We spent some days in Door County, the peninsula on eastern Wisconsin that separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. We figure we have traveled there about 15 times. (The strip is actually separated from the mainline at Sturgeon Bay but it looks like a peninsula and so we call it that.)
There are two sides to the strip of land, the active side and the quieter side. The main communities that catch the tourist's eye on the active side are Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay and Gill's Rock. These are small towns of about 300 permanent residents but can be filled to overflowing in tourist seasons of summer and fall. The summer heat has passed and the leaves are not quite turned yet so things are quieter.
We did manage with the room's microwave to use dinner leftovers for breakfast but otherwise we ate all our meals out. Too many days of that and we start to feel stuffed so last night we ate appetizers, soups and salad for dinner. We had a cheerful and graceful waitress and talked with her a little about her background. We were surprised to see her in a different town at a different restaurant today. We asked if she had a relative who waited tables in the other place. "That was me!" Some young people have multiple jobs.
Muffins with a little butter amount to a large quantity of calories. It is surprising how much work in walking or jogging or biking it takes to burn the calories equal to one meal. The general idea of calories being all that matters is being rethought but they are still basic and tempting and delicious foods can still pack on a great deal that is very, very difficult to remove. Pack on what? You know, the F word!
The first time we traveled to Door County, more than 40 years ago, I was struck by its similarity to scenic places in New England, where I worked several summers and where we have traveled at important times in our lives. Quaint little villages, always near water and usually positioned to make the most of the scene. The towns and scenes were like that then and they still are. I feel there is a difference between the heritage of New England and the more salient one of Door County's Scandinavian culture.
Lynn often gets drawn to any park or nature area or wildlife viewing or preservation area. There are too many to visit and know them all, especially with a husband whose motto is "Seen one waterfall, seen them all." However, Lynn is listening to "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" in the car and I am enjoying it at least as much the second time through. Between Rachel Joyce's exquisitely sensitive writing (a little boy's emotional moment is "splinteringly tender" for Harold) and comments I am picking up in Ezra Bayda "Beyond Happiness: The Zen Way to True Contentment", I am working on going to things Mrs. Kirby wants to visit more often and with more enthusiasm.
So, we walked some of the trails of The Ridges Sanctuary, 1600 acres put aside in 1935. That place is on the quiet side of peninsula, where Bailey's Harbor and Jacksonport are the towns. We didn't seen any wildlife but found some interesting plants and mushrooms.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
