Day 82 exploring (and eating) in Fish Creek, WI

      Short night last night, as I was up late working on the blog, and then Lucky decided to get up about 4:00 am. After some yelling on my part, she went back to sleep for one whole hour when I final gave up and took her for a walk. After the walk, she fell right back asleep, while I was up long enough to see the sunrise about 5:08 am. Finally I got back to sleep for a couple of hours, but I only got 6 hours and 10 minutes of sleep according to my Fit Bit.

      We set off for town around Noon in search of food, but we just happened to pass an Alpaca fiber and apparel store. In fact, the owner has raised Alpacas for their fiber since he was 14 years old. At age 15 he started selling yarn at local craft fairs, and he has parlayed that into a store today. He still makes the fiber into yarn and sells it. The clothing in the store was almost all made of Alpaca, and some of the clothing was actually made by his mother who happened to be tending the store today. The Admiral fell in love with this unique hooded long coat, which if it had fit better would be sitting somewhere on Lucky Us at this very moment. For my part I purchased her a much more modest item made of Alpaca as a Christmas gift. Wish me luck in trying to "hide" it on the boat for the next 4 months or so...

      This morning I worked on the blog while the admiral did wash and cleaned the head (bathroom). Not a very exciting morning, but then we set off in search of food about Noon, and things quickly looked up. We settled on Summertime Restaurant and Loft. The building is one of the oldest and most architecturally unique buildings in Fish Creek (photo at right). We had our choice and picked eating outside. It was warm and sunny plus we had not just finished spending hours outside on the boat travelling. Usually after a travel day, I want to eat inside in air conditioned comfort, but today was different.

     Here we are just having been served our lunches. I chose perch that were lightly battered and fried along with french fries and cole slaw. In my own modest opinion I made an excellent choice as the perch were very moist and tender. In fact it was the best perch that I have had on the trip so far. A lot of the perch that I have had so far were heavily battered, and the fish taste was minimal. In fact in one restaurant I actually scraped the batter off of one side of each fillet to get a little more of the fish taste... The Admiral had a lobster and crab salad that not only looked great, but she shared a bite with me to prove that it was as good as it looked.

      After lunch it was back to the boat, but not before we stopped at one of the local ice cream stores. As we were headed to the store, I suddenly heard the Admiral say "Are you an Aggie". Sure enough headed toward her was a member of the Aggie Corps of Cadets in his full uniform, including his senior (leather riding) boots. We stopped and chatted briefly, and it turns out that he is spending the summer here doing recruiting for the Corps. What a "tough" assignment. Anyway, it was fun to see a representative of Texas A & M University where we both retired from about 5 years ago. Shortly, we wished him luck and continued to the ice cream store where we both had the best ice cream of the trip so far.

     Then we headed back to the boat for more chores. I worked on re-caulking the front window of the lower helm station. The boat is 32 years old, and the old rubber gasket has shrunk leaving gaps at all four corners of each of the four windows. Several weeks ago when the admiral was on her trip back to Texas, I had done about half of the job with positive results. The photo at the right shows me finishing off one corner with a putty knife. I will have to come back and do some cleaning with a razor blade in a couple of days when the caulk has set up.

     The caulking is an easy but very messy job, including digging out the old caulk from a repair by some previous owner. I had a disposable surgical glove on my left hand so it was perfectly clean, but you can see the thick layer of black caulk on my right hand. I had put hand lotion on both hands before I started so that made it harder for the caulk to stick, and I keep a good supply of acetone on board for just such difficult clean ups. Thus, in just a few minutes my hands were probably cleaner than when I started the job.

      Every job seems to have some observer/critic, and here is my faithful helper Lucky. She seems to be able to lie down around my feet when I am standing, and when I was sitting on the fore deck doing one of the front windows, she managed to get between me and the window. Well, at least it helps keep her awake so she will (hopefully) sleep longer at night.

