Northern Exposure III - 2011 - Day #15

Today we saw Door County as it should be seen.  We were helped by the unseasonal and absolutely beautiful weather, sunny, gentle breezes but not too hot.  We got going a little later than usual but were lucky insofar as a table was vacated just as we arrived at the crowded dining room.  Breakfast was pretty decent and today we got waffles as well, even spicily flavored ones.

We took off northwards, crossed the bridge in due course and a few miles later turned due west until we hit the coast road, Bay Shore Road, which we had entirely to ourselves.  It was a pretty, colorful road with glimpses of Lake Michigan and some very nice houses.  At a point where they used to quarry the cliffs we found a delightful roadside park/boat launch ramp and stopped to look and then take Zoe for a decent walk all around it.  We carried on, enjoying the road and eventually we were dumped out right in the middle of Egg Harbor, where we could actually find parking!

All three of us set off to reconnoiter the town on foot, taking it in turns to sit outside with Zoe while we checked out various places, noted our selections but mostly didn't buy.  Then we moved the van to a couple of strategic spots, left Zoe, and did our serious shopping.  Our last port of call was at a great supermarket where we not only bought lunch sandwiches and drinks but also cheese curds, fresh salsa, and quiches for dinner since we had a microwave in the room.  We slipped down a sidestreet to a beach park, parked strategically in a shady spot overlooking the area as well as the bay & distant marina and ate our lunch.

Eventually we headed north, stopping part way to visit a very upscale gallery where prices for original art, or objets d'art, ran from around $400 to $50,000 - all a bit out of our league, but interesting to see.  Then it was on to Fish Creek which was also loaded with many interesting stores from lower end to truly high.  We toured most of them, with Zoe along all but the last little bit, continuing to contribute to the local economy.  We ran out of legs and feet eventually and decided to call it a day, apart from one stop at country market on our way home.  Once again we took the bay road from Egg Harbor down thereby avoiding traffic and enjoying the sort of autumnal prettiness we also see in Indiana, especially Brown County.

Our holiday is now done, apart from the horrendous drive all the way back to Columbus tomorrow.  The last two days (starting from Iron Mountain) have raised our trip odometer reading to 2115 miles so far.