Door County in Pictures Part 1

We are sad to say goodbye to Door County. Our two weeks here have been absolutely awesome! We have seen and done so much. During our exploration of Door County, we made many discoveries...harbors, lighthouses, golf courses, shops and restaurants, wineries, dairy farms, gorgeous flowers in bloom, and the medicinal effects of cherries!! We also made several new friends while here! There is just too much to write about so this will be a picture entry of our days spent in Door County...Part 1 and Part 2!! Maybe even a 3 or 4!!








Watching the Washington Island Ferry







Jonathan is that You??


Cana Lighthouse






Frank at Cana









Cave Point on Lake Michigan






Cookie at Schopf's Dairy


Dairy Farms Dot Door County




Wineries Mean Wine Tasting!!






Time to end Part 1. This last picture made me thirsty!! Wine Time! Lots more later!!

Fyr Bal

Door County is a Wisconsin peninsula located between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The county is home to multiple cherry and apple orchards and Land-O-Lakes diary farms. Friendly, picturesque harbor towns with names like Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, and Sister Bay are abundant with quaint shops and art galleries, and the most wonderful bakeries producing flavorful breads, fudge, cherry pies, delicious cherry strudel, and many other varieties of gourmet foods made from the yearly cherry harvest. It’s truly a smorgasbord of everything cherries! What’s that saying, “Life’s just a bowl of cherries”…that’s Door County!

One of the most interesting traditions here is the fish boil. Fresh whitefish from Lake Michigan is boiled with onions and potatoes in a big kettle over an open wood fire, with a dramatic “boil over” sending flames soaring into the air, signaling that dinner is ready. We were witness to a fish boil when we went to the annual Fyr Bal in Ephraim.


Boiling the Fish The Boil Over
Removing the Fish
Dinner's Ready!!

No, I did not misspell Fyr Bal. That translates into “bonfire” in Norwegian. Ephraim holds this festival annually. It takes place on the weekend closest to the summer solstice and marks the beginning of summer each year in Door County.

In pagan traditions, it was believed that lighting of bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve helped scare away evil spirits and was a necessary means of asking for bountiful harvests and good fortune. The local Fyr Bal is to scare away the “winter witch” and usher in the summer. Bonfires were built along the shoreline around Eagle Harbor; when the elected chieftain lit the official bonfire then the others followed. It was quite the spectacle to see the fires burning around the lake. After all the fires were lit, a spectacular fireworks display over the harbor followed.
Tepees of Wood Await Lighting

Bonfires Burn Around the Lake
Pagan Traditions

Baileys Harbor in Door County

We arrived in Door County almost a week ago (June 12) after driving through rain for most of our four hour drive up from The Dells. This rain was just the beginning of the floods that would continue to devastate many of the towns in the Wisconsin area. We went through one small town where we saw convicts filling sandbags in a parking lot. At that time we had no idea what they were preparing for. Like I said before, we have been just a step ahead of a lot of bad weather!

Arriving at our destination, we immediately realized we had made a big mistake in the campground we chose. The trees in this place were so dense that it made it difficult to navigate and the mosquitoes had their napkins around their little necks with their knives and forks ready to dig in! I was literally attacked by the pests when I stepped out of the car! This was not for us! So off we went hoping to find a more suitable place for our 2 week stay.

We hit pay dirt after our third try. We found Baileys Harbor and a wonderful campground, Baileys Grove, with open spaces designed for Big Rigs. We immediately got out of the other place (lost only a small deposit). The owners here, Josh and Alicia, have been absolutely the most accommodating and friendliest…we have even had homemade chocolate chip cookies delivered to the coach!!

Thankfully, we found the perfect place to park Pearl for two weeks and explore Door County from Baileys Harbor.


Baileys Harbor on Lake Michigan

Enjoying the Sunshine

Wisconsin Dells June 9-11

Guess our timing is “staying one step ahead of the storms” so to speak. We were in lots of rain in La Crosse; now the Mississippi River is rising and many of the cottages like Red and Mary’s are being pulled out to higher ground. I checked with Mary and their side of the resort is higher; they will not have to be moved out, but lots of water will be around them! Stay safe, Friends!

We arrived in Wisconsin Dells a day later than we planned; guess that was a wise move to stay in La Crosse and just ride out the rain there. As many of you have been watching the news, you know there have been devastating floods here, and that Lake Delton has completely drained. It is totally amazing! We were watching the news after arriving here as the coverage was showing the houses washing away down the channel. The lake cut a new channel into the Wisconsin River when it overflowed its banks.

Upper Dells Boats Still Running
Muddy Waters Dam Releasing Water into the Lower Dells

Lower Dells Boats Canceled


Lake Delton Drained

Ski Ramps from the Tommy Bartlett Ski Show Dry Docked in the Mud

The Dells is a tourist area with many of its attractions depending on the lake. Of course those boat tours of the Lower Dells, much of the Ducks’ tours, and Tommy Bartlett’s Ski show has been canceled until engineers figure out how to reconstruct the water flow so the lake can fill up again. Needless to say, as we took a tour of the town, many tourists seem to have canceled vacation plans. Wonder if the Madisons are still planning the trip here with the grandchildren??

