Mini Getaway to Door County, WI

There are three couples I know who frequently travel to the quaint and beautiful area known as Door County, Wisconsin and since I had never been and trust their opinions, I decided it was high time we took a family trip to check it out for ourselves.

Our first stop was at The Farm in Sturgeon Bay. It's a neat place where the kids could feed baby animals from bottles, pet farm animals of all kinds, and see a baby lamb that had just been born. We named this baby goat "Mappy" because after scarfing down the bottle he kept trying to nibble on the map that [E] was carrying around.

[K]'s favorite part were the baby chicks. She loved them so much and wanted to hold one but she was a little nervous to actually do it herself so I held a chick for the first time myself so my baby could pet one. I've done so many new things since having children :)

One of the main things I had heard about Door County is that there are great bike trails in Peninsula State Park and I have been wanting to take a family bike ride for so long. The problem is that [K] is still using training wheels and she's afraid to go too fast so it makes riding together nearly impossible. My sister-in-law has this detachable tandem bike trailer and I thought, "that would be great for [K]!" However, one spin around the block and she was scared. We waited a year and while searching for the same trailer on Craigs List I came across this recumbent version on Amazon. After reading the reviews and telling [K] that it would be like riding in a stroller, we brought it with and tried it out. She loves it! She's been telling us that she wants to bike ride all the time. [A] and I love biking so this has been a major win for us. Now we just have to decide if we get another one for [E]...

(And just in case you were wondering, the bike seat we used with [E] is this front-mounted Safe-T Seat from iBert.)

Anyway, back to our trip. Peninsula State Park is lovely and the bike trails are gorgeous. In the park is the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. We happened to get there just before they were having a flag changing ceremony so we were able to get our picture taken with a lighthouse keeper reenactor.

Back on our bike ride we stopped at Nicolet Bay where [K] had the opportunity to throw pebbles into the crystal clear water.

(Hmm, I wonder where she gets that from...)

(This was taken in Sister Bay at the Waterfront Park.)

After arriving back at our car we took a drive around the park, stopping at Sven's Bluff (below) and climbed the Eagle Bluff Tower for panoramic views of the bay.

That evening we partook in a very unusual, but uniquely Door County, dining experience called a fish boil. Lake Michigan whitefish are cooked outside over an open fire in boiling water. Fish oils rise to the surface of the boiling cauldron, and when the fish is perfectly done, the Master Boiler tosses a small amount of kerosene on the flames under the pot. The great burst of flames causes the boilover, spilling the fish oils over the side of the pot and leaving the fish perfectly done.

And before the night was over we stopped off at Sunset Beach to watch, what else, the sunset.

The following morning we had breakfast at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant where goats eat grass on the roof. I couldn't resist putting this Viking helmet on [E]. The braids matched her hair perfectly.

I'm a huge lover of lighthouses so I really wanted to stop by the Cana Island Lighthouse in Baileys Harbor. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that is covered in all different sized rocks. I hate to say it but my favorite part from the trip to Cana Island were all of the rock towers built by visitors. There were probably 100+ all of different sizes up and down the entire causeway. Both girls had to stop and build their own. The hardest part was trying to keep them from knocking them all down.

(Ok, maybe [E] had some help with hers from Daddy)

The lighthouse looks quite picturesque in my photo but the truth is it needs a paint job and there was construction on either side of it (restoration from what I understand.) The biggest bummer part of it is that you have to pay money just to see the lighthouse. I understand paying to climb it and I know they need funding to keep it going but I've never encountered having to pay just to see one.

The last part of the day was spent hiking in Whitefish State Park. We had a nice time there but I'll bet it would have been even better if it was warmer and we could have played on the sandy beach. All in all though the entire trip was a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to going back next year!

Tennessee Vacation - Day 4

Wrap it up, I'll take it... That's right, I'm about to wrap up our trip to Tennessee!

If you recall from my last post, I mentioned that the lovely host, Janice, from the B&B where we were staying recommended a hike for us to take. She prepared a delicious picnic lunch for us and off we headed to Big Creek and Mouse Falls. The Ponies, of course, came with us.

