Iconic Wisconsin Day--Cheese, Dairy, and Lake Michigan

We finally got a day with an air quality number under 100! With deliciously cool July temperatures and clear air, we really didn't have many things planned. But somehow, we always seem to fill a day with fun. We started with a text message from our Boondocker Welcome host telling us there should be two butterflies coming out of their chrysalis this morning. What a way to start the morning--watching monarchs emerge after their magical transformations. We had already wandered God's wonder before breakfast!

While we were watching the butterfly, Ramelle was watching our excitement.

After watching an hour of butterfly magic, we cooked some breakfast and took off on this day when we didn't have much planned. We drove to the nearby Potawatomi State Park. We've given our Wisconsin annual state park pass a work out! Our first stop inside the park was the 75 foot-tall observation tower perched on a 150-foot bluff. We climbed the steps for the view of the water and the tops of the trees. A local volunteered to take a picture of the two of us together at the top.

Then he explained what we were seeing. Closest to the shore was Sawyer Bay, which feeds into Sturgeon Bay on our right, which feeds into the larger body of water of Green Bay, which is part of Lake Michigan. That's an iconic view of this iconic Great Lake!

We also were enamored with the little islands in front of us. Privately owned, they included some great landscaping and beautiful homes. 

When we stopped at the boat ramp, we got a closer look at the island houses. We talked to another local, who knew the family that has owned that favorite island for generations. The state would certainly like that island back.

The storm clouds were building as we sat on the shore. But that didn't seem to bother the blue jay that hopped in front of us.

After the rain storm erupted and sent us back to the pickup, we drove to another spot inside Potawatomi State Park. We took a selfie using the park's selfie shelf with views over the grassy meadow below.

This was the eastern terminus of the iconic Ice Age Trail. We had never heard of this 1,200-mile hiking trail before this summer. Now we have seen parts of it at several state parks. It marches all the way across Wisconsin and ends at the western edge of the state. It's called the Ice Age Trail because it "commemorates the glaciation" that formed the Wisconsin landscape. The U.S. Congress voted it a National Scenic Trail in 1980.

We walked into the forest on the Ice Age Trail just a little ways before the raindrops started again and ended our 1,200-mile journey early.

The only other thing we had planned for this day was a trip to the cheese factory just a few miles down the road from our camping spot.  What could be more iconic than visiting a cheese shop in Wisconsin? The Renard family makes all kinds of cheese, and they offer visitors a generous set of samples in their shop. 

They also have a little cafe, and we thought this was a great place to try an iconic Wisconsin food--fried cheese curds.

We had heard that the real test of quality was how far the fried curds can be stretched. These are some high quality curds!

We made our cheese purchases, and headed towards the town of Algoma--on the opposite side of the peninsula. We made the drive to tick off another lighthouse on Denisa's list. We arrived at the harbor to take the cat walk to the Algoma Pier Lighthouse at the end. But there was no cat walk and no light?!? We found out that both had been removed a month ago to be refurbished. The iconic mascot of the town of Algoma should return when it looks better.

On the same pier was a permanent Christmas tree. It's a memorial to a boat captain that delivered Christmas trees to the citizens of Algoma every year. While this trip was focusing on all five of the great lakes, this will be our last view of Lake Michigan. What could be more iconic than visiting Lake Michigan while in Wisconsin?

Denisa had found information in the Algoma tour booklet about local tours. She made a phone call, and suddenly we were approved for a private tour to a local dairy farm. What could be more iconic than visiting a dairy in Wisconsin? We arrived at 3:00, and got a very interesting tour given by the grandaughter of the founder of the Heim's Dairy. Our first stop was the old barn where they used to milk just 24 cows at a time.

Kiley is in charge of the calf program, and we could see her heart swell when we approached one of the calf pens. 

These little heifers were fed automatically when they approached the bottle feeder filled with the mother cows' milk.

A new barn had the younger calves in individual pens, and fed with an automatic bottle delivery system.

Kiley also took us to the maternity ward, where the pregnant cows were kept so they can be watched carefully until they give birth to their calves. She let us open the doors into the nursery where the calves that were 1-2 days old were still getting their legs under them.

These female calves will be raised on mother's milk, complete with the cholostrum that is important to newborns. They will get the best nutrition and care, because they will become the next generation of milk cows for the dairy. Denisa was trying to figure out how we could fit one of those baby calves in the trailer to take home. Denisa was raised on a farm where her job was bottle feeding any baby calves that were orphaned.

It's important for dairy cows to have a calf every year in order to keep her milk production going. While they aren't milked during the last couple months before the calf is born, they will go back to the milk barn soon after. That brought us to the newest barn--the circular milking parlor.

Imagine a slow merry-go-round with room for 60 cows. They happily stepped onto the carousel and started eating the special food. As they rotate, the udders were cleaned before the milkers were attached to the teats. 

About halfway around the circle, the milkers will unlatch. It's all done automatically based on the decreased flow of milk when the udder is empty. You can see the blue hoses on the left have already released, while the ones on the right were still milking. 

