Wed, 6/30/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A beautiful day today. The sky was so blue, and so was the lake. But it was chilly. I wanted to go to Washington Island but Mike just wanted to hang out, so that’s what we did. I finished the book on Frank Lloyd Wright so we took that back to the library and took the computer and checked our e-mail. Putzed around there for a couple of hours and then came home and had dinner and watched another 3 episodes of The Sopranos. 60s today.

The Thorp Cabin--built in 1849

Tue, 6/29/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A chilly, sunny morning. We drove down to Whitefish Dunes State Park/Natural Area. All the years we’ve been coming up here we’ve never been to this park. The Whitefish Dunes State Park and the Cave Point county park are basically right next to each other. We always went to the Cave Point park, never realizing that the state park was two miles up the road. These two parks are the very antithesis of each other. Whitefish Dunes has a pretty, crescent-shaped beach and Cave Point has a rugged, rocky shoreline and each wave that comes in makes a hollow thumping noise as it hits the hollowed-out, rocky shoreline. At Whitefish Dunes we walked a trail that went along the beach for a while and then up over the huge dunes. You would never know they were dunes, however, since they were so heavily forested. My leg muscles were screaming by the time we got to the top. Continued on through the woods on the other side of the dunes. Back to the truck and drove the two miles or so to Cave Point park. This place is really neat with large outcropping of rock to explore. There was a girl there with her bulldog, Oscar. He was a real character and definitely had an affinity to water. Drove back up the peninsula to Bailey’s Harbor to have dinner at the steakhouse, Florian, but they were closed. So, we went across the street to the Blue Ox and had something to eat. Back home and started watching a Ken Burns production of Frank Lloyd Wright, which was very apropos since I’m reading a book about him right now. High 60s today.

Beach at Whitefish Dunes State Park

Picture by Mike

(water temps in the low 60s and people in there swimming!)

Big slab of rock at Cave Point Park

Artist painting the rugged shore

The beautiful rugged shore



The handsome bulldog, Oscar

Me and Oscar--Picture by Mike

Mon, 6/28/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: Early this morning it was sunny. Then the clouds rolled in and it was a grey, dismal day. We watched a couple of movies and read some. After dinner we watched another installment of Ken Burns’s documentary, “The War”. At night here the bull frogs and peepers join in a great chorus. I love hearing them. We hear sandhill cranes also and have seen a couple in the fields around us. And there are three beautiful swans that hang out near Rowley Bay. Love it!

Barn between Sister Bay and Ellison Bay

I love barns!  They're disappearing from our landscape at an alarming rate.  They're considered out of date and are left to the wrecking ball or fall down from neglect.  I hate to see them disappear.  They're such an icon of our past.

Sun, 6/27/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A misty, foggy morning with no let-up in sight. So we figured it would be a good day to do the laundry, grocery shopping, and stop at the library to use their wi-fi. Got all that done and decided to do the cleaning as well. After dusting, vacuuming, and mopping, relaxed outside reading for a while. I’m reading the book, “Loving Frank”, a historical novel about Frank Lloyd Wright. It seems to be more about his mistress than Frank—at least so far. Mike is reading the J. A. Jance thriller I just finished. Mike grilled up some chicken for dinner. We had it with the left-over pasta I made yesterday. Then watched PBS about shipwrecks in Lake Michigan. While driving around some of the back roads a couple of days ago, we found a wreck site which is just off shore in from 5 to 25 feet of water. It was a three-masted schooner that was on its way to the Death’s Door Passage when it ran aground during a storm at night with all sails set. The year was 1880. We may try and snorkel over that site—if the water ever warms up enough.

Original Sturgeon Bay Light

This light was too unstable and would move around in the wind and affect the instrumentation and was abandoned.

The new Sturgeon Bay light

This lighthouse was built at the entrance of the canal into Sturgeon Bay.

The light is at the end of the cement pier behind me in the picture. The keepers would have to walk out on the raised walkway because at times the waves would wash up--not only over the cement pier, but over the walkway as well. They had to light the light every night and extinguish it every morning. The keepers house was next to the original lighthouse.

Sat, 6/26/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: Mostly cloudy today and it’s not supposed to get out of the 60s. We returned the Sopranos 2nd season to the library and headed up to Ellison Bay to check out Ellison Bay Days which is in full swing this weekend. They had a great band performing in the gazebo called The Copper Box. Drums, base, and the two main band members (a male and a female) played at least three instruments each. And they did all the singing. They were playing a Zydeco number when we got there. Very entertaining. There was also a woman there with her pet camel and llama. They bought Harley the camel when he was just a couple of months old. He’s now four and is a big pet. He has toys he plays with and rolls over to get his belly rubbed. He loves animal crackers and would do just about anything to get some. The llamas, she says, are like cats. They’re very aloof and basically don’t want to be bothered. They hum a lot—the llamas, I mean. There was lots of food there. I had a fresh whitefish sandwich and an ear of corn. Mike had a brat and two ears of corn. The corn is great. They roast them in the husk on the grill and insert a skewer in one end. When you buy them they pull off the husks and dip them in a big crock pot of melted butter. You hold them by the skewer and eat them.

Harley the Camel playing with one of his toys...

Fri, 6/25/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A nice day today. We drove over to Newport State Park—actually it’s a wilderness area—and hiked one of the trails there. We hiked along this rugged bluff for a while. Most of the trail was along the lake shore. Very pretty. We checked out two backpacking sites along this trail. When we backpacked there seven years ago we had a site way down the other end of the park on pretty Europe Lake. Saw the Northern Lights for the first time. Back home, stopping on the way to pick up some more strawberries. Washed and cut those up and then freshened up a little. Headed to Fish Creek for dinner at Summertime Restaurant and then on to the Peninsula Players production of Heroes. This was a really funny play about three WWI vets in a veterans’ home in France who plan to run away. The theater itself is in a beautiful garden in a grove of cedars right on the lake shore. At intermission they build this huge bonfire. They just redid the theater four years ago. They’re celebrating their 75th year and are America’s oldest resident summer theater. A very impressive venue.

View of the lake from the theater grounds

Thu, 6/24/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A mixed bag weather-wise this morning. The sun would be out for a while and then the clouds would roll in. That scenario was repeated most of the day. Didn’t really matter though because we were headed to the Strawberry Festival in Sister Bay. It was put on by one of the churches in Sister Bay. Besides strawberry shortcake, there were baked goods and a mini flea market. We each enjoyed a huge strawberry shortcake with biscuits, ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream. A huge portion. We got talking to a guy at our table who shares a cottage south of Sister Bay with the rest of his sisters and brothers that was passed down through the years. Think he said it’s a log building that dates back to the 1880s. After our shortcake we browsed the baked goods table. I got some home made ginger snaps and Mike got a mini loaf of cranberry/orange bread. Just what we need. Stopped at the Sister Bay library before heading home and spent a couple of hours in there on the computer. Watched the last of season 2 of The Sopranos. Season 3 will be coming via Netflix.