I glanced at the buildings along the road and asked with concern, “Are you sure we’re on the right highway? By now I thought we’d see Green Bay’s water. I don’t even see the big bridge we have to cross.”

My daughter Tammie answered as she confidently maneuvered through heavy traffic, “We’ll be seeing all that in a few miles.”

All summer long we had looked forward to our vacation in Door County. Today it felt so good to finally be on our way. After rounding another curve in the highway, the blue painted bridge suddenly loomed up ahead. From the driver came a soft, “Told you so.”

Tammie is extraordinarily good at making vacation plans, so after she asked me a few questions, she scheduled our activities for the next seven days. She’d done this before for other vacations. I’ve never been disappointed.

Later that evening, as I sat waiting for the movie” Jungle Cruise” to start, I looked around at the other cars parked at the Skyway drive-in movie theater. Smiling, I enthused, “The motel we’re staying at is really nice. Pelletier’s fish boil was fantastic! When the boil master threw kerosene on the fire to make the cauldron boil over at the end, I couldn’t believe how hot the flames were. I was standing a good 15 to 20 feet away!”

 “I’m glad I was able to film the boil-over with my phone.” My daughter responded. “The freshly caught white fish from the Bay tasted excellent, and I loved the red potatoes and onion!”

Later, on our short drive back to our motel in Ephraim, we talked about our favorite parts of the movie. I concluded, “It was a very good movie, even with the zombies in it.”

The next three days were filled with activity. We shopped in the novelty shops in each town along highway 42, took a trolley bus tour of wineries, made fused glass garden stakes at Hands On Art Studio near Sister Bay. We toured a sculpture garden, visited Washington Island, rode a wagon pulled by a tractor over a flooded causeway to visit Canna Island light house, and ordered appetizers instead of meals at fancy restaurants. We attended “Tully’s Folly”, a play at Peninsula Players theater, played miniature golf, panned for gold, and visited my niece who lives nearby.

Our last two days in Door County we learned how to make homemade soap at Ellison Bay’s “The Clearing”. Ann Marie, our teacher, started the lesson by telling us the dangers of using lye and the scented essence oils were that she had brought with her. She said, “Wear your safety glasses whenever you make soap. One drop of water with lye in it splashed into your eye will dissolve your eye, and don’t measure your scented oils too far ahead of using them. They can burn through the cups I brought.”  

After the first day class was over, Tammie commented, “When Ann Marie told us how dangerous lye was, I didn’t want to finish the class. I guess she had to, to make sure we were careful.”

I answered with a grimace, “Also, because what she said is true.”

On our drive home after our vacation was over, Tammie and I talked about what we had enjoyed the most. It was impossible for us to pick one thing; everything we did had been so much fun. I pointed out, “I’ll never be able to play miniature golf again without comparing it to the “Pirates Cove” course. With its huge water fall, bridges over little rivers, the cave, trails though thickets of trees and lights for nighttime play, it is the best I have ever seen.”

As we crossed the big blue bridge in Green Bay, I confessed, “Two very small things we did this week stands out in my mind. Visiting the beach at “The Clearing,” and sitting on the Sister Bay dock one evening. The sail boats and the setting sun on the glittering water were so pretty and peaceful.”

Tammie agreed, “Even though we had an action-packed schedule, our vacation accomplished what it was meant to do, and that was to relax.”