Door County, WI (July 25-27)

Off we go to be tourists in WI's most touristy area Door County, a 70 mile stretch of land NE of Sturgeon Bay shaped like the spout of a tea pot surrounded by two bodies of water, Green Bay on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. For the first time on the trip we called and made reservations in advance, because it was a weekend, to stay for 3 nights (Egg Harbor Campground & RV Resort) in the village of Egg Harbor in a very densely treed area that turned out to be nice when it rained 2 inches in about and hour and a half! Thunder storms out here are louder and have more lightening than we're used to in CA! The car and rig got a much needed bath and we rested after a hike in the morning at Peninsula State Park over looking Green Bay.

 

While we are interested in learning on this trip, we are drawn to the "culinary" specialties in each area and Mary Sue did her homework and had found a good bakery for a breakfast treat and breads, and then the "best" cherry pie in Door Co. It's cherry season, both sweet and sour, in MI and they are delicious!

Many of the villages have signature artwork with Egg Harbor having beautifully done eggs; one is called "incredible, edible, seasonal egg" and the other "screaming turtle."  In Sister Bay the motif is goats with some in the most unusual places. A great marketing gig as there was quite a line to get into the Swedish restaurant!

Now for education, we went to the Cana Island Light Station that dates back to 1869 and like all lighthouses was there to help ship captains position themselves on the body of water they are on. What was special about this one was that it had a "Fresnel Lens" (from France) made with a number of prisms, placed in a specific order so as to gather as much light as possible, bend it, and send it out in a focused beam. This lens shown 18 miles, limited only by the curvature of the earth. 

 

Since Door County is a major tourist attraction plus people have summer homes, it was very handy to have the tow car to take of for exploring and navigate the inevitable traffic jams.  Now we are moving on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.