Doing Door County

If you ask us about what there is to do in Door County, both Don and I would answer, "Plenty"!  This part of Wisconsin is a popular tourist destination with plenty of quaint towns such as Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Sturgeon Bay, etc.  There is Peninsula State Park with miles of bike trails, boating, fishing,  5 lighthouses , lots of hotels and B & B's, and hundreds of tourist shops.  This is almost like a "one size fits all" type of dress!  

Char and Roy had the whole day planned for us.  We left in the morning and headed an hour north to our first stop, Door County Coffee and Tea Company.  The aroma in there is wonderful (if you like the smell of fresh coffee) and there is a huge selection of flavored coffee.  Boy, this is right up my alley.  I got some Chocolate Cherry coffee beans and also some Mocha Mint.  Don found some dark roast coffee that he liked and Char found some specialty teas.   We were all happy campers.

I had Roy and Char sit in the colorful Adirondack chairs outside on the lawn so I could get a picture of them.....and the chairs.  Both Don and Jerry (our brother-in-law) had built some of these comfortable chairs this year after seeing them in a store by Glacier National Park.  

Next stop was Peninsula State Park for a bike ride on one of the many trails.  This is a mighty popular place for people not only from Wisconsin, but people living in Milwaukee and Chicago.  This weekend, all 400 + camping spots were taken.   We set out to tackle the Sunset Bike Trail, which traverses through mostly shaded, woody areas, but at some points travels along the edge of Green Bay.

This was a short rest stop for us after we just came up a steep hill.  Everyone made it up the hill except me.  But I wasn't the only one who had to stop and push their bike the last 50 or 100 feet or so.  There were plenty of bikers out in packs on this trail, so we had to be sure and ride single file.

The clouds were building up, and then we heard lightening and thunder.  But that isn't what cut our nice bike ride short......

it was Don's back tire!  He heard a "pop" and sure enough, his back tire was flat.  We had only done 3 miles of the trail when this happened.  Rats!

Roy biked back to the entrance, where we had left our vehicles.  Don, Char and I had to be content with waiting by the kayak launch while he loaded up his bike and came back for Don's.   At least we had some nice big trees to keep us dry while the storm passed overhead.

On our way out of the park, we made sure to stop by and see the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, which was built in 1868.   It is aptly named Eagle Bluff since it sits atop a 40 foot bluff and cost $12,000 to build. The first lighthouse keeper was from Norway.  The 1000 pound anchor came from the schooner, Oak Leaf, which sank in Sturgeon Bay in 1926.

So, our bike ride was cut short, but it didn't us send us back to Algoma.  Our next stop was Not Licked Yet, my favorite frozen yogurt place.  Every time we get to Door County, I have to go here for some Butter Pecan frozen yogurt.  I am usually a chocolate type of gal, but here the Butter Pecan trumps the chocolate or vanilla flavors.

Don and Char head out after our supper that was topped off by our favorite waffle cones.

After some tourist browsing in popular Fish Creek shops, we headed over to the Peninsula Players theater.  Roy and Char had gotten tickets in the 5th row to see the play, "Murder on the Nile".

We had gotten there early to avoid the crowds, so we had time to sit in the beautiful courtyard outside.  It was cool enough for a sweater that evening.

Looking west, the glowing orange orb created a beautiful sunset over Green Bay.  There were a lot of people taking pictures!  The sunset was just about gone by the time we headed into the theater.  What a great day we had, in spite of rain and a flat tire.  By the time we got home, it was 11 PM,  past our normal bedtime.  At least we managed to stay awake for the hour's drive home, and didn't encounter any deer along the dark country road back to Algoma.