Bees are a buzzin and trees are a bloomin!
On Tuesday, Katie and I drove across the Door County Peninsula—-15 miles on County F from the shores of Lake Michigan to the shores of Green Bay—-to Leutenbach’s Orchards in Fish Creek (www.orchardcountry.com). We took a tour of this 100 acre orchard—-80 acres of cherries (8K trees), 20 acres of apples, and the first grapes ever brought to Door County. Great research for my book. Of course we couldn’t pass up the wine tasting… or the cherry Chardonnay.
Because of a road accident that closed the highway going south, we took the detour out along the coast, and what a drive it was—through magnificent birch woods in the late afternoon sunlight, white bark with those shimmery green-gray leaves. On the way back to the highway we discovered Edgewood Orchard Galleries (www.edgewoodorchard.com)—a fabulous outdoor sculpture gallery with works from all over the country. The fork in the road not taken.
When we reached Egg Harbor—-cute little beach town on Green Bay—we stopped for dinner at Shipwrecked (www.shipwreckedmicrobrew.com), Door County’s only microbrewery. Very fun.
Yesterday I met for lunch with Cathy Wentz at the Inn at Cedar Crossing in Sturgeon Bay. She and her husband, George, live in this county seat (population 9437). He’s a sensitive poet, she’s an artist (oil painter) of very fun faces—nuns, nurses—and writes a story to go with each face. Cathy gave me loads of information to help in my research.
The Door County Library in Sturgeon Bay holds microfiche of The Advocate—the Door County newspaper—dating from beginning. I ran through the roll for May & June 1944 and made copies of pages that told me the local news of the time, what things cost, and of course news of the war—everything from “With Our Boys” (small items submitted from families who received letters from oversees), to news of the huge shipbuilding operations underway in Sturgeon Bay. Rosie the riveter was here.
Today, Thursday, Katie and I went back to Sturgeon Bay to visit the Maritime Museum, which is currently housing a spooky exhibit of haunted lighthouses. On the way home we stopped at Grandma Tommy’s to order a cherry pie for pick-up on the way back to Madison on Sunday. My mother loves cherry pies (me, too!). Then we drove north to Bailey’s Harbor for dinner at Florian II, where we sat by the window, watching the gulls dive for evening fish.
A beautiful day, sunny, cloudy, breezy. Too cool for the beach, but just right for us.