For most of you, this is old hat, but for anyone new(er) to my blog, Ted and I were married three Octobers ago up in Door County, Wisconsin. In a town with a sweet chapel and a population of 201, surrounded by water and absolutely zero chain stores, restaurants, anything. A destination wedding of sorts. We try to make it back to Door County once a year in September (timed around the Packers home opener game in Green Bay, of course) to celebrate our anniversary early, since we love this place so and it plays such a special role in our relationship.
There’s a pretty hefty handful of places we adore and always try to hit up every visit, but we obviously cannot make it to everything every year (because, duh, time and money). We were solely on a strict budget of birthday money for this trip – everything we spent in the Door was given to us for our birthdays with the instructions of “use this to have a wonderful time in Door County.”
So we have to prioritize and do some things some years and add others to our list for the next year. This year we chose to take the ferry over to Washington Island for the first time as our big Door County event (check the blog tomorrow for pics) and then spend the rest of the time strolling around on the mainland.
On the mainland, we scooped up bags of Door County chocolate covered cherries, cherry and lavender caramels, pecan brittle, cherry salsa, raspberry salsa, and Door County mustard at a few of our favorite farm markets (we were sure to send on some of the goodies to family back in Texas as well). And we drove with the convertible top down on the Cutlass, taking in the fresh lake air, start of the fall color, farmland, and other gorgeous sights along the way.
Friday night Ted’s parents joined us in the Door for dinner at Summertime in Fish Creek (I had a baked potato, fresh green beans, and pan seared pork chops with apples, cinnamon, butter and bourbon!) and then we saw Miracle on South Division Street, directed by our good friend Kristine Thatcher, at Peninsula Player’s – Door County’s premiere professional Theatre. The show was excellent, relaxing, enjoyable and very funny. Lots of unexpected twists in the plot, loveable characters, and tons to laugh at. We loved the story and, as always, enjoyed seeing Kristine’s wonderful directing work. And the icing on the cake is that Peninsula Players has the world’s most epic location for a theatre – in a forest and right on the shores of a lake, so you can enjoy thick wooded walking trails, brilliant sunset views of the lake and waves crashing onto the shore, a huge nightly bonfire in their wooded lakeside fire pit, and beer in their forest beer garden before heading into their indoor/outdoor theatre with for some high quality entertainment. So wonderful.
We breakfasted on Swedish meatballs, crepes, lingonberries, and whipped cream with a side of hot chocolate (I mean, really, look at that cup) at Al Johnson’s “Goats on the Roof” – our favorite Swedish Restaurant and Butik with a grass roof where goats live and graze. This place also has lake views, in addition to the fab food and goats, so it’s pretty much the best.
We browsed our favorite shops in Fish Creek and indulged in fresh cherry gelato too.
And, of course, we HAD to do a fish boil. Our usual fish boil place – Square Rigger in Jacksonport – was, unfortunately, closed for the season, so we tried Pellitiers instead, which was tasty and spectacular too. You just can’t beat buttery salted freshly caught whitefish, potatoes and onions boiled over an open fire with coleslaw and a slice of Seaquist Orchard fresh Door County cherry pie. Picking the bones out of those suckers is a pain in the butt, but they’re so delicious that it’s totally worth it.
Then, there’s always the gorgeous Door County sunsets over the pier and, this time (for a rare treat), inexplicably friendly hummingbirds that allowed us to put our hands up under their feet and hold them while they fed and their wings zoomed. It was so cool.
Til next time sweet Door!
Up next: Washington Island!
