Friday, June 22, 2012

Door County, Part One: The Arrival

This weekend, to help celebrate LR's birthday, she, SB, and I went to Door County, WI.  I have never been here before, but they had, and my parents have, and my boyfriend has, and they all have said it is a beautiful place.  Having been here for about four hours, I can totally agree.

Getting here was only slightly troublesome.  We left SB's house at around 10 am, headed north and east.  Once into Wisconsin, we had to stop briefly for a tire tune-up in Hudson, then continued onward.  We had lunch at Thorpedo's (a diner) in Thorpe, WI.  I had a breakfast burrito, SB had a burger, and LR had a shrimp basket: breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all represented.  Up until about 2pm, we had gorgeous weather: cool, breezy, and sunny.  Sitting in the front seat of the car, I could feel my arms tanning (that is, burning).  But then we ran into some crazy thunderstorms, involving very heavy rain, lightning, and just a little bit of HAIL.  Let me tell you, any size and amount of hail is terrifying when you are sitting in the front seat of a vehicle that is going 70 miles an hour.  We eventually pulled over into a gas station, but by then the hail was done anyway.  We got back on the road and continued on through the rain and some pretty impressive clouds.


It was neat, because even while we were in the thick of the storms, we could see blue skies out to the side.  We drove over the bridge in Green Bay, then up the peninsula.

As we were heading north, the skies finally cleared, and it was gorgeous.  Everything had that freshly washed look, and smelled amazing, the way good earth does after a rainstorm.  We stopped at a winery to pick up some wine for SB's sister, then finally made it to Fish Creek, where we had reserved a suite in a cottage.  Our room has a king-size bed, a fold-out twin bed, a kitchenette, table, gas fireplace, and a TV with a VHS/DVD player.  It also had a picture of a clarinet on the wall, which made us feel almost as if LH was with us.  Almost, but not quite.


 After we got settled in our room, LR (the birthday girl) decided we'd go to The Gibraltar Grill for dinner.  It was sooooo good.  Since the weather had cleared up so nicely, we sat on the porch outside near the bar.  I had the Door County Summer Salad wrap, which was huge (so I saved half for tomorrow) and SB and LR had pulled pork sandwiches.  They gave me a bite of the pork and it was delicious.  Then we planned some of our adventures for the next few days-- zip lining, biking, lighthouse-exploring-- and picked up some groceries.

After we'd returned to our suite and put the groceries away, it was still light enough out for a brief walk.  Peninsula State Park is just across the street from where we're staying, so we just walked over there.  There's a golf course there, which we walked through on our way to see the water.  LR and I climbed a tree.

 I was feeling very energetic (and just a little happy, due to drinking a Woodchuck Cider at dinner), so I ran ahead at one point, pulled the flag out of one hole, waved it around and shouted, "I CLAIM THIS GREEN IN THE NAME OF FRANCE!"


Then I planted the flag firmly back in the hole and walked off the green.


 As I was waiting for SB and LR to catch up, the sprinklers came on.


We all laughed about how funny it would have been if they'd come on while I was on the green.

Of course, I had to try my trademark "perching-on-top-of-something-on-one-foot" pose.


We finished our walk with a view of the bay.


Then we walked back to the room, LR went to sleep, and SB and I have been fiddling around with our various electronic devices.  Cell phone service is somewhat patchy here, but there's free WiFi in the room.

Thus ends Friday's adventures.  I'll try to post again tomorrow.

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