DAY 8 July 15

We had a most amazing day (actually yesterday).  It started out with an hour+ drive from Green Bay to that narrow peninsula of land sticking out in northern Lake Michigan pictured above, Door County Wisconsin.  Our first stop was Egg Harbor a cute little town with lots of shops and cafes.  We bought some very fancy infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  So we'll be making some great salads! Then we drove up to Fish Creek, an even nicer town.  Barbara, you and Bob would love this town.  There were so many really interesting art galleries and tempting cafes.  It had a good size beach and its own park.  

The next picture up from the map is of a tiny yard full of Hollyhocks and a small house selling seeds and yard stuff.  Dennis and I had seen some encaustic photos in a gallery at Egg Harbor and we were looking for more of the same here but were told to go farther out of town to a private gallery.  So it was time to take a bike ride in the park.The top picture is a screen shot of the ride that we did twice, about 10 miles each time.  We started out on the dirt trail through the Peninsula Park which was a bit rough, narrow and crowded so we took to the park roads for a much faster better ride.  The reason we did the trail twice is because we missed the tower view the first time and had to go back.  The next 3 photos are of this amazing tower (picture one of those old fire towers) complete with wheelchair ramp.  The construction was extremely impressive and worth a second trip.  

We left downtown Fish Creek for the Plum Bottom gallery and weren't disappointed.  In fact we bought a large encaustic photo which I neglected to photograph (sorry, you'll just have to come for a visit) which we had to have shipped due to the heat of our parked car.  And if all that wasn't amazing enough we then drove out to Tony and Renee's pottery gallery and home for an absolutely wonderful dinner.  Tony is Dennis's nephew and we have a full compliment of his pottery dishes at home which we use every day.  We did add a few pieces this trip, couldn't resist.  Renee, his wife runs the business end, makes her own art out of fabric instead of clay.  Both the studio and their house were beautifully constructed to be part of the natural habitat.  The field stones, wildflowers, meadow and surrounding trees just make it the perfect setting for them.  They have a huge (by my standards) garden which added to the wonderful dinner Tony prepared for us complete with homemade strawberry ice cream and Renee's brownies.  It was just a delightful evening.  Lots of good conversation as well.  We left their home at 9:30 driving through some serious rain at times for 1 1/2 hours to the Holiday Inn in Manitowoc WI.  Soon to leave for a ride to Milwaukee and Day 9.


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