Thursday, June 26, 2014

Today we start up the west side of the peninsula, which again has gorgeous

waterfront homes on Green Bay, most with woods to provide privacy.  Greg is surprised at the amount of undeveloped land still available.

First stop, Old Stone Quarry County Park which has the remains of a 1893 quarry which provided lots of material for homes and for roads in the area. Clouds are beginning to lift.

We notice a flock of white pelicans overhead and continue on to another County Park where we watch a man exercising his retriever. The dog seemed to be having such a good time!

We pass many cherry orchards along the way and buy some good-looking cherry salsa at one of the many roadside stands.  Of course this year's cherries won't be ripe till late July or August.

Just past Fish Creek, we come to Peninsula State Park, a popular, heavily wooded park featuring this lighthouse at Eagle Bluff.  Nice camp sites, bicycle trails and hiking trails.

The water is incredibly clear.

I overheard the ranger when we stopped to pay admission saying that the campground was full, but it seems to be nicely spaced rather than stacked atop one another.  I asked the rangers if they might know where we could watch the US World Cup game and another customer suggests the Bayside Tavern in Fish Creek because they were there last night and it was all about soccer.

When we find the Tavern it is 10:45AM and already open – someone asked them to open earlier than their usual 11:00!  We are able to score two excellent seats at the bar and in another 20 minutes the place is packed. We enjoy the comraderie and some excellent Reuben sandwiches but leave a little deflated with the loss – at least the US lives to play another day!

We continue up the coast to Egg Harbor where the décor, unsurprisingly, is eggs.

(I forgot to take a photo of the painted sturgeons in Sturgeon’s Bay – really.) This is a beautiful town, very neat and tidy.  Lots of quaint shops, restaurants, galleries, bed and breakfasts, etc.  Beautiful blue water in today's sunshine and a lovely harbor.

We next stop at an undeveloped park with a steep bank and ill defined trails.  We clamber down to the rocky coastline to explore. There are many stacked rocks here, which we have seen all over the country - even in Arizona and west in February.  They used to be used as trail markers, but so many people do them randomly now that they can't be used that way anymore.

We stop at Point  Beach State Forest to camp, a nice wooded campground with nearby beach and lighthouse. Good  hot showers, and then we walk the beach.  Lots of small dead fish – yuck.  Couldn’t find an official to ask what’s up but another camper tried to explain something about them being carried into the lake and they aren’t meant for fresh water and cold temps – don’t understand, but he said it is a yearly event for a week or two and we just "got lucky"! Saw a pretty doe in the dunes. Getting cold and windy so we call it a night.