      For dinner we headed back into town to try our fourth new restaurant in two days. We had been in the Fish Creek market, Deli and Spirits Store yesterday and had bought some sundries. However, at that time we had failed to note the sign for the Mr. Helsinki Restaurant. The food was pricey, but the Admiral started with a cup of green curry cauliflower soup followed by Kimchi Korean Beef with Jasmine rice.  I had a 12 Oz. ribeye steak that was very tender along with corn fritters and asparagus. It was great food, but it was also easily the most expensive meal on our trip so far. I must say that 4 out of 4 restaurants were all among the best so far. I am afraid that I would be putting on lots of weight if we stayed here much longer...

      However, I do not have to worry since we are taking off in the morning and heading north up to Washington Island. The island sits just off the north end of the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. It has ferry service, but it is not heavily populated so it will be a change of pace for us.

      Oops! The Admiral just developed a craving for one more scoop of the wonderful, rich, local ice cream. I graciously gave in and volunteered to accompany her.

See ya!

Day 81 - across Green Bay to Fish Creek MI

      Today we dropped the lines at 6:55 am, and the view about an hour earlier is the sunrise looking back down the fairway where we are docked is shown in the photo at the right. Obviously (?), the Admiral took this picture as she was graciously allowing me a few extra minutes of sleep.  Our destination is Fish Creek, WI back across Green Bay, and we will once again be back in Door County although only about 17 miles along the coast as the crow flies north of Sturgeon Bay.

      The second photo was taken as we backed out of the fairway where we had been docked on the wall in front of the Dockmaster's Office with a park and the non-movie theater in the background. The route this morning was only 17.9 miles or just over 2 hours, and we left early while the wind was down because it is suppose to pick up later in the day. The wind had been blowing us toward the dock so it was easier to back away from the dock with the bow line still attached so that we could use it to pivot around. The Admiral had looped the line around the cleat and back aboard so that when we finished pivoting around all she had to do was drop one end and pull the other end to get the line aboard. 

     After backing out of the fairway, we had room to easily turn around and head out of the marina in a straight shot. The photo at the right was taken just as we cleared the breakwater around the marina and as we said goodbye to Menomonee. Once again we started in clear skies, but a few clouds had begun to form by the end of the trip. Even the clouds were welcome since we were headed directly into the sun for the whole trip, and the reflection of the sun off the water made it nearly impossible for me to see the chart plotter until my eyes adjusted to the lower light.

      The photo at the left shows Lucky Us moored at a T-head at the end of a pier. This is a good location since it cuts down on the foot traffic, but we are subject to loud boaters passing close by us.  T-heads are often used for transient guests since they are not as good for tying up the boat as is a regular slip where the boat can be secured slightly off the finger pier, which keeps the boat from rubbing or even worse doing damage to the dock during storms.





     We arrived at 9:15 am, which was well before the wind strengthened a little, and we both immediately opted for a nice long nap. When I take a nap alone, I always set the alarm on my phone for something between 1:15 and 1:35, but when the Admiral joins me, her rule is no alarms. After our naps, we headed out for a leisurely, early lunch. Catch the theme for today?

      Well, I carefully maneuvered the Admiral so that we had lunch at the same restaurant where we had eaten lunch during our road trip a few days ago. I really wanted to have the same lightly battered Whitefish again. Yes, it was as good as I had remembered! We also had the duck wontons (with cherry and chili chutney sauce) as an appetizer (photo at right). This dish is to die for!!! As a child, the Admiral's father was stationed in Hawaii for three years, and fried wontons was part of her introduction to Chinese food, and I was really glad that she knew enough to order this delicious dish.

     After lunch we returned to the boat to get Lucky and continued our walking tour around the shopping district, and we happened upon an afternoon concert in the park. Evidently, this is a regular weekday happening in Fish Creek during the summer. It was fun, but we only stayed a short while since it was interfering with the goal of shopping. I cannot say that the shopping was a rip roaring success, but the Admiral did buy us both very nice Door County sweat shirts.

      Ultimately, we headed back to the boat to clean up, leave Lucky behind and head out to dinner. The Admiral suggested that we go to a family style fish boil. They do the boil every 30 minutes, and it is a performance as you watch the Whitefish and red (or new) potatoes being boiled for your dinner. Just before the picture at the right was taken, the chef had rung a bell and yelled to the expectant crowd that it was the one minute bell. The boiled whitefish is ready when the water boils. How did he know that the huge pot would boil in exactly one minute?