Each cow got to ride until the end of the circle, when she was escorted back to her cool barn.

Each cow will take a spin on the circular milk parlor three times a day. They milk at 6 a.m., 2 p.m., and 10 p.m. We learned that the average cow produces 85 pounds of milk each day.

All of the milk that Heim's Dairy produces goes directly to the BelGioioso Cheese factory down the road. They'll take two semi-truck loads of fresh milk to the factory every day. It was interesting to us that the family doesn't save any milk for their own personal consumption. The Heim family buys their milk at the grocery store just like the rest of us.

The circular milk barn was new to this dairy as of May, so the cows and the crew were still getting used to it. Kiley walked us right up to the line for ground views, then to an upstairs conference room for overhead views. It was so fun!

Our tour also included the maintenance barn, and one of their latest pieces of equipment. This trailer carries their fleet of over-sized drones on top. It can transport the spray and the drones to any field to make spray application to their crops. We found out that airplane crop dusters are becoming a thing of the past now that these big drones can do the same job cheaper and fly closer to the crop safely.

Kiley took us by the piles of feed needed for their 1,650 dairy cows for a year. Instead of baling the alfalfa, they chopped it and put it into piles that were covered with white tarps and weighted with old tires. We had heard of silage made of corn, but we had never heard of haylege made of alfalfa.

Our last stop was the big barns that house the dairy cows. They've found ways to keep it cool in the hot summers, and warm in the cold winters. We didn't see any of the flies that make cows crazy, and it was a very clean place with a nice temperature. They added spinning brushes to the pens when they saw how popular the test brushes were. Every mama cow deserves a nice massage after a spin on the rotating milk parlor.

Technology abounds in the dairy. Each cow had a number on her ear tag. But she also had a stylish necklace that monitors her 24 hours per day. That necklace can monitor breathing rate, temperature, location, rumeration, etc. 

Wow! That was such a fun hour! Before we headed home, we stopped by the nearby Glen Innish Farm. We heard that lavendar was in bloom, and we wanted to smell it for ourselves.

Lavender isn't as iconic to Wisconsin as milk and cheese, but Denisa is a fan of all things flowering in every state.

We also found some interesting spiky purple flowers by their farm store that made for good pictures.

We bought a glass of lavender lemonade, and made the drive back home. We've had a great four-day stay in Door County. This last day was an iconic trip with Wisconsin cheese, dairy, and views of Lake Michigan. We ended with another of our favorite Wisconsin past-times--butterfly releases--in the evening.

We had two new butterflies to bring out into the windy world. This was number 54 and 55 for Ramelle this summer. 

Thanks Door County and our Boondocker host for an iconic visit!

Checking things off our Door County List

We enjoyed a half-day drive up the eastern side of the peninsula yesterday afternoon. But this was the day that we were planning to see the rest of Door County, Wisconsin. So we were up and out on the road early. The plan was to travel quickly up the east side of the peninsula, and travel all the way to the northern tip. Then we would slow down and travel more slowly south on the west side of the peninsula. Our goal was to see everything of interest to us, and Denisa had a list of Door County things to see.

As we sped up the east side, we had a couple stops on our list. The first was the little Boynton chapel. Built in the Scandanavian style, we found it at the edge of the forest just walking distance from Lake Michigan. It was a beautifully cool stop this July morning.

The weather forecast was calling for rain and wind and cooler temperatures, and we were also glad to see the forecast for less smoke. Our next stop on the list was the Cana Island Lighthouse. As we approached, we could see the separation of Cana Island from the mainland. That gap between the two was where we must walk to get to the lighthouse.

We parked and walked across the causeway leading to the visitor center. With Lake Michigan on both sides of us, it was a cold and windy walk across on the gravel path. We hate to complain in July, but it was a little nippy! Normally there is a tractor-pulled wagon that can shuttle visitors across this causeway, but we saw no evidence of it this day.

When we got to the visitor center, we found that only two people showed up for work, and they have to have three employees to open the lighthouse and run the shuttle. So the grounds would be open, as well as the light-keepers house. But they weren't charging any admission because we wouldn't be able to walk up the stairs into the lighthouse. We weren't sad because we saved $20, and still got to see Cana Lighthouse.

When it was built in 1869, the lighthouse was made of the same blond brick as the house. But after years of Wisconsin weather, the 89-foot brick tower had to be reinforced. Steel pieces were riveted around the brick lighthouse, and then concrete filled the space between the steel and brick.

We toured the lighthouse keeper's house that was on the ground floor.

The assistant keeper lived on the second floor. Since many times the keeper's assistant was his wife, it gave the family a sizable home. We watched the interesting film on the second floor describing the lives of the people that lived on Cana Island long ago.

We're guessing this rock building didn't historically include hanging baskets of beautiful flowers. It was the outhouse on Cana Island.

We took a cloudy walk out to the beach that surrounds the lighthouse. We found that this beach didn't have any sand. It was made up of layers and layers of the tiny shells that wash up from Lake Michigan. 