On a brighter note, while here, we met Bob and Diane who just recently purchased an RV site at RiverBend Motorcoach Resort in LaBelle. They travel in their 40’ Mountain Aire with their two dogs, Maya, a sweet shepherd mix, and Ceasar a rather large bear of a Rottweiler…he’s a sweetheart, too! They are taking a long tour up to Alaska and then to Hawaii (not in their coach, of course) before returning to RiverBend in December.

We enjoyed dinner out together at the House of Embers and then played a round of miniature golf at Pirate’s Cove…one of the many here in the Dells. It’s always so nice to meet people along the way of our travels, but particularly those who we will get to see again soon. Bob and Diane are also golfers, and we will definitely have a rematch on a “real” course in early 2009!!

Pirates Cove Golf



Great Pizza Advertising
A Town of Water Parks and Roller Coasters

A Long Summer Without the Tourists!

We leave Thursday. Our next stop is Egg Harbor, Wisconsin (Door County). We are hoping for long periods of sunshine and warm temps…we checked the weather there this morning and it’s in the 50’s!!!! We’re gonna freeze!!

La Crosse, Wisconsin

What a great time we had in La Crosse, Wisconsin!! It was nothing like we expected, and don’t ask what we expected, but it was nothing like the town we found filled with wonderful restaurants, golf courses, shopping areas, universities, more bars than we could count, and all of this built along the Mississippi River!

The reason we made La Crosse one of our destinations this summer was to visit our friends Red and Mary from Sabal Springs. Red and Mary are natives of La Crosse and still have family who lives there. They return to Wisconsin during the summer months and live right on the banks of the “Big” River. They were our tour guides and Mary our concierge. Everything was perfectly arranged for our stay and entertainment.

Mississippi Cottage

We parked Pearl in Pettibone Resort in a site right on the banks of the river. I felt that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn would float by on their raft at any second. Speaking of “floating”, we thought on many occasions that we would float away or the river would rise and take us away…it rained cats and dogs for days and all night once! All those weather reports recently of flooding in the mid west were true…inches of rain fell while we were there! However, there were just enough breaks in the weather to allow us to get in our fun!
Mary and Red Visit Pearl

Another treat we had while in La Crosse was a visit from Kevin and Karen; they had recently been transferred to Minneapolis and made the trip over to visit. Kevin and Frank worked together in Cleveland, Ohio for GMAC. I had never met Karen, but we have emailed for nine years making our meeting feel just like old friends!


Mary arranged golf for us at their country club, Drugan’s, for an afternoon. The weather did give us a break and we were able to get in nine holes. Mary showed us the house she and Red had built on this course years ago. What a lovely place; I don’t know how they left such a beautiful setting. The course was one of rolling hills and scenic landscapes. There was this old barn and silo that got caught in the lens of my camera. It was just so perfectly rural and serene yet sitting right there on a golf course along with the old farmhouse.

Golfing at Drugan's Barn on the Course The House Mary and Red Built
on the Golf Course at Drugan's
After the golf, we dined at the club’s restaurant…Friday night fish fry!! What a fantastic meal! Mary had bragged about what good food was found in La Crosse and how inexpensive it was to dine out. She was right…every meal was great and the price always low! The fish fry was all you could eat plus a huge soup and salad bar for $10.95...and it was delicioso!!

Saturday dawned with a beautiful sunrise and what looked to be a sunny day. Kevin and Karen came over for breakfast, but by 10:30 that morning, Mary called and said we better get everything put away…awnings, chairs, etc. because a huge storm was rolling in with hail. We did just get everything put away and ourselves inside the rig when the rains came. Luckily, we missed the large hail, but lots of rain fell. We spent the morning visiting and even got in a card game or two.

The rain broke around 1:30 so that we could walk down to Mary and Red’s for a quick visit before Kevin and Karen left. Mary and Red have a lovely outside patio area around their cottage where you can sit and watch the river activities. Houseboats float by; fishermen cast their lines; water-skiers show off their skills; and you might even see an occasional eagle fly by. It’s such an idyllic setting, but at the same time the river can rear it’s ugly head and cause damaging floods.

Red told us stories of how their home has had to be moved out because of the river rising. The cleanup following the flooding was a huge undertaking. You really have to love the river to take your chances of living on its banks.
Sitting by the Mississippi After saying our good byes to Kevin and Karen, another major storm followed Saturday evening. It rained throughout the night causing flooding in the area and throughout Wisconsin. We were suppose to leave Sunday to go to the Wisconsin Dells, but since it was raining so hard and the storm was moving east in the direction of the Dells, we decided to stay one more night at Pettibone. It was a wise decision. If you have been following the news, you have seen all the flooding that has been reported in the Wisconsin Dells. There was also a tornado that touched down right in the area where we are now…we have arrived in The Dells! More about that later!

We thank Red and Mary for their hospitality and all the great places they took us to. It was fun being with them and seeing them in their home setting of La Crosse, Wisconsin. It’s a great town with good people!!

It was also great to get to meet up with Kevin and Karen. We thought our getting together would take place in Destin not in Wisconsin. Isn’t it awesome when the unexpected happens!!



Frank and I are thankful to have good friends!!