      After the announcement, the chef quickly stacked pieces of wood around the fire and the pot (photo at left) with the goal of trapping in the heat. Then, and this is really cheating, he threw about a quart of kerosene on the fire. The kerosene erupted in a burst of flame as seen in the photo above. The extra heat trapped under the pot by the stacked boards resulted in the pot boiling in a matter of seconds. So, of course, the one minute bell was pretty accurate, but they really did "cheat" to do it.

     They then passed a big pipe through the handles of the strainer in order to lift it off the fire. There are actually two big strainers with the top or inside one containing the Whitefish. The lower one with the red potatoes goes on the fire first, and it takes 30+ minutes for the potatoes to cook while the fish was actually cooked only a few minutes. Yes, if you look closely, you can see that boiled whitefish is actually white.
      After the scene at the right, everyone adjourned to their tables to await their dinners. It was a good show and even better dinner.
      After a very filling dinner, we strolled leisurely back to Lucky Us where aside for another walk for Lucky, we were settled in for the evening.

      Lucky and I went out for her final walk around 9:30 pm, and shortly we were treated to this wonderful sunset. Today is the official longest day of the year as well as the first day of Summer, and we did a very good job of making the most of it.

Day 80 a busy day exploring Menomonee, MI

      Well, here we are in the Upper peninsula of Michigan, which is well off the beaten path for most Loopers. The photo at the right shows Lucky Us moored to the wall right in front of the Dock Master's Office, which also contained the bathrooms, which was extremely convenient. On our first Great Loop we went down the east side of Lake Michigan to Ludington, MI about halfway down the east side of Lake Michigan then we crossed the lake over to Milwaukee, WI. We missed this area all together, but we were running out of time as one of our few deadlines on the entire Loop was to be off Lake Michigan around Labor Day when we got to Chicago. This time we started in Chicago so it seems like we have plenty of time to explore, which means that we may be a little rushed at the end of the summer...

     After we had docked, I looked across the shore front park, and I could not believe my eyes as it looked like a movie theater in a restored 4 store building. Wow, I thought. However, I was soon to be disappointed when I took Lucky on her obligatory first walk while the Admiral checked us into the marina. When we got so that I could see the marquis, I was very disappointed to see the sign (photo at left). Well, I could have been the eternal optimist since there is one official day left in Spring, but then reality set in. Maybe next time?

      For lunch we found a nice old fashioned dinner. It was a step up from a true greasy spoon dinner called the Lighthouse Grill, and I had a great salad with dried cherries and nuts as well as grilled chicken. They also have some interesting variations of my favorite balsamic vinaigrette dressing. We are in cherry country, and I have learned that they serve them in several delicious forms. For example, the dried cherries can range from tart to fairly (artificially?) sweet. The restroom signs (photo at right) for this place were really unique both for the crossed legs and hands symbol and for the mirror backed cutout of the figure.

      Well, you can tell from the look on the Admiral's face that she was a satisfied customer. I should also add here that whenever I am not being a satisfactory conversationalist at a meal, she will start taking pictures of us. I guess that I had failed the test yet again...

      We had dinner at Murray's Pub and Grille, which for a pseudo-Irish Pub had a pretty good menu. It also had plenty of TVs in the bar section as well as a more real dining room and even an outdoor patio. This is yet another of the many buildings in the downtown that have been very nicely restored. The ones that had a sign were all restored seemingly with private monies.

      Along this same waterfront street, we came to several whole blocks that had been "yarn bombed" (two photos above). All of the light poles and trees had been covered for several vertical feet in knitted wraps. We asked several locals who had done this, but apparently the wraps just appeared over night. Beautiful? I think not; however, it certainly is not something that I had ever seen before, and it definitely is eye catching. There were people walking along looking at each one as well as cars stopping to take in the view. I guess that it might have something to do with people being trapped inside during long cold winters???

      We also passed some beautiful buildings, such as this church that had been constructed out of local limestone. The irregular shape of most of the stones indicates that they must have had some really good stone masons do the work. Once again, this church seems to have been lovingly restored to its original beauty. Menomonee and its twin city of Marinette across the river have a long heritage of ship building that continues today. The Marinette Ship Yard is constructing a whole series of new littoral combat (stealth) ships for the US Navy. In the 19th Century there were as many as eight steam powered saw mills in town, but ultimately they cut all of the hardwoods and the lumber industry moved further north.

