The Baker House

After we left Door County we drove to Lake Geneva. A friend of Steve's has a condo there and asked if we would like to stay the night. Their place is lovely. Brand new, lots of room and a washer & dryer. My family thinks I have a fetish about washing clothes. Hey, I just like to be clean! Steve and I just randomly picked a place in town called the Baker House. Turns out it was a tapas restaurant and we love tapas.


Each room of the mansion is set up just like it would be if someone was living there. We were seated in the library.



They had old time stereoscopes to view photos while we were waiting for our food.

Our first course was cheese and crackers. 5 different types of cheese. Yummy!
We also had beef tenderloins, crab cakes and homemade potato chips. That is what's so fun about tapas. You can try lots of different foods.

For dessert we ordered the chocolate fondue. Needless to say we enjoyed our meal!

Oh, yes, I forgot. They had the hallway covered with hats. You could try them on, pick your favorite and wear it for the evening. I tried on several.

My head is itching now!

Curves

Apparently, this is the most photograhed place in Door County and we didn't even know it! The curvy road!

Lighthouses

I love lighthouses. Why? I don't know. But I do! Whenever we visit someplace that has some, we seek them out. Door County had 10 lighthouses! We didn't have time to find them all, but here are some of the ones that we did find.
Old Baileys Harbor Light

Cana Island Lighthouse

Plum Island Lighthouse

Baileys Harbor Range Lights - this is the lower range. It sits in front of the upper range.

Upper Range

Canal Station Lighthouse

Canal Station Pier Head

Sister Bay

We decided to drive all the way to the end of door county and look at the ferry that will take you to Washington Island. We weren't going over, but just wanted to check things out. The lake was extremely rough. The ferry was bobbing up and down. Glad I wasn't on it.



The drive back took us through Sister Bay. They have a fairly famous restaurant there called Al Johnsons. It's a swedish restaurant. And it has goats on the roof! What kind of a telephone call is that to the roofer? Hey, I'm having a problem with the roof. And be sure to watch out for the goats!





I was going to take a picture of the food, but I forgot! Too busy drinking icey cold soda out of metal mugs and eating bread with homemade lingonberry jelly.

Door County - Ephraim

After leaving Milwaukee we continued on north to Door County, specifically we went to Ephraim. It was lovely. Door County is a cross between Cape Cod and Cambria, CA. Driving on their roadway is exactly like driving down 6A on the Cape. Small restaurants, lodgings and shops. No chains here! Looking out our window, across the road is the bay. Very quiet. If I didn't know better I would think I was on the Pacific Coast. This is an art museum. It's also called Grafitti House.

We had dinner one evening at the English Inn. The decor was very english castle looking and the food was really good. They had a spinach salad with warm cherry dressing drizzled on it. Yum!

They had lots and lots of log cabins on Door County.

On our last night there we went to a fish boil. These are very popular. You better have reservations or you're not getting in. For lack of better descriptive words - you stand around and watch a pot boil!

As we waited to enter the restaurant to get our food, this was the view we got to enjoy!

Sailing

Last week, I was invited along on a sailing trip in Lake Michigan. This is the view from the deck of the boat, which is anchored behind Soldier's Field.

The host was Ryan (at the wheel), and the other passenger was Brian (seen here playing with his iPhone),

The Chicago skyline soon grew smaller ...

... and the sun set as we sailed toward a destination in Indiana.

We spent the night at a marina owned by a casino, and as in most places, I slept soundly in my little cubbyhole below deck.

The winds were stronger the next day as we headed back for Chicago.

This time, the skyline grew bigger ...

... and we kept on sailing past the Navy Pier.

As we finished the last mile, I spent some bumpy moments on the bow.

Thanks, Ryan and Brian!

Milwaukee

After we left Chicago we headed further north to Milwaukee. Steve has been here a few times, but I never have. Somehow I managed to pick a hotel that was in a great location and was very nice. We took off to do a LOT of walking. Our first stop was a cheese shop.

Not only did they sell cheese, they had a wine and cheese bar.

This was pretty cute. Never seen giant ladybugs crawling down a building.

Milwaukee is like Chicago. It's on Lake Michigan and has a river. I also think it has more wind than Chicago. Steve grabbed a hold of me several times to anchor me to the ground!

We took a walk down to the lakefront and saw their art museum. It was beautiful.



Next we went to find a place to eat dinner. Steve's face says it all. Oh, Oh, Oh! German food! He glanced at the menu posted outside and into Maders we went.


A nice mug of tea. And then he actually looked at the menu and the prices posted on it.

And just like the penny pinching Jack Benny (who had a plaque at the restaurant) Steve said, this is a little pricey for my wallet (after all it was just sausage and sauerkraut!) Instead we ordered an appetizer and a salad and hit the road.

After we left that restaurant we went to another one and had dessert - apple strudel. And wouldn't you know it! When we got back to the hotel they had free food! So we helped ourselves. Steve also had a beer. After all we were in the
Beer Capital of the World!

And then we waddled up to our room.

Chicago

Steve and I took a long overdue vacation. It seems like we've traveled quite a bit over the last year, but that travel usually took us to the east or west coast to be with family. This trip was just the 2 of us. We headed to the windy city of Chicago where he dumped me in a hotel and he took off to spend the night on a friends sail boat. He will be posting about this later. I put on my walking shoes and headed out. Right around the corner was the Hancock Building.

Across the street was a beautiful Presbyterian church. This was 9/11 and there were police cars everywhere. They were even parked in the middle turn lane across from the Hancock Building.

I wandered into Water Tower Place. And found a wonderful food court unlike any I had ever seen. They seated me and gave me a charge card. There were 11 different areas you could walk around and place your order. Soup, sushi, stir fry, comfort food, wine, grill and desserts, just to name a few. I could easily overeat and overspend at this place. I settled on the chicken dumplings. Pretty good, but I prefer pork. Then I had a bowl of shrimp and crab bisque. Delicious! Time to get out of here!

I thought I would walk off my dinner. The Contemporary Art Museum was close by. I thought this sculpture was unique. See the giant coat hanger behind it?I continued on down to the lakefront. There were lots of partiers hanging out in their boats.

I saw this sign on the way to the water. Only in Chicago!