September 6-7, 2019
WAIT! WISCONSIN ISN’T MICHIGAN! THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT MICHIGAN!
I know. I’m sorry. I know Wisconsin isn’t in Michigan, but it was a really enjoyable part of our trip, so I’m including it to round things out.
I’d never been to Wisconsin before, other than when I drove through Wisconsin for like 5 minutes while traveling to and from Porcupine Mountains during my last excursion in the U.P. Apparently, Wisconsin thinks it’s the Mitten State, thinks it has better beer, and is full of cheese; this Michigan-proud vegan gal didn’t have a ton of interest in going there until this trip was planned, and she learned about the ferries that cross Lake Michigan between WI and MI port cities.
We left Michigan’s U.P. on September 5, and drove down into Wisconsin. We meant to camp, but a storm was rolling in, and we decided to stop over in Green Bay and get a hotel instead. We stopped at a brewery on our way in - I don’t remember what it was called, but they had some tasty beers and buckets full of Snyder’s pretzels! Beer and pretzels are big winners in my book.
The hotel we stayed in was very cool, but Green Bay didn’t have a lot to offer. We found an Indian restaurant for dinner, which was SUPER delicious after days of camp food and U.P. bar food. We hung out in the lobby at the hotel and played pool and had drinks from the bar. It was a pretty relaxed night. While in Green Bay, I learned two things:
(1) Green Bay is the toilet paper capitol of the world, as Georgia Pacific is based there. Good for you, Green Bay!
(2) The Green Bay Packers football team is named after the meat packing industry. There are many large meat packing facilities in the city, and the football team is literally named after the industry responsible for processing raw meat into plastic wrapped sausages and frozen burger patties. Good for you, Green Bay! What a terrible and ironic name for a football team full of big burly men that conservative Midwesterners idolize.
Anywho, Green Bay was uneventful and I probably won’t return there.
In the morning, we found a spot with some decent breakfast, and then hit the road for Door County! We spent the day driving up the Door County Peninsula, and enjoyed a few spots in particular, the first being Cave Point County Park. There was a wedding going on there when we arrived! Cave Point has some really amazing rock formations; it was a windy day, so the waves on Lake Michigan were big and coming in hot on those rock faces. Honestly, this was on par with some of the rocky shoreline you see on Lake Superior, so it was super cool to see it on Lake Michigan! I had wanted to launch the kayak and explore this spot from the water, but the waves and the wind suggested that wasn’t a great idea. Instead, we decided we would explore other spots along the peninsula for that.
We continued driving and stopped at another county park, on the opposite side of the peninsula. The water was whitecapped over there as well, so we decided against the kayak.
We took our time driving to Gill’s Rock, where our hotel was that night. Making our way through the cute towns on the peninsula was nice; we speculated on real estate prices and commented on the names of businesses as we drove by. Mid-afternoon we made it to our hotel and got checked in. The view from our room was pretty spectacular, and would prove to be more spectacular later during a fiery sunset.
Death’s Door (Porte des Morts) is the ship passage along the tip of Door County, and there was a Death’s Door Shipwreck Museum within walking distance of our hotel. Of course, we visited it, because we needed to visit a fourth shipwreck museum on this vacation. This museum was actually pretty nifty, and included some stories about Great Lakes pirates that we very much adored. After walking through the museum, Bill and I went to a nearby playground so that I could pole dance on the fireman’s pole on the playground. Then we returned to the hotel, hopped in the car, and drove to a cidery we’d passed on our way in.
At Island Orchard Cider, we split a flight of six ciders and sipped them on the patio, in the company of a cute dog named Gatsby and Gatsby’s adults. Cider is stronger than most people give it credit for (6.4%) so the flight made me a little buzzed. Bill had found a nearby restaurant with a large selection of liquor that he wanted to try, so we made our way over there. It was so fancy. I felt like I was in the Great Gatsby at one of Gatsby’s parties, but way underdressed and buzzed on cider. Bill ordered oysters and I ordered a drink that came in a tiki head mug, making me feel even more out of place. I asked the waiter to keep bringing me free bread while Bill told me about oysters and I made weird faces about oysters. It was hilarious.
We made our way back to the hotel after saying goodbye to our fancy waiter and the 1920s, and got dressed for dinner. Our hotel had a decent restaurant on the grounds, so we enjoyed a fiery red sunset from our table inside.
After dinner, we stayed up watching The Fresh Prince on MTV and fell asleep with the balcony door open, so we could listen to the lake all night.
In the morning, we found breakfast at a golf course restaurant (random, but it was good). After fueling up, we drove down to Manitowoc to catch our ferry back to Michigan. We were riding home on the S.S. Badger, a historic car ferry that runs between Ludington, MI and Manitowoc, WI. The boat is pretty cool, and features more dining options than I had expected, as well as draft beer. I could have spent all of my time out on the deck, but realized that the ship’s particulate emissions (coal ash) were actually landing on my clothes and skin, so I didn’t stay out there for too long when I became aware of that.
The ferry takes about 4 hours to cross the lake; slower than the express out of Muskegon apparently, but a cool ride!
Leaving Manitowoc and entering Ludington provided some nifty views of the lighthouses, and the coast guard escorted us into Ludington which was fun to watch.
We had planned on maybe camping in Ludington that evening when we arrived, but it was already 8 pm by the time we got off the boat and they had unloaded the cars.
We hopped back in the Subie and instead headed southeast, back toward Grand Rapids. We came home to a fluffy cat, an excited dog, and a super restful sleep. After 9 days on the road, it felt good to be home.