     A unique feature of this marina was an absolutely great boater's lounge. Most marinas have a boater's lounge, but the décor is more like modern salvation army resale store. They had taken an old water works plant and converted it into a lounge and meeting rooms worthy of an upscale yacht club. They had also prominently placed a sign stating that this had been done entirely using profits from the marina with no public funds involved.

      The city had also made its own contributions to the beautification of the waterfront park (photo above). The stainless steel fish wind vane was pretty cool although the shiny surface made it difficult to photograph. The band shell is older, but they have regular concerts scheduled on weekends in the summer.

      In the afternoon the three of us walked about a mile inland to a K-Mart, Mighty Pet and Ace Hardware for some supplies for that seemingly never ending stream of projects for the boat as well as a new walking harness. It seems that Lucky recently chewed up her "favorite" harness. The Admiral and I were both very tired after all of our walking today, but Lucky seemed to be going strong until about 8:00pm when she went to bed for good. I did offer to take her for a walk later, but she gave me her look that said don't push it or I'll bite... For once I really wanted to take her for a walk since my destination along the way had been the store in the photo at the left, but such is life. I guess that I will have to wait for an ice cream fix until after our short trip back across Green Bay to Fish Creek, Wisconsin tomorrow.
     

Day 79 across Green Bay to Menomonee, MI

    Today we are heading 22.8 miles across Green Bay to Menominee, MI. We tossed the lines and headed out slowly since we have to wait for the top of the hour at 8:00 am for a bridge opening. When we arrived at the City of Sturgeon Bay after exiting the canal we went under the main bridge that bypasses the city, which is useful for traffic heading up further into Door County to the north. Of course, this bridge happened to be closed entirely, but it was high enough for us to get under. The remaining two bridges are about two blocks apart and are right downtown so they have extra traffic with the one bridge closure. We passed under the first of these bridges with plenty of room. This brings us to this (photo above left), the third bridge, which only opens on the hour and half hour, and we are sitting there patiently (?) for about 5 minutes.

       After passing through the third and final bridge, we will pass the Bay Shipbuilding Co., and I would like to get a good view of the 4 lake freighters that are there for service. The photo at the right is a close up view of the stern of the Roger Blough. Two weeks ago she was grounded on rocks in Lake Superior, and it took about 5 days to get two empty lake freighters to come and take on enough of the Blough's cargo of iron ore so that she floated free.

      She needs to have a bottom inspection and if necessary some repairs, but she will have to wait for at least 2 weeks for the big dry dock to become available. The photo at the right is of the forward half of the Blough. She was built in my old hometown of Lorain, Ohio. After the launch in 1971, she had a massive fire in the engine room and was delayed entering into service.

      The photo at the right is of the Lee A Tregurtha also at Bay Shipbuilding to have scrubbers added to her smoke stack to reduce emissions. She is a very classic design and the favorite ship of many fans of lake freighters. In about a week we will be leaving the Green Bay area crossing over to the east side of Lake Michigan and then head up to the Straits of Mackinac, where we will begin to see more of these massive ships under way on the lakes. You can see that the bottom paint is well above water level as is part of her propeller, which means that her ballast tanks are empty.

      Across Sturgeon Bay from the shipyard, there were 5 of these tugs moored at their dock (photo at left). It took two of these tugs to help position the Blough at her dock at the shipyard. Another one of these tugs had escorted the Blough here from Lake Superior after she was freed from the bottom. The shipyard is very active, and over the winter lay up, there will be as many as 12 lake freighters in for repair, repowering, 5 year inspections, etc.

      Just when you think that you have seen it all.... Here is the tug "Spuds" sitting up on a dock. It does look like it needs new tires, but I guess that she has been retired at least for the moment. Lots of interest in private ownership of tugs so hopefully she will be put to good use. They have rendezvous, races, etc. for tugs on the great lakes and other areas like the Erie Canal.

