Our Vacation to Door County Wisconsin

We just got back from a week in Door County Wisconsin. Door County is yet another place within the Great Lakes that everybody should try to experience. For those that do not know where Door County is; it is in the North-East part of Wisconsin where a piece of land ‘juts’ out into Lake Michigan. On the East side is the lake and on the West side is Green Bay. Once you pass over the bridge in Sturgeon Bay, you have just entered the Peninsula of Door County.

If you have followed my blogs, you know that I am a huge fan of the Great Lakes. I just can’t get enough of them! I have to say though, after visiting Door County, you must see the sites on the Green Bay side. This is where most of the action is.

We stayed at a campground called Door County Camping Retreat (site 338 for the curious) and overall, we enjoyed our stay there. Some of our friends met us there a couple days after we arrived and when we weren’t exploring this beautiful area, we were sitting around the campfire making smores, cooking ‘dogs’ and ‘brats’, popcorn and steak while having a great time talking and playing games.

From our site, we really had a great view of many birds. If you are a bird watcher, you will have a great time here! From the moment we arrived, we had a Blue Bird just outside our door and he (or she) was a site to see. Of course, that bird wasn’t the only one we saw. We saw an abundance of Cardinals, Orioles and wood peckers. There were a few more as well but I don’t know the names of them.

When you visit Door County, be prepared to be overwhelmed by all the shops and stores along Highway 42 in several small coastal towns. Our campground was just outside Egg Harbor and so it was a quick drive to view the shops. As you drive North, you will find many orchards, souvenir shops and restaurants. There is really no way you can see or do all there is in Door County in one visit, so plan on coming back several times to do that.

Door county is the home of one of Wisconsin’s most pristine and beautiful state parks which is called Peninsula State Park. Within the park there is a historic lighthouse and a lookout tower. The tower offers fantastic views of Green Bay and surrounding towns. The tower is 75 feet tall and situated on a bluff that when you are at the top of the tower, you are standing 250 feet above Green Bay.

An unusual feature of the park that we discovered is a stretch of beach that consists of millions of small shells. It was kind of strange but also fascinating. These millions of shells will one day make a sandy beach as was pointed out by one of our camping friends.

We stayed up in Door County for 7 days with no problems…with the exception of a nasty little storm with heavy rain and hail….but it was short lived and caused no damage. Unfortunately, on our way home, our Murphy’s Law factor that we seem to run into often enough hit just south of Milwaukee when I saw blue smoke billowing out from under my Excursion. It turns out that the front seal on the transmission sprung a leak and the fluid hitting the hot manifold was causing the smoke. I caught it in time because the tranny fluid was still showing full. The most painful thing is we had to rent a car to get home the last 130 miles and we left our travel trailer and Excursion up there and will have to go back up when the Excursion is repaired (hopefully Monday).

Even though, we ran into a bit of mechanical trouble and we were stranded on the side of the highway for almost three hours, I was happy to have my generator since it was 90 degrees out and once the genny was up and running, it wasn’t long for the AC to cool the trailer down. The people that helped us were the greatest and so I want to thank them as best as I can. Special thanks to Deputy Sheriff Doud of the Waukesha County Sheriffs Department, Wisconsin, AM Towing out of Big Bend Wisconsin, Jet Repair Service out of Milwaukee Wisconsin, Gary the Service Manager at John Amato Ford in Mukwonago Wisconsin and Kelly at the Enterprise car rental located at John Amato Ford. Also thanks go to those that I didn’t get the names of (sorry) who also helped us during our little crisis.

So….when you get the chance, be sure to visit Door County and really give yourself a treat. It is truly a treasure of the Great Lakes and Wisconsin.

Happy camping and see you next Sunday!