The hike to Mouse Falls is two miles and it's a relatively flat and easy hike.

On the way to the falls you hike next to Big Creek where there is a wonderful swimming hole. Or so we were told. Our host mentioned the fact that the water is freezing so we opted not to go in but maybe next time.

The thing I love most about Big Creek is that it's absolutely littered with these enormous boulders the whole way. We had a great time climbing around on them.

Along the walk, on the forest side (as opposed to the creek side), it was filled with beautiful white rhododendron flowers. My sister in law loves these so I was sure to send her a photo text while we walked.

Selfie :)  I've never really been a selfie kind of person but since it was just the two of us and I didn't want all of our pictures to be just nature or just [A] or just me, selfies it was.

When we made it to Mouse Falls we ate lunch while dangling our legs over a huge boulder. While there these tiny white/blue butterflies kept us company and one even landed on my shoulder and stayed with me for a good part of our walk back.

The next morning we were headed home but before we left we spent a bit of time walking around the property at Whisperwood Farm and Chapel. I love our reflection in the door.

Right next to the door is a Shalom sign and when we were leaving, on the sign was this amazingly huge, furry moth. It was beautiful.

The chapel on the property is rustic and gorgeous. And then to learn that Janice and her husband built it themselves makes it that much more meaningful.

Thank you for coming along with me on this journey. I know there were a lot of pictures and too many days in between posts but I really wanted to get this done and in a format where I'll be able to go back and look at it again and cherish the memories we made together.

Tennessee Vacation - Day 3; Part 2

Oh my gosh, if I don't wrap up this five day vacation, I don't know what I'll do when it comes to our 10 day beach trip. A birthday has passed, the first day of school has come and gone, and I'm still stuck on a mini getaway from back in June. Ugh. Sorry. I'm long winded and I use lots of pictures. I guess I look at this blog as a journal for myself to remember the big and little things we do over the years. I hope you enjoy it but if not, thank you for indulging me.

Anyway, to continue from the last post, after we left Lookout Mountain we headed across the state to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our first stop was Clingmans Dome.

I think my favorite thing about the Smokies are the layers of mountains.

At 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome is Great Smoky Mountains National Park's highest point. It is the highest point in Tennessee, and the second highest point east of the Mississippi. Only North Carolina's Mt. Mitchell (6,684 feet) rises higher.

Clingmans Dome is a popular Park destination. Located along the state-line ridge, it is half in North Carolina and half in Tennessee.

The peak is accessible after driving Clingmans Dome Road from Newfound Gap, and then walking a steep half-mile trail. A paved trail leads to a 54-foot observation tower.

The cool, wet conditions on Clingmans Dome's summit make it a coniferous rainforest. Unfortunately, pests, disease, and environmental degradation threaten the unique and fragile spruce-fir forest.

Dead trunks litter the area, and dying trees struggle to survive another year. Berries thrive in the open areas, and a young forest will replace the dying trees. (http://www.clingmansdome.com/)

I loved this cloud formation. It reminded me of a baby elephant lifting its trunk.

When we left the sun was beginning to set so we stopped at a pull-off where a very nice couple had set up some lawn chairs and were having wine and cheese while watching the sunset. We struck up a conversation with them and funny enough, it turns out we have the same anniversary except we're one year later.

It was a lovely way to end our first day in the Smokies. From here we drove to our Bed and Breakfast in Cosby, TN. If you ever find yourself in the area and looking for a place to stay, please let me suggest the Creekwalk Inn at Whisperwood Farm. Janice runs the place and is just a wonderful woman with great stories, a kind heart, and great hiking recommendations. We took one of her recommendations on an amazing hike I'll show you in my next blog post. Until then, have a fantastic night!

Tennessee Vacation - Day 3; Part 1

The first part of our third day was spent on Lookout Mountain. Our first stop was to take a ride on the Incline Railway.

Built by John Crass in 1895, The Incline is a technical marvel. At its apex it reaches an incline of 72.7%, making it the steepest passenger railway in the world. The building at the top in the middle is the upper station. You can just make out the black tracks going up to it.

