Door County Road Trip
Lorraine and I took our first US road trip this weekend. I wanted to see fall colours and someone at work suggested Door County. I also wanted to do the RV thing, but found out that firstly, it's very expensive, and secondly, trying to book in Door County for the fall, with only a couple of months notice is damned near impossible. We ended up in a Best Western in Sturgeon Bay, driving up in the truck. For a full selection of pictures, click here.
We left early(ish) on Friday morning, about 10am :-) and headed up North. The weather was beautiful and we were excited about our first trip out. Lorraine packed a box lunch with crackers, port wine cheese dip and my homemade smoothie. We had a pretty good run up, stopping only for gas, and arrived in Sturgeon Bay at about 2pm. We had arranged to meet Mark, a fellow blogger, so I called and arranged a meeting that night in a nearby bar. The weather was still great , so we decided to get the bikes out of the back and headed off downtown to explore.
Downtown Sturgeon Bay was pretty small, and exploring didn't take long, but we did some shopping, checked out some of the small parks and watched the sunset over the lake before we headed back to the hotel to change and meet Mark. One wicked hill, and a shower later, we were in the Neighbourhood Pub (that's it's name). A decent sized place with a good crowd. We had some drinks and dinner with Mark and watched the end of the Sox game, before heading off to a not too late bed.
Next morning, bright and early(ish) about 9am, after a continental breakfast (read cereal and toast!)..we headed up north along the eastern coast of the peninsula. Stopping first at the Canal Lighthouse, on the old ship canal. We had a walk along the beach, checked out the great beachhouses and collected some driftwood. We headed further north up via Cave Point along some very nice rural routes, heading towards Cana Island Light, in Baileys Harbour. We got as far as Northport and had intended going over to Washington Island, but the winds were very high and I don't think the ferries were running.
More shopping..and then heading for home down the west coast of the peninsula, passing through Sister Bay, Ephraim, Fish Creek and Egg Harbour, we got some ideas for our next trip out on Sunday. We had a good dinner at Shipwrecked, which apparently was a favourite haunt of Chicago's own Al Capone, and the world's worst waitress, who tried to sell us breakfast at her day job! We watched the end of the Sox game sitting next to a guy from Colorado who had recently moved to Milwaukee. He helped to fill us in on some of the finer points of the rules, that I had not come across thus far.
On Sunday we headed back up the west coast to see some of the places we had passed through the previous evening. A lazy day of shopping and generally poking around in small town America. Some more photo opportunities with the trees, visited some Christmas shops (love it!) and generally took it easy. It was the Sister Bay festival that afternoon, and we checked that out, including the ping pong ball drop, where local businesses write things on ping pong balls and then drop them along with a bunch of blanks for people to collect. Except..they are apparently not allowed to fly helicopters over towns any more, and so they had to fire them out of a truck driving through the crowd..not quite the same! Everyone followed the truck trying to grab balls and win a prize..it really was a bit of a bun fight and more than a little dangerous for the smaller kids. Needless to say we didn't win, despite getting 8 balls!
We returned to the hotel and asked the receptionist where we might go for dinner on foot. She suggested the Neighbourhood Pub, but having been there we asked for somewhere else, intimating that we would be happy to walk 20 or 30 minutes. When we picked her up from the floor, in her surprise she directed us to a diner just up the road, Wanda Jeans, where the food was apparently excellent. It wasn't until we sat down that we realised that diners don't serve alcohol, one of the reasons for walking :-) so we bailed and headed back to the Neighbourhood Pub, where once again the food was excellent and we watched the last Sox game.
Next day we planned to visit the Door Peninsula Winery and head home early. It was throwing it down with rain, so it was a good job we had no big plans. Having blown off Wanda Jeans the night before, we decided to go for breakfast. It was decidedly average, sorry Wanda Jean! The winery was interesting, if a little clinical; and I am not a huge fan of non grape wines. We headed home soon afterwards, choosing to stop in at the jewellers on the way home, which made for an interesting trip with no maps of that route..but that's another story.
We left early(ish) on Friday morning, about 10am :-) and headed up North. The weather was beautiful and we were excited about our first trip out. Lorraine packed a box lunch with crackers, port wine cheese dip and my homemade smoothie. We had a pretty good run up, stopping only for gas, and arrived in Sturgeon Bay at about 2pm. We had arranged to meet Mark, a fellow blogger, so I called and arranged a meeting that night in a nearby bar. The weather was still great , so we decided to get the bikes out of the back and headed off downtown to explore.
Downtown Sturgeon Bay was pretty small, and exploring didn't take long, but we did some shopping, checked out some of the small parks and watched the sunset over the lake before we headed back to the hotel to change and meet Mark. One wicked hill, and a shower later, we were in the Neighbourhood Pub (that's it's name). A decent sized place with a good crowd. We had some drinks and dinner with Mark and watched the end of the Sox game, before heading off to a not too late bed.
Next morning, bright and early(ish) about 9am, after a continental breakfast (read cereal and toast!)..we headed up north along the eastern coast of the peninsula. Stopping first at the Canal Lighthouse, on the old ship canal. We had a walk along the beach, checked out the great beachhouses and collected some driftwood. We headed further north up via Cave Point along some very nice rural routes, heading towards Cana Island Light, in Baileys Harbour. We got as far as Northport and had intended going over to Washington Island, but the winds were very high and I don't think the ferries were running.
More shopping..and then heading for home down the west coast of the peninsula, passing through Sister Bay, Ephraim, Fish Creek and Egg Harbour, we got some ideas for our next trip out on Sunday. We had a good dinner at Shipwrecked, which apparently was a favourite haunt of Chicago's own Al Capone, and the world's worst waitress, who tried to sell us breakfast at her day job! We watched the end of the Sox game sitting next to a guy from Colorado who had recently moved to Milwaukee. He helped to fill us in on some of the finer points of the rules, that I had not come across thus far.
On Sunday we headed back up the west coast to see some of the places we had passed through the previous evening. A lazy day of shopping and generally poking around in small town America. Some more photo opportunities with the trees, visited some Christmas shops (love it!) and generally took it easy. It was the Sister Bay festival that afternoon, and we checked that out, including the ping pong ball drop, where local businesses write things on ping pong balls and then drop them along with a bunch of blanks for people to collect. Except..they are apparently not allowed to fly helicopters over towns any more, and so they had to fire them out of a truck driving through the crowd..not quite the same! Everyone followed the truck trying to grab balls and win a prize..it really was a bit of a bun fight and more than a little dangerous for the smaller kids. Needless to say we didn't win, despite getting 8 balls!We returned to the hotel and asked the receptionist where we might go for dinner on foot. She suggested the Neighbourhood Pub, but having been there we asked for somewhere else, intimating that we would be happy to walk 20 or 30 minutes. When we picked her up from the floor, in her surprise she directed us to a diner just up the road, Wanda Jeans, where the food was apparently excellent. It wasn't until we sat down that we realised that diners don't serve alcohol, one of the reasons for walking :-) so we bailed and headed back to the Neighbourhood Pub, where once again the food was excellent and we watched the last Sox game.
Next day we planned to visit the Door Peninsula Winery and head home early. It was throwing it down with rain, so it was a good job we had no big plans. Having blown off Wanda Jeans the night before, we decided to go for breakfast. It was decidedly average, sorry Wanda Jean! The winery was interesting, if a little clinical; and I am not a huge fan of non grape wines. We headed home soon afterwards, choosing to stop in at the jewellers on the way home, which made for an interesting trip with no maps of that route..but that's another story. 
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