A weekend in God’s country — Door County, Wisconsin

I like to think of Door County as Wisconsin’s thumbs up to the world, a peninsula of sunshine and warm cherry pie.

Beautiful in any season, but particularly so in the fall, Door County features sunrises, sunsets and 53 public beaches on a narrow piece of land that stretches toward the horizon.

We arrived last weekend for the Door County 50, a solo or team ultra marathon on a course that runs from Gibraltar at the tip of the peninsula to Sturgeon Bay at the base.

Just kidding. We came to relax and were astonished to see runners on the course the entire time we meandered and noshed our way from north to south.

There are some very impressive athlete in this old world! Here’s to them!

There are also some very generous people in this old world, and here’s to them! Our daughter Katherine and son in-law Ed gave us a gift certificate to a Door County Bed and Breakfast and, while we parentally objected to such a generous gift, we also thoroughly enjoyed it.

We arrived late Friday afternoon and shortly thereafter met the Prince of Pierogis, a purveyor of Polish provisions so personable he deserves his own post.

Saturday morning we drove north so I could take a picture of Door County’s famously curved road. Then we slowly worked our way south, enjoying the views and an empty to-do list.

We had lunch in Sister Bay, rode our bikes through Peninsula State Park, and picked up some wine at one of Door County’s many wineries.

We made it back to Sturgeon Bay in time to watch both the sunset and the last of the those runners (several of whom we’d seen that morning on the first leg of their run) make their way to the finish line.

They spent an entire Saturday running! The after party at Sunset Park seemed appropriately raucous, so we left them to it and headed over to the George Pinney County Park where the sun set a little more peacefully over the Bay.

My goodness, what a beautiful day!

We’d like to thank Ed and Katherine for the gift and the impetus to spend some time in one of the prettiest counties in Wisconsin.