"Get off the Bridge!"

My wife and I got back Thursday afternoon from a trip to Door County.  It was a hastily planned trip, with reservations made about two or less weeks before our excursion to the peninsula.  It was our third trip in the last few years.  I guess you can tell we are getting older when we no longer spend all of our summer vacations in a tent.  My last post dealt with the view of wildlife and changes in the camping experience over the years at Laura Lake.  This post will deal with our recent trip to Door County, and a few of our unexpected experiences in one of the prime Wisconsin vacation locations.

Light House at Peninsula State Park

We stayed at the same Bed and Breakfast as we did in late August of 2013 and in October of 2015.  The White Lace Inn, where we stayed, has four different buildings, and both of our August trips we stayed in the Main House, while our October stay was in the Garden House, in a room with a fireplace.  The fireplace came in handy on that wet, cold stay in the peninsula.  We have always been pleased with the breakfasts served, but noticed this year, the breakfast has become a little more "up-scale" with some new cooks.  The owner commented to us a few years ago that it is a bed and breakfast, not a breakfast and a bed, and thus he had some pride in not having overly ostentatious breakfasts.  I suspect standards, and change in tastes of customers force change.  One of the interesting things about staying in a B & B is they other guests you meet.

Red Sky at Night, Sunset over Green Bay

Having grown up in Wisconsin, I think I tend to take Door County for granted.  However, my wife said after shopping, what else do you do to take up the time of day?  After all, there are only so many natural features to see.   And, if you are a red-head there is only so much sun you can take.  Not to mention, as our camping trip to Laura Lake, this trip had unusually hot and humid weather for Door County.  On this trip we heard from guests living in Colorado, Grosse Point, MI, and the state of Oregon.  All three had come here specifically because they had heard about how great Door County is.  In talking with the persons from Colorado, it was noted that Door County is to us, what the mountains are to them.  The couples from Oregon and Colorado specifically mentioned the size of the Great Lakes, and how that is an attraction for them.  The Great lakes contain 20% of the world's fresh water.  Like the mountains, the water of Lakes Superior and Michigan have formed much of Wisconsin,  Heck, if we did not have the Great Lakes, we may be, well, a less fertile soil version of Iowa.  Fresh water will be our next oil, so we best use it wisely.

Interplay of Land and Water in Door County, WI

Sturgeon Bay Ship Yards

One of our favorite destinations on Lake Michigan is Cave Point County Park.  The dolomite of the Niagara escarpment is the defining feature of the Door County land surface, and the interplay of water and dolomite leads to caves and outcroppings as the water eats away at the dolomite. Twice we visited Cave Point, and our first visit on Wednesday afternoon, we had never seen the place so busy, and in fact they had added an overflow parking lot earlier this year that was almost filled to capacity.  Besides the amount of people we noticed that mainly teenagers and millennial's were jumping off the high cliffs into the water below.  As noted in my prior post, my middle name is "Careful", so I chose not to  participate.  A young lady hit the rocks on her jump in, and I felt a tub like me would drop even further.  I don't recall ever seeing persons jump in before, and if so, not of this frequency where they had  a que line of three or four on each side.  That drew me to the next observation, the water level is much higher than it was in 2013 or even last October.  I was used to walk on the exposed dolomite shelf up and down much of the shoreline.  I would have been soaked if I had tried to do so this year.  The water is said to be about 3 to 4' higher than just two years ago, and much higher, it was said, than even this past spring.  Yet, I did walk  on the trail on the grade above, and a few hundred paces north of the main blow-hole event I came across a totally unexpected site--artwork of man using only the broken pieces of dolomite worn out of the Niagara formation by Mother Nature over the last thousands of years.  A narrow slit of land filled with carins. I had noticed a few such structures on the last two visits, but not near the extent that I now saw before my eyes.  It was really quite the scene.  To think of the time and effort that went into making such simple, yet apparently resilient structures out of simple pieces of dolomite.

Cairns at Cave Point

Yet, humans also can spring surprises, too.  After our visit to Cave Point Wednesday afternoon we headed to Sturgeon Bay to watch a series of tall ships come in to the channel for the night before heading out Thursday morning to Green Bay. We plan to see the tall ships in Duluth, and did not know until we arrived in Sturgeon Bay that they would come here for the night.  We walked down from our B & B a few blocks to the harbor area and congregated on the west most of the three drawbridges crossing the channel between Lake Michigan and Green Bay.  I went further up to the middle of the bridge to get some better photos.  Like many drawbridges this had much of the draw part being a metal surface of squares, which caused cars to make a thunder sound as they sped by.  My wife stayed further down, and could hear the announcement to clear the bridge, which, because of traffic noise on the metal, I could not hear.  She and others were yelling what the bridge master had been saying--"Get off the bridge!"  Of course, cars still rumbled by, and a man next to my wife says, "Look at the guy in the green shirt, he is just standing there", to which my wife says:  "That would be my husband."  At least she did not disown me, or provide the comment that this proves her long held belief that I am deaf.  I eventually did hear the bridge master's words, when there was a lull in the traffic.  

Me on a Dolomite Shelf at Cave Point

Of course, the small water craft traveling the channel did not have to stop, unless a sail boat needed the draw bridge to be up.  This can provide a people watching opportunity. I missed one such people watching opportunity, but luckily quickly heard about it in order to get the photo.   What I missed, but saw in the photo, was a young woman in a speed boat who was bent over the front of the boat and her derriere stuck up in the air, in, to put it mildly, and ill-fitting swim suit.  People on the bridge were aghast, at what they had seen, which made me take a photo.  I did not know what they had seen when taking the photo, but figured something on the boat drew their attention.  An elderly gentleman next to my wife yelled out to the young lady in the boat--"Shake it Baby!"  A picture is worth a thousand words, so let the following photo tell the story. Although, let me just say, with the west sun beating down as she headed east, she would have some nice red-hot buns.

Red Hot Buns

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.  Ships of old did not have the sophisticated weather equipment we have today.  Hence, why they would have created such witticisms based on their experiences. My final commentary is based on an observation I had while standing on the bridge with the bridge master apparently yelling at me to get off.   The Spanish entry, El Galeon, had arrived earlier in the day.  This ship is a 1:1 replica of an early 16th century Spanish galleon ship, which were the cargo ships of the day.  Some of course were captured and became a pirate ships.  When I think of a tall ship this comes to mind.  In any event, Sturgeon Bay is noted for its ship and yacht building, and what I noticed just beyond El Galeon was a large contemporary cargo ship under going some repair.  Past and present in one photo, showing how shipping has changed, and how the world has changed.

Spanish Galleon in front of Present Day Cargo Ship

Change is one constant of life on earth.  I saw change at the Lake Michigan waterfront at Cave Point, I saw someone who needed to change on a pleasure craft in Sturgeon Bay, and I saw the differences between past and present shipping in a tale of two ships.  That is why I studied, and continue to study, geography, as it is the interplay between man and nature.  The Spanish galleon ships were created to more efficiently transport large amounts of cargo across the ocean, and the machines of today allow much larger ships of metal to do the same chore.  Shipping, is representative of economic geography.  The woman in the ill-fitted swim suit also represents a change in human and cultural geography--tastes (or lack thereof in dress).  The cairns erected on the rock outcropping at Cave Point, is the interplay of physical and cultural geography--to the days when cairns marked something meaningful.  The increased water level is certainly a part of the basics of physical geography-weather and climate.  The physical forces of nature formed Door County. And the obtuse, clue-less guy in the green shirt not hearing the bridge master--that was clearly representative of behavioral geography.  

Geography of Place, Sturgeon Bay, WI Sidewalks