Door County, Wisconsin

We left Kewaunee this morning with beautiful, sunny weather.  It was a bit cool, as fall is arriving in the upper midwest. We all wore long pants for one of the first times this summer, but regretted it most of the day because cool mornings and evenings with warm days is the norm here.  It's perfect!

Our first stop was at a marker defining the 45th parallel. This is the place where we were halfway between the equator and the north pole!

We followed WI42 north from Kewaunee through Alaska, Wisconsin, and on through Algoma.  We stopped at or drove around Sturgeon Bay, and on into Egg Harbor.

Egg Harbor is the best of all the towns (villages, hereabouts) that we saw today.  It is clean, interesting, and has lots of shopping along with a beautiful marina.  Donna found a bag that interested her for awhile at the Pink Umbrella!

The view of the harbor is spectacular.  The highway is several hundred feet in elevation higher than the harbor, so as you walk down a nice path the whole bay begins to open for you.

The park at the street elevation has a few shiny, copper twirlers that moved nicely in the lake breeze.

 Imagine these mobile sculptures 12 feet tall and up to 4 feet in diameter!  A whole lotta shakin goin on!

Back on the road through Juddville on our way to Fish Harbor, we found:

A host of home made pies baked early this morning greeted us as we opened the door.  We decided to eat the picnic lunch that Donna and Mary had graciously prepared,

and then treat ourselves to a piece of pie!  Roger downed a piece of Cherry pie a la mode, Mary polished off some Caramel Apple, and Donna and I shared a slab of Cherry pie.  Delicious!

Across the street from Sweetie Pies, at a winery/store/gift shop combo, we saw a somewhat unusual item:

How do they do that?

So, on the road again, through Fish Creek, we stopped at a small beach in the village of Ephraim, where we talked to a local lady about the fine weather and watched her dog play in the water.

Somewhere near Sister Bay, we saw a Swedish restaurant that is known far and wide for it's sod roof. The building was constructed of logs, with large timbers supporting the roof, on which a thick carpet of grass was planted.  Well before the days of green energy, the Johnson family created a cool in the summer, warm in the winter structure without a large carbon footprint.  But what to do to maintain the roof?  A neighbor brought over the perfect lawn mower, and as the new grass grew, the lawn mowers were put to work!

The little guys (or gals) are brought from the barn in the back of a pickup every morning, where they walk up a ramp (just visible, top left). They munch all day, and are returned in the evening.  In the winter they spend their time in a warm barn with plenty of sweet hay and lots of tender, loving care! What a life!

We went on to Ellison Bay and Gills Rock, at the northern tip of Door County.  We had seen Cherry, Apple and Peach orchards, crops of pumpkins ripening for Thanksgiving, and vineyards by the square mile.  As the day was drawing to a close, we dropped back south on highway 57 through Baileys Harbor and Jacksonport before rejoining highway 42 near Sturgeon Bay and heading home.

A nice day and a nice drive through some very beautiful country!