The Incline Railway is run on a single track except for a short two-track stretch at the midway point allowing operation of two cars at one time. Steel cables are connected to both cars, so that one counterweights the other.

At the upper station you can see the giant wheels used to pull the railcars. There's also an elevator-style braking system to stop the cars, should a cable ever snap. Below, the view of Chattanooga.

Today, The Incline still attracts people from around the world and has carried literally millions of residents and tourists up and down historic Lookout Mountain. (Take My Trip)

From there we continued around the mountain to Rock City in Georgia.

Rock City is a 4100-ft walking trail on the brow of Lookout Mountain. The attraction combines scenic overlooks separated by peaceful walks along winding paths through rock gardens and into narrow passageways created by massive granite outcrops.

In the 1920's a man named Garnet Carter began purchasing land at the top of Lookout Mountain. His wife, Frieda, set out to develop the property into one big rock garden, taking string and marking a trail that wound its way around the giant rock formations, ending up at Lover's Leap.

Garnet realized that Frieda had made an attraction that people would be willing to pay for and made Rock City a public attraction in 1932.

By 1935 visitation had dropped dramatically. Carter wanted to increase advertising by offering to paint local barns near roadways for free, if his painter, Clark Byers, could paint three words on either side of the roof - "See Rock City." Byers painted over 900 barn roofs in nineteen states from 1935 to 1969.

One of my favorite spots in Rock City was Rainbow Hall, seen here from the outside.

This is the inside. Isn't it beautiful? [K] would have been mesmerized. I could have stayed here and taken shot after shot but of course I was holding up the line so unfortunately I had to move on.

At the end of the trail you come to this big gate called Fairyland Caverns. Being a huge fan of fairies, I was particularly excited to see it. My first tip off that it wasn't going to be what I expected should have been the metal depiction of Little Red Riding Hood above the sign.

As another blogger put it (quite aptly, I might add) "Fairyland Caverns is Frieda's masterpiece, where Rock City abandons the real world and ventures into its own wobbly realm of fantasy. You descend through a long series of cave-like galleries. Elves and gnomes leer at you from above, perched on trapezes and simulated rock shelves. The ceilings are covered with coral and fake stalactites, all painstakingly glued into place.

Set into the walls are a series of dioramas of children's fairytales. All of the characters are hand-painted in garish fluorescent colors, lit only by ultraviolet light. Each shines in the darkness with a brilliant, radioactive rainbow glow. It is the greatest black light showplace on earth -- and it's terrifying. Frieda has put distorted old peoples' heads onto healthy children's bodies. Huge goggle eyes. Bloated lips. Exaggerated lines and creases on every face.

Fairyland Caverns climaxes at Mother Goose Village, a dark room the size of a small auditorium. It stretches into the black void -- an alien ultraviolet landscape of dozens of intermingled nursery rhymes, topped by a ten-foot-tall castle. Families shuffle through like zombies, barely illuminated by the glowing tableaus. There's Humpty Dumpty. And Little Miss Muffet. And a dish running away with a spoon. Hushed voices mingle with prerecorded children -- or maybe adults trying to sound like children -- singing nursery rhymes over hidden loudspeakers. Who needs drugs? Life doesn't get any freakier than Mother Goose Village and Fairyland Caverns." (Roadside America)

Honestly, I didn't even take any photos in this area. All I wanted to do was get out of the hot, smelly oven of a room where this was all held. It was a horrible way to end a very beautiful and scenic walk through nature. Thankfully I've found that there's a shortcut way to avoid going in there and because of that alone, I would come back to Rock City.

Tennessee Vacation - Day 2; Part 2

Hi Y'all! Yeah that's right, I'm pretending to be all Southern and stuff ;)

The second part of our day in Chattanooga involved going to the Bluff View Art District and the Tennessee Aquarium.

A large part of the Bluff View Art District is the Hunter Museum of American Art. Perched on an 80-foot bluff on the edge of the Tennessee River, the Hunter Museum offers stunning views of the river and the surrounding mountains. The building itself represents three distinct architectural stages: the original 1904 classical revival mansion designed by Abram Garfield which has housed the museum since its opening in 1952, a brutalist addition built in 1975, and a 2005 addition designed by Randall Stout which now serves as the entrance to the museum. (Wikipedia)

This view is from across the river looking back toward the bluff.
You can see the three stages of the building with the original part
behind the industrial looking brutalist addition in the middle.

