Our trip to Door County

Last year in late spring Jonathan and I decided to take a spontaneous quick trip to Door County, Wisconsin before the wedding season got really crazy. Summer is my favorite season and although I love my job to death, I still really want to squeeze in relaxing trips like this if I can. All the years I have lived in Wisconsin I had never been to Door County except for a couple weddings but never stayed to really enjoy it. We were probably there for a couple days and I have to say that was the perfect amount of time for me since I’m addicted to working, lol!
There is a video we made at the end of the post. After we got back from our trip we sort of put the video on the back burner as we got busier. I’m sort of happy to get it done now since the video makes me long for the summer again. All color photos were taken on my Yashica-A and the two black and white images were taken on my Hasselblad 500 c/m.

We decided to make some stops on the way up. For lunch we stopped at this very interesting diner called The Penguin Drive-In in Manitowoc. We decided to only eat at local establishments on our trip. The place was cute and the burgers were yummy!


accidental double exposure on the left

We also stopped at a beach and took some pictures. It was crazy windy that day!(another double exposure. Oops!)

We stayed at the White Lace Inn in Sturgeon Bay. For this particular trip we didn’t have any plan other than just going. We didn’t book a hotel or B+B ahead of time. I think we were able to do that since we went during the week. Because we were a walk-in, we got a better price on our room than if we booked online. Dennis the innkeeper was very friendly and let us look at all the available rooms and choose which one we liked the best. We ended up picking room D in the Washburn house. I don’t have many pictures of our room(very dark for an old film camera!), but you can see one on their website.

We picked a perfect time to go there. It was sunny and beautiful every day except the day we left. Perfect timing! As soon as we arrived at the White Lace Inn, we were immediately greeted by the Inn cat. It also even sort of escorted us to breakfast the next day as if saying “puurrrr, let me show you the way to bRRReakfast”. Too cute! We lovingly named it Paul. If you’ve seen a certain episode of Family Guy, you’d know why :)

On our first morning we got a seat by the window for breakfast. The breakfast they serve is lite and tasty which is perfect for me. I usually don’t like to eat a lot at the beginning of the day. The living room and dining area is very relaxing, quiet and charming. On Thursday nights they have a local folk band that comes in and plays for a few hours which we enjoyed a lot. You’ll see some of the footage from that in the video below.

The grounds of the Inn are lovely. I enjoyed walking through the gardens(and finding my favorite flower, Lily of Valley), lounging on the pink and white lawn chairs, saying hello to the fishes in the pond, and playing some b-ball with Jonathan.

After enjoying the gardens we decided to head off up farther north to Egg Harbor and Fish Creek. The drive is beautiful and isn’t too far from Sturgeon Bay. I swear I listened to Billie Holiday on my ipod the entire trip.

The weather was wonderful for a picnic, so that’s just what we did once we arrived in Egg Harbor. We picked a spot by a candy store that overlooks the lake. I felt like a kid again when I saw the candy necklace and candy cigarettes. Those were my favorite candies as a kid so I had to splurge.


Double exposure, again! Blech! Ah well it looks kinda neat :) You can see me lounging on the pink and white chairs and also the view from our picnic in Egg Harbor.

After our picnic we decided that we needed to see Peninsula State Park so we did a quick drive-through. There are certain areas in the forest that are amazing! I wanted to take pictures of SOMEBODY in those beautiful blue flowers. The pictures I took just don’t do them justice though. They are so delightful in person! We couldn’t stay in the forest for too long because of the skeets.

My parents always stayed at the White Gull Inn whenever they’d visit Door County for their anniversary. They told us that we HAVE to go to their Fish Boil. We also highly recommend doing this if you’re ever in Fish Creek. The dinner also comes with Door County’s signature cherry pie. No pictures of our food, but you can see that in our video below.

After dinner we enjoyed the most amazing sunset by the White Gull Inn.


Jonathan looks so tough in this photo!


The millionth double exposure on this trip, lol!

The next day we decided to take a break from filming and pictures a little. I have to mention the place we had lunch though and PLEASE, you MUST go there if you’re ever in Fish Creek. We found this pizza place called Wild Tomato Wood-Fired Pizza and Grille. We highly recommend it! The reviews online of this place are all good and for good reason. It MAY have been the best pizza I’ve ever had in the states, and the cheese curds on top of our pizza MAY have had something to do with that. The atmosphere, service, and of course the food is excellent. We have been talking about taking a one day trip JUST to this place because the pizza is that good.

We spent the rest of the day antiquing, walking, shopping, and going to wine tastings. Our favorite winery was Simon Creek in Sturgeon Bay. We ended up buying a couple bottles of their cherry wine.

And now for the video! Enjoy! :)

Door County from Jonathan Wheeler on Vimeo.

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