Most people dread even thinking about putting together a vacation or gathering everything needed to bring especially when you have a brand new family member or multiple children but we accepted the challenge head on and love doing it. Never give up adventure because you have a child that’s actually when you should be stepping it up a notch. Nature in my opinion is the best teacher! Phoenix was 5 months old on this trip but has been adventuring with us literally since the day he was welcomed into this world. This wasn’t even his first camping trip but our first real vacation as a new small family! Now we don’t do this often so it was refreshing and an eye opener for us. We tend to opt for the deep in the woods where there are more bugs than people around but living in Wisconsin my whole life and never being to Door County seemed wrong, so we had to change that.

July of 2016 we packed up every last inch of the SUV and set of for the dreamy Door County land. Door County has a little bit of something for everyone from the hipsters, families, adventure seekers, anglers, romantics and history buffs.

After a long 6 hours in the car with a baby, backroads and pit stops we arrived at our base camp for the week, Peninsula State Park. Check out my Camp Wisconsin: Peninsula State Park, Door County…..Niagara Escarpment, Horseshoe Island and Eagle Trail! This is a must. blog for more info and pics on this must visit state park. Side note I forgot to put in the blog is about raccoons. For the love of all your food keep it locked tight. Raccoons are ridiculously smart and can open coolers and totes if you don’t believe me ask Jason how that worked out. He decided to not believe me on this one and being the stubborn person and wanting to prove a point I decided what the hell there’s a Walmart nearby somewhere lets show him what these little critters can do. He woke up to noises I found familiar from camping my whole life, critters raiding the campsite. Turns out it was a momma and her littles getting into our totes. Bye bye trail mix, marshmellows, crackers, granola bars pretty much anything they could get there hands on. Thank goodness Phoenix was exclusively breastfed at that point didn’t have to worry about him going hungry. I did however feel good about proving a point for once lol. Moral of the story Jason and I are very competitive and just keep your food safe lol

On to the wonders of Door County. First day we arrived we set up camp and chilled out for the night. Second day was filled with exploring and hiking around the park. Third day we started venturing outside the park boundaries and were quite impressed with what we saw. Peninsula State Park is located in Fish Creek voted by Forbes as one of the 15 prettiest towns in America!!  and boy that little town of 997 people as of the 2010 census is packed to the brim of things to do and little shops every which way you turn. We ventured out for breakfast that morning and ended up at Pelletier’s. Like most businesses in Fish Creek Pelletier’s looked like a up kept home on the outside once inside the setting changes to polished log cabin looking tables and benches, stone brick walls with large unique fish mounts everywhere. The omelets and fruit crepe’s were absolutely amazing with prices not being horrible either for a “touristy” town. After filling ourselves with some great food it was time to explore the little town.

Now if you have never heard of a fish boil it is quite the sight and a very popular tradition in the Great Lakes area especially in Door County. We sadly were not able to witness one ourselves 😦 I was dead set on going to the White Gull Inn for one but the wait time was more than our patience and hunger at the time. White Gull Inn is a beautiful Bed & Breakfast and restaurant that is open to the public One of the most popular in Fish Creek. Following pictures are not mine but an example of what takes place during a Fish Boil.

Back to our jaunt around town. I’ll be honest a lot of the shops are those you find in any “touristy” destination you know the ones selling the shirts, sweatshirts, knick knacks, coasters, mug and all of them have the name of said destination on them. After a few of those and falling into the trap of getting some said items we spotted this yard from afar filled with very unusual things. We picked up the pace a bit to check it out and unusual is exactly what it was. Did ‘n Dat Décor was name of the place, I’ll let the pictures below speak for that. We spent a good amount of time gawking at all the artwork and various items. The outside was just the beginning the whole inside was filled to max with unique items on display. We eventually picked out 2 gnomes to take home for the garden.

Believe me on the extremely unique part? Can you imagine the brain behind all the metal artwork and the time invested into each piece. Look closely at what it is all made out of.

Do you like goats?

Do you like vibrant green grass and goats on a roof?

How about goats on top of a restaurant? No need to go to Norway for this one just to Sister Bay, Wisconsin and no further than Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant!!

Al Johnson’s as you can imagine is another very popular destination I mean how many places have goats on the roof. This is the first one I have come by or ever heard of in that matter. You get the whole authentic Swedish experience here the wait staff is dressed in the traditional Scandinavian attire and the food follows right along with tradition from Swedish meatballs to pancakes with lingonberries. We both tried the Swedish meatball sandwich and enjoyed it very much, not your typical American take on the dish which was a game changer for us. The staff was superb and helped us kindly with Phoenix making sure we were all comfortable and he was high enough to be amused by the crowd which helped tremendously as he was getting tired. O how I miss the days of him taking two naps lol Picture below is Jason practicing his family selfie skills.

 

Ill end this blog with some pictures of the unusual sights of Goats on the Roof.

Don’t worry this isn’t where are “touristy” vacation ended. Stayed tuned for the next and finally blog about our Door County vacation and the Washington Island Ferry Ride.

Thank you all for your interest!!

Please remember to show your support and follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube

Have a beautiful day and weekend.

Start Living