Here's another view of the museum and part of the Tennessee Riverwalk which stretches for 13 miles along the southern shore of the Tennessee River. You can walk, jog or bike along the Riverwalk which also includes "...a wonderful collection of picnic areas, playgrounds, fishing piers, river and stream overlooks, wetlands, rowing centers..." (Downtown Chattanooga)

With the 2005 expansion, the Hunter Museum extended toward downtown. The Ruth S. and A. William Holmberg Pedestrian Bridge provides a connection to the nearby Walnut Street Bridge and riverfront attractions. The glass bridge allows pedestrians to cross over Riverside Drive. Check out this super cool time lapse video of the bridge looking toward the Aquarium.

It's a little hard to see unless you click on the photo but you can see a white car driving under the bridge.

Within the beautiful Bluff View Art District is the River Gallery Sculpture Garden. Opened in May 1993 it's located on a two-acre outdoor space overlooking the Tennessee River.

The Sculpture Garden features a formal garden, meditation area, and an informal garden with a recycling mountain stream. I love this view of the garden overlooking the river.

I can't find a name for this piece but [A] decided it was his three ladies.

After leaving the Bluff View Art District we headed over to the Tennessee Aquarium. It's made up of two buildings, the River Journey and the Ocean Journey. They are home to more than 12,000 animals including fish, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, birds, penguins, butterflies, and more. (Wikipedia).

The Aquarium, designed by architect Peter Chermayeff, opened in 1992 and consisted of just the River Journey building. When it opened it was the largest freshwater aquarium in the world.

Chattanooga's civic leaders wanted an attraction similar to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the pyramid-topped aquatic museum Mr. Chermayeff designed 15 years before. But he recommended that instead of cloning Baltimore's showpiece, which offers a global view of marine life, the Chattanoogans focus on the ecosystems of the Tennessee River Valley and create America's first major institution devoted primarily to freshwater habitats.

This is inside the River Journey's glass pyramid roof.

While the suggestion appealed to the group's regional pride, the Chattanoogans had their doubts. Freshwater fish are less colorful than the exotic salt water fish. What would be the showstopper? The response from Mr. Chermayeff and his firm was to make the entire building the showstopper -- Chattanooga's "very own, home-grown cathedral of conservation," as Mayor Roberts described it.

The $45 million building also features many design trademarks similar to Maryland's aquarium -- rooftop pyramids, a one-way circulation path, back-lit graphics and fish-themed art work by Ivan Chermayeff, Peter's older brother (The Baltimore Sun). Below is a photo of the one-way circulation path. You take an escalator up to the top floor and then follow a continuous ramp down to the ground floor, passing tank after tank of beautiful aquatic plants and animals.

This is an example of one type of cool fish-themed artwork in the Aquarium. These fish are actually just a silver reflective material but when the sunshine floods in through the glass top pyramid, it reflects off the fish and turns them into rainbow colors. [K] would love this.

A new addition to the facility, Ocean Journey, opened in April 2005, and contains a total of 700,000 gallons. This facility includes more hands on displays, such as a small shark and ray touch tank, large macaws, and a butterfly garden.

The largest tank in the Aquarium is the "Secret Reef", which contains 500,000 and features species such as sand tiger sharks and bonnetheads.

This is the closest I'd like [A] to ever come to a shark, cage or no cage.

Other sections include the "Boneless Beauties" gallery, where guests can see invertebrates like jellyfish, cuttlefish, giant Pacific octopuses, and Japanese spider crabs.

An even newer 16,000 gallon exhibit with Macaroni penguins and Gentoo penguins opened on May 3, 2007. (Wikipedia)

I really love aquariums and will go whenever there's one in a town where we're visiting. The Tennessee Aquarium did not disappoint. We also watched an IMAX movie while there about the Galapagos Islands which was very interesting as well. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit.