Weekend in DC

As mentioned previously, a few of us headed up to good old Door County for the weekend to enjoy some of the snow before it flurries away.  It was actually a mediocre weekend for snow sports.  It had warmed up quite a bit but there was still quite a bit of snow.  However, it had been used frequently and often so the trails were well worn and not the best for actual snowshoeing.  I think skiing would have been good, but I was the only one with skis and so I never did use them even though I had packed them in the car.

Cal and I drove up on Friday later afternoon and we got up before the sun had set as I wanted to find the house we had rented before dark.

The house, The Gray Gull, was right on the water and I'm sure had a spectacular view in the summer.  It was an intriguing house to say the least - I don't think any of us really ever understood it.... I wasn't totally thrilled with it, but it was fairly cheap and it had a fireplace and a sauna that we could use.

 This was the balcony off the master bedroom - you can't tell but its looking out on the lake.

The lake from the house -- since its the bay side its the water between the top of Wisconsin and the Door County peninsula.  Since its not a huge portion of open water and we've had some cold weather, it has frozen over solid so you could look out and see ice fishermen all of the place...

Had to include this as we liked to spend time just looking at the pictures in the house and imaging who these brave people were who dared to leave their family pictures up all over the place to be ridiculed and mocked.....  You could understand how we could get some good mocking in on this one....

 Before the friends arrived, I drove over to the market to pick up some supplies and the sun was setting - I shot this from a boat launch in Egg Harbor - the picture doesn't do it justice as it was the most amazing pink color every and the sun dropped so rapidly that ever picture I took, I could literally see the sun setting...

The next day, we hit the North Port State Park way up at the tip of the DC and we snowshoed for a few hours.

The North Port park runs along the lake so we had some great views along the way.

Some of the lakefront was pretty amazing as there were still huge chunks of frozen lake at some spots and others it had broken up.  This section, we walk out quite a bit from the actual trail and I could never tell if we were walking on frozen lake or if it was some type of field.  All I know is that once we came by the lake, it was a pretty amazing view as you could tell where the frozen lake stopped an the unfrozen lake began.

Oh - and the stacking rock is something people do up in DC -- I've seen them all over.  They're kind of neat...

And whereas we would look at stacked rocks and say "why?", Calvin looks at them and says "why not...."

We stopped for dinner in Baileys Harbor (sorry - no Bailey was with us in the making of this trip...) And I had to end my meal with cherry pie... Which was actually pretty amazing.

The next morning, the friends had to leave to go to a meeting at their church (which, as they tried to leave, Kim's car slipped on the icy driveway and went into a snow bank and - all I can say is, thank goodness for AAA!  Its worth that nominal yearly fee to get an occasional tow and a discount on your hotel room!  Anyways - the friends had to take off and I needed to return some rental snowshoes from two of the girls so I had to drive up by Ellison Bay.  AND - I CANNOT come to Door County and not go to Al Johnson's!  It would be a felony, I'm pretty sure.

After breakfast, Cal and I started the drive home via the east side of the peninsula.  This is the side by open water as its the water between Wisconsin and Michigan and we all know how huge that water is.  The east side of the peninsula is definitely my favorite part.  Its the most amazing scenery.  Whereas the west side is where all the beaches are and you can just go out into the water, the east side is the cliffy side - I don't even know if they really have beaches on this side, although, you can climb down to the water.  This is also the side that has these little towns that are not as touristy and its way less busy on this side.

My favorite park on this side is Cave Point County Park.  I bumped into two guys on the trail and then when we had left, I ended up stopping for gas at the same gas station as them and we ended up talking. The one guy had been coming up since he was little and he said Cave Point has always been his favorite park so - I felt reassured in my belief that its the best park :)  Its kind of tucked away and you have to drive on a back road to get there and its even tucked away from the back road and the signs are small so, when you get there, theres hardly anyone ever there.  And the views are AMAZING!!!!!!

Cal and I had a great 2 mile hike on the trails.  It was kind of slushy and icy but I had my Wellingtons on and - well, Calvin had his dog feet on so we were good.  The only bad thing for me is, Cal has my spirit of adventure and he is SO intrigued by the water always that he wants to get close and just watch.  Unfortunately, its all cliffs at Cave Point so he was going to the edge and a lot of the edge was icy so I spent a lot of time a little freaked out that he was going to go head first into the drink.  We came out ok though, and I even got some good picts... 

And a sound sleep for the 4 hour drive home..... The whole weekend gave buddy a run for his money, although I would have liked a bit more :)  It was quite relaxing - and sometimes, one just has to relax!