Next on our list was a stop recommended by our Boondocker Welcome host. She likes stopping at Seaquist Orchard Market, and so do we! This company had twelve different cherry varieties available for picking right now. When those are finished, they have another eleven varieties that should be ripe later in July. Finally, they have five more varieties of cherries that will still be producing into early August. We picked tart cherries yesterday, so we don't need to buy any more today. The sweet cherries are pricey--$8.49 per pint. Tart cherries are "only" $5.99/pint. This company has a canning facility next door, and we enjoyed tasting the samples of their chopped cherry jelly and cherry salsa. We bought a cherry pecan muffin for our road snack this morning.

The next thing on our list was the very northern tip of Door County. We loved the county parks in this county, and appreciated that all of them offer free admission. We stopped at Door Bluff Headland County Park, and took the .75-mile trail to the viewpoint high above Lake Michigan. We were again amazed that a Great Lake viewpoint felt like we were looking out over an ocean. This rugged shoreline was another place to wander God's wonders.

Wow! We were excited to see some blue skies, and we know not to take them for granted!

This trail was laced together with the roots from the towering trees that surround the tip of Door County.

As we drove to our next destination, Google Maps said that we were on "The Curvy Road." We had no idea where the name for that road came from.

Our next destination to check off the list was Newport State Park. With the annual Wisconsin state park pass we purchased last week, we can waltz in without paying the $16 daily admission fee.  Ca-ching! We headed down to the state park beach, where we saw monarch butterflies flitting around the milkweed. After learning so much about these miraculous butterflies, Denisa spent some time looking for and finding caterpillars and more butterflies here at the beach.

The waves were kicking up at Newport beach. We took a short walk through the forest, then looped back on the beach.

It was past lunchtime, and we were ready for our planned meal at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay. We've been told by several sources that no trip to Door Country would be complete without eating here, so it had to be on our list. The first part of visiting Al Johnson's was looking up on the grass roof--where the live goats were supposed to be hanging out.

We kept looking, but we didn't see any goats. We found out that a rain storm came through Sister Bay this morning, and the goats had to be relocated to the barn. Rats! It looks like we have missed a Door County icon from our list. But it was interesting to watch the guy mowing the roof this afternoon. Pushing that mower up and down all the hills of that roof-line looked very tricky.

Even though we showed up at 2:00, we still had to wait for a table in this huge restaurant. They were packed in the middle of the afternoon!

We ordered the signature Swedish meatballs, served with lingonberry sauce. The food was good, and the service was friendly. We can see why Al Johnson's was a must-see stop on this Door County tour.

We thought our Monday timing was great when we found out the town of Ephraim had their farmer's market from 3-6 on Monday afternoons. But when we arrived at the market location, it was quiet. After a phone call, we found out that because of the morning rain and the afternoon wind the farmer's market had been cancelled. Rats! So we headed to another location on our list that was suggested by our host. It's a brand new place that's not yet accurately located on Google Maps, but we finally found "The Secret Garden." 

They had a small plant nursery next door, and they have done a great job of putting lovely combinations of perennials together.

The owner came out to talk to us, and we enjoyed hearing his life story that brought him from Manchester, England, to Door Country, Wisconsin.

We took our Wisconsin state park pass for another stop at Peninsula state park. Again, Denisa yelled "ca-ching!" when we drove right in without paying the $16 entrance fee. The first things on our list was driving to Eagle Tower.

We climbed the 100 steps up to an elevation of 253-feet above Lake Michigan to overlook the tree tops. We've been lucky to stay dry on this day that had rain forecasted throughout the county.

We took the long ADA-compliant ramp off the tower, and then headed on down the road in this very large state park. Besides an 18-hole golf course, it also had its own beach with nice amenities. 

But Denisa was looking forward to the stop at the Eagle Bluff Light Station that was also inside Peninsula State Park. It was after 4:00, so the lighthouse wasn't open for tours. We saved another $10 in admission cost, but didn't get to go inside this lighthouse either.

We must say that the shops in Door County all seem to close by 5:00. Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant was one of the most popular eating establishments in the county, and they closed at 3:00. So we weren't surprised to see that the next stop on our list was also shut for the day. Our host had recommended Edgewater Gallery in Fish Creek, and we were glad to see that the path through their outdoor sculpture gardens was still available even after business hours.

There were price tags on all their sculptures, and we won't be taking any of them home with us in the trailer. But it was a nice last stop of the day. 

Besides all the rain and windy weather today, Door County was in an unusual evening tornado watch. We spent about 10 hours driving the 120-mile loop through Door County this day. When we added the stops we made yesterday, we felt like we had pretty well checked off all the things that interested us the most. We ended our full day with something that we hadn't put on our list--a beautiful sunset this Door County evening.

We were tired, but still ready to check the progress on the caterpillars today. One more butterfly emerged from a chrysalis and was released. The tiny caterpillar that emerged from the first day's egg, was already so much bigger. Another big caterpillar just shed a layer of his skin, allowing him to grow even bigger.

The clouds stayed north of us, making for dramatic skies this evening. It was a good day in Door County!