      Our last view of Sturgeon Bay (both the city and the bay) was through the haze as we motored out onto a fairly smooth Green Bay (photo at left). The wind was only 6 to 8 mph out of the SSW, but there were some 1-2 foot rollers coming from the same direction. In spite of this we had a lovely cruise of less than 20 miles to Menominee, Michigan. The center of the photo looks "low" because there we are looking into the bay.

     After about 5 miles, the west side of Green Bay became visible through the haze. As we approached the city of Menominee, we bypassed the main harbor and ship channel to go to our marina, which is about a half mile further north. The marina is adjacent to the old downtown, which means that there were about a dozen restaurants within jus a few blocks. Like many other cities, the marina and waterfront parks were built on fill into the water (Green Bay in this case).

     Here is the north end of the marina with Lucky Us being further along moored to the shore bulk head right in front of the Dockmaster's Office. Guess that we will have to curtail the wild and crazy parties... We did not see many tricked out fishing boats with multiple down riggers and 20 or 30 rod holders like we saw on the west side of Lake Michigan. Perhaps that is because at least Green Bay where we crossed it is fairly shallow, i.e. less than 100 feet deep. The fishermen that we passed on Lake Michigan were all fishing in water 120 to 150 feet deep. The fish probably have already moved out of here to deeper colder waters and won't be back until the water gets cold again. This would make it hard for commercial guides to make money here.

We arrived in time to check in and walk almost across the street to the Serving Spoon for lunch. I threw my diet to the wind and had a side salad and a wonderful flat bread pizza with dried tomatoes, chicken and just a dusting of parmesan cheese. Somewhere in here Lucky and I took a long walk and I had a nap... Then it was time to explore more of the waterfront.

Day 75 to 78 in Sturgeon Bay, WI

      We have really been enjoying Sturgeon Bay, and since it is a little spread out, we have been racking up the mileage in our many walks downtown on both sides of the bay. The photo at the right shows Center Pointe Marina where we have been staying in Sturgeon Bay. The photo was taken from the adjacent bridge over the upper portion of the bay where it is pretty narrow. The location is adjacent to parts of the downtown area on both sides of the bay. They have a lovely pool, but unfortunately the hot tub was closed for repairs. I guess that she must have looked so sad about the hot tub that the marina manager gave her the code to the indoor pool and hot tub that is part of a private facility on the grounds. This definitely had an uplifting effect on the Admiral.

      On this same walk across the bridge we passed yet another interesting exhibit on the other (south) side. This is a fluke (or Danforth) anchor that was originally developed for WWII landing craft. It holds extremely well in mud, and rock, which makes it a popular general purpose anchor on pleasure craft of all sizes. This particular anchor originally weighed 5 tons, but the size of the flukes has been doubled (?) by welding on additional steel plate on the sides.  As the anchor is pulled along the bottom, the flukes dig into the soft mud/sand. When hauling (raising the anchor back up) the anchor, a near vertical pull quickly breaks the flukes free of the bottom, although it may comes up with mud that needs to be washed off. We carry two anchors on the bow platform of Lucky Us, and a 34 pound Danforth fluke anchor is one of them. Both are attached to the anchor windlass and ready to quickly deploy.

    This same exhibit also includes one blade of a modern propeller from a big lake freighter. In Sheboygan. On Day 72 I showed a photo of the one piece, 4 blade, 13' 8" diameter, 5 ton propeller from the ferry Badger. This is one replaceable blade from a 5 blade propeller on the lake freighter Hon. James L. Oberstar, which is 806 feet long or almost twice as long as the badger. The blades are bolted onto a single shaft, which in this case result in a final 19' diameter, and the blades can be individually replaced. Plus, a single spare blade can be stored and probably be trucked to any location. To replace a blade the ballast in the bow of the ship is filled to raise the stern partially out of the water, and the blades can be replaced by a shore based mobile crane. All of this can be done without the need to put the freighter in a dry-dock.

     Almost across the end of the bridge from the previous exhibits is another one honoring the work of the US Coast Guard. In this case they have a restored 41 foot UTB or Utility Boat Large on land (photo at left). The 41 footers were the main utility boat for the Coast Guard for many years, but they have been replaced by a much more modern 45 footer. From 1973 to 78 some 207 of these were put into service, and this one was the last one decommissioned (in 2014). She was not designed to turn over and recover, but she could handle some really severe weather.

