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately Yelich fell just short the next day. He will still probably win the league MVP which will be announced later this month.

On Monday we left early to drive up to Door County, the small peninsula that sticks out into Lake Michigan about half way up the east side of the state. We drove through the Fox River Valley cities. Although I lived in Wisconsin for many years while I was growing up I've never been to much of the state. We drove through Oshkosh, the town where my dad grew up. My son Mickey had taken a new job and was packing up to move to Oshkosh the very next week. Talk about returning to your roots. We also drove through Green Bay and I at least got a distant view of Lambeau Field. Going to a Packer game there is still on Sandy's bucket list.

We grabbed a quick lunch along the way and then checked in at the Eagle Harbor Inn, a really nice Bed and Breakfast in Ephraim, Wisconin. My two sisters were staying at a cottage nearby (my brother was coming up that evening) and we hurried over there to watch baseball. The Brewers and Cubs finished the regular season tied for the best record in the National League. They were having a one game playoff that afternoon for the division championship. Since the Cubs had won the season series it would be played at Wrigley Field. Diane said they had a tv and that they got Fox Sports Wisconsin so we wanted to be there in time for the first pitch. I've been a Brewer fan since they first moved to Milwaukee in 1970. They've only made the playoffs three times previously in their forty eight year history so this was a big deal for me.

Because Milwaukee fans rarely get to cheer in the offseason, a lot of them made the trip to Wrigley for the game. They were very vocal too. Every time the Brewers did something good there were loud cheers. It was particularly fitting because Chicago fans often travel en masse to Milwaukee for Cubs games and take over Miller Park. Turn about is fair play. It was even better because it was a close game which the Brewers won 3-1. They are the NL Central Division champs!!!

After the game we all went to Lauterbach's Orchard Country Winery and Market in the town of Fish Creek. They tended toward fruit wines which are too sweet for our taste but they did have one dry white called Seyval Blanc which we liked, enough that we even bought a few bottles to take home for later. They also had a nice gift shop where Sandy and I picked up a few things.

After wine tasting we tried to go to Wild Tomato for dinner. Several people in our group said that friends had recommend it as the best pizza place in Door County. There was one nearby in Fish Creek but when we went there we found that the seating area was very small, they were very crowded and they projected over an hour wait. None of us are that patient, especially when it comes to pizza so we moved on. We ended up at JoJo's Pizza and Gelato near Ephraim. It wasn't crowded and the pizza was good. Not long after we got there my brother Mike arrived from Chicago and joined us. Now the whole gang was together.

After dinner we went back to the cottage to visit for a while and to drink some of the wine we had purchased earlier. Sandy and I had flown so we couldn't take it back home with us. We didn't have any choice. We had to drink it. Diane and Lorri also had a surprise in honor of Sandy's birthday (it had only been a week earlier). The last time she had been to Milwaukee she had gone to Kopp's for the first time and really liked their custard. My sisters brought some Kopp's custard just for Sandy and brought it out, complete with candles, in honor of her birthday.

The next morning we started out by going to Peninsula State Park. We stopped at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. It was a cool old building but there was a charge for the tour so we didn't go inside. There were viewpoints of the lake throughout the park. It would probably be very pretty in summer but since it was overcast it wasn't much to see. The lake and sky just blended together in an uninteresting gray. There were hiking trails too but with rain threatening and no worthwhile views we didn't bother.

There was still a lot to do as the area had a lot of interesting shops and restaurants. We found a place that sold fused glass jewelry that was very nice and relatively inexpensive. Sandy found some things that she liked. I bought some items too, picking up some gifts for friends and relatives that I could use for Christmas and birthdays.

For lunch we went to Al Johnson's, a Swedish restaurant in Sister's Bay. The wait staff all wear traditional Swedish outfits. The food was pretty good too. The most unique thing about it though is that the roof is covered with grass. Real grass. Alive and growing. On nice days they have goats out grazing on the roof. There were none on the day that we were there but my sister had pictures from when they were there earlier in the week - proof that they did indeed have goats on the roof. They even have a webcam so you can watch the goats over the internet. I don't know if it's some kind of weird Swedish tradition or what.

Unfortunately that morning I started to feel like I was coming down with something. By the time we were done with lunch I felt pretty bad. I don't get sick very often but this was hitting me really hard. I figured that I probably had caught something when we had been at Sandy's parents' house. After lunch I had them drop me off at the hotel so I could take a nap while Sandy went out to hit some more shops.

The next morning I was pretty miserable. I just stayed in bed all day while Sandy went with Lynn and Dan to drive up to the tip of the Door County peninsula. They did some sightseeing and she said afterwards that the lakeshore was very pretty up there. Unfortunately I didn't feel well enough to care. Maybe next time if we go up there I will get a chance to check it out.

Fortunately I was feeling better the next day, our last day in Wisconsin. We spent the day in Sister's Bay, checking out the shops. Part of the attraction was the elaborate landscaping and decorations that most of the shops had.

Sandy and I ate lunch quite late. There is another Wild Tomato in Sister's Bay so we were finally able to get in when they weren't that busy. The pizza was good but not exceptional. They were very disorganized though. They must lose a lot of business because they turn away so many people when they are too crowded. As someone who teaches a class in process improvement, Sandy noted lots of ways that they could have been faster and more efficient. They should hire her as a consultant.

Late that afternoon everyone met at Harbor Ridge Winery in Egg Harbor. After tasting some wines we all got a glass and relaxed in their loft. We followed that with the Shipwrecked Brew Pub for dinner. Afterwards we all went to the cottage to watch the Brewer game. They won game 1 of the NLDS against the Colorado Rockies 3-2 in eleven innings. Very exciting. While we watched, we enjoyed sundaes, made with the Kopp's custard that Diane and Lorri had brought with delicious local cherry toppings and whipped cream. I overdid it on the dessert but I couldn't help myself. It was absolutely delicious. Cherries are my favorite fruit and Door County is cherry country.

That was our trip to Wisconsin. The next morning we left for Illinois to visit Sandy's daughter Shannon and her boyfriend Jimmy. And their two dogs, Paisly and Layla.