Day in the Door County Peninsula

This morning Travalon and I had leftover pizza on our balcony. This was our view.

This housefinch was sitting in a tree right by our balcony, singing to us.

We went to a coffee house in Sturgeon Bay, and they had this pelican statue in the yard.

Then we hit the road. Our first stop was Cave Point County Park, where we hiked along a trail where there were a lot of these lovely thimbleberry blossoms.

We saw some stunning views, and lots of kayakers.

And this perturbed-looking gull.

Then we drove along the east side of the peninsula, stopping at Kangaroo Lake, where Travalon's parents took their honeymoon.

We drove to Cana Island, which has a lighthouse on it (not visible in this picture) and usually a causeway out to it, but it was flooded, so we could only look at it from the shore.

 On the road back, I spotted this egret, but it took off as I shot a photo of it.

We stopped in Sister Bay for lunch, and we passed many lovely flowers on our way to the restaurant.

cheddar pinks

peonies

irises

lupines (not wild)

The restaurant, Husby's, was playing Abba in the background, then suddenly they switched to "Free Bird" by Lynard Skynard. I said that song was factually incorrect, because the guy is singing to the girl about how he is "free as a bird" and will not commit to her, but in fact most birds ARE monogamous. I said I could have a whole blog post where Famous Hat ruins Travalon's favorite classic rock songs, like in "Imagine" John Lennon croons about a world with no religion, government, or rules, but I'm sorry, Mr. Lennon, that would result in The Purge, not the blissful utopia you were "imagining." But I couldn't think of any other songs to ruin for Travalon. He said what about "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan, and I said no, in fact everyone DOES call Alabama the Crimson Tide. Anyway, I like that song.

After lunch we went to Peninsula State Park for a hike. We started at Eagle Terrace, where there are spectacular views of Green Bay and Ephraim across the way.

The Eagle Trail was labeled as "difficult," by which they must mean that it is impossible to determine where the trail actually is. Finally we gave up and walked along the road, but in the woods we did see a lot of forget-me-nots in bloom, and these ferns on tall stems.

We drove through the park and stopped at viewpoints to look at the Strawberry Islands.

We also stopped at the lighthouse.

This island appears to have a house on the left side.

Horseshoe Island used to be owned by a wealthy family. Years ago Tiffy, Anna Banana II, and I canoed out to it, but we couldn't hike on it because it was so buggy.

Travalon thinks, from looking at the map, that these two are Adventure Island and Jack Island. I think the small one could possibly be Little Strawberry Island.

Then we took a hike in the woods, where we saw lots of pretty woodland flowers. It smelled amazing in there, so something was in bloom. I think maybe linden trees.

 buttercups

 hawkweed

My plant ID app says this is "True Forget-me-nots," so could the poseur forget-me-nots just knock it off, already?

 strict blue-eyed grass

 oxeye daisy

 common gypsyweed

 herb robert

 red columbine

common hawkweed

I shot a turkey in Peninsula... with a camera. For some reason it was following us.

We went to Fish Creek and had a fish boil in the shadow of this bluff.

Here is a video of the fish boil. It was as delicious as it was entertaining!

We went to the Fish Creek Marina to look at Chambers Island, which is five miles offshore. Travalon took pictures, but they just look like some landmass. I do like this picture of a gull at the marina.

We went to Egg Harbor to have a flight of beers at Shipwrecked Brewery. They were destroyed by a fire in 2017 but rebuilt and are back in business. From where we were sitting, we could see a gorgeous sunset, and a peninsula with an island.

In the park were these lovely blooming bushes called weigela.

Here is the marina at Egg Harbor.

And some shots of the sunset.

We tried to find the island off the peninsula, but it appears to be owned by an ultra-rich person. There is a stone bridge out to it, but there's a gate that says "Private Property" on the road. We did stop along the peninsula and take one more shot of the sunset.

Tomorrow we are taking a boat tour of Death's Door in Ellison Bay to view shipwrecks, so stay tuned for that.

Famous Hat