      The next photo at right shows a view of the same 41 footer from astern. You can see a reel with a tow line and a large towing "eye". With the explosion of the number of pleasure craft in the past 40 years the Coast Guard can no longer routinely tow vessels, which is left to private operators, such as Tow Boat US. The Coast Guard can then concentrate on search and rescue in addition to its other missions, such as homeland security.

     We also rented a car for 48 hours from Avis. Usually Enterprise is our best option, especially since they will pick you up, but for the first time in recent memory they were not a viable option. One day we took a driving tour around Door County to see some of the towns and harbors that we could visit. I do not know where the southern boundary of Door Count is, but the entire peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan to the north of Sturgeon Bay is in the count. We essentially drove a circle tour around that part of the county, and one conclusion that we reached was that we could not see it all with the week or so that we have available. We also saw some of the countryside further inland than we wouldn't get to see without a car, such as the beautiful country church in the photo at the left.

      We had adequate time to take in the beautiful scene above because the photo above was taken from the front porch of the place in the photo at the right. The ice cream was very good (not great), and it really felt great on a warm late spring day. Door County has become a great tourist destination, and as a result, they seem to have at least one ice cream shop in every town. Speaking of towns, most of the towns that we passed through were unincorporated with year round populations of 200 to 800 people. This is after all the "dairy state", and they probably have more cows than people in most of this county.

      We visited about 5 towns and we had the opportunity to stop on the local waterfronts and at least drive through the main street area. I will not bore you with all of the pictures, but rather just show a few representative ones, such as the photo at the left. This photo was taken from a location alongside the marina at Fish Creek. We had an excellent lunch here with broiled Whitefish and mashed sweet potatoes for me. Plus the town is commercial but very quaint with at least 2 ice cream shops. Fish Creek immediately leapt to near the top of our "must visit" list for the next week.

      One of the things that I like the most about this area is the clear water (photo at right) where you can still clearly see the rocks on the bottom in 4+ feet of water. In Texas the shore is quite muddy, and the fine sediment is easily stirred up into suspension. The finer the particle the longer that it will remain in suspension. Thus, we can seldom see more than a few inches down into the water. As you go further east along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico the beaches east of the Mississippi Delta contain very little fine sediment, and as a result the water is much clearer. The clarity of the water in the Georgian Bay area off of Lake Huron is one of my most vivid memories of family fishing trips in the summer. This was during the 1950s when Lake Erie was so polluted as well.

      Inland we also saw this old gill net fishing boat on display. It is the Skipper, which two brothers named in honor of their father who had also been a commercial fisherman. The brothers had her built of steel in Sturgeon Bay in 1945, and she is 42 feet long with a 36 hp diesel engine. The cost was $12,000, which at that time would have bought two modest size houses. The brothers fished together for about 7 months a year for 40 years before retiring. They measured the gill nets by "boxes" with each box containing up to 4 nets with each about 350 feet long, and the brothers made and repaired all of their own nets. The brothers typically pulled and checked up to 8 boxes of nets per day. Tough job!
      While we had the rent car we picked up a chart package for the Great Lakes, including Canada, that we had ordered from the West Marine store here. We also saw two movies. The first was "Now You See Me 2" and the second was "Central Intelligence". Both were quite good even though they lacked any of the modern trend of incredible graphics/animations and ear bursting volume. It goes to show that good humor and a good plot can still make a great movie without the need to assault your senses. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart pulled off both comedy and action scenes quite well. I look forward to seeing them work together in future movies.

      We also went to an evening concert at a band shell in the park adjacent to the marina. Unfortunately, since there were some rain sprinkles, the concert was moved about a block away to a large warehouse. They did have a large bay open, but it turns out that Lucky is not much of a fan of classic rock. In fact the photo at the right shows a huge yawn that was one of her kinder comments about the concert...



      Sadly, our stay in Sturgeon Bay will come to an end in the morning when we will leave here to head across Green Bay to Menominee, Michigan. Yes, we will be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan if only barely.