Fri, 7/2/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: A spectacular day today. The sky was a deep blue and not a cloud in sight. Pretty windy which whipped the lake into frothy whitecaps in contrast to the deep blue water. We took the bikes and rode down toward Rowley’s Bay exploring several side roads. Stopped at the Rowley’s Bay Pub which wasn’t open yet so we hit the bakery and bought a bunch of wonderful pastries. They’re in the process of harvesting the sweet cherries here and then they’ll harvest the tart cherries in a couple of weeks. Whenever we see an abandoned cherry orchard we stop and pick and eat the ripe ones. Mid-70s today.

Cherries ready for picking

Barns of Door County

Thu, 7/1/10

Wagon Trail Resort, Ellison Bay, WI: Today we had some high clouds but decided to take the ferry to Washington Island. We stopped at the Viking Grill for breakfast and then headed for the Northport ferry dock. The trip across the Door of Death takes only about 30 minutes. There are several shipwrecks in this channel which are popular dive sites. We explored all over the island. It’s so pretty there. There are some really beautiful lakeside homes and inland is more agrarian with lots of farms. One farm was occupied by the same family since 1890! We stopped around 4:00 and had something to eat and then drove over to check out a beach which wasn’t that great. Then we headed back to the dock to catch the ferry back to the mainland. We arrived there at 5:15 or so and the last ferry left at 5:00! We lucked out though because they were running another ferry from the mainland for some latecomers. Otherwise, we would have been scrambling to find a place to stay the night. We had to wait until about 7:00 to get the ferry back. By then there was a little chop, but it was okay—just windy and cold. Made it home by 7:30. Upper 60s today.

Ferry just clearing the breakwater with the Plum Island light in the distance

Family of swans in Detroit Harbor as the ferry pulls in to Washington Island

Sign outside a cottage on the lakeshore--Washington Island

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...