Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to Door County (2023)--Prologue
5/19/2023
We were supposed to travel to Maui this year! At least, that was the plan and I touched on what happened in this blog entry, so I won't rehash anything about our thoughts regarding Maui and Hawai`i in general in this entry.
With the decision made to cancel our April trip to Maui, it led to the question of where we should travel instead. At first, there were many possibilities to consider. We had discussed, sometimes at length, ideas for trips such as the Pacific Coast Highway, Southern Florida, a tour of as many Minnesota State Parks as we could fit into a two-week trip, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah or an autumn trip to Niagara Falls and New England to take in those wonderful colors.
Door County in Wisconsin wasn't even on the radar for the most part, when we started planning. I had friends who had visited Door County and had spoken of all the fun activities they had taken part in. My reaction had been mostly subdued, a kind of "Yeah, sounds like fun" without really meaning it. A problem with having taken nearly a dozen visits to the Aloha State is it can jade you to other destinations. Door County had reminded me too much of Minnesota with approximately the same climate and such. So why go?
Watching many Youtube videos about Door County, mostly out of curiosity, eventually changed my opinion. There are four state parks there; a plethora of what appeared to be excellent restaurants (always a plus for me!) and hotel/resort rental rates prior to Memorial Day were certainly attractive. Eventually we decided on a six-night trip in the week leading up to Memorial Day. The timing of this trip turned out to be near genius. If the weather cooperated, this could be one of the more enjoyable trips we'd taken.
The Newport Resort in Egg Harbor was ideally located for us, near the midway point up Wisconsin highway 42 (one of two main highways helping to connect a long string of small towns from south to north in Door Peninsula. With rates well under $150/night and a host of amenities including a full kitchen, it was an easy choice for us. We also decided to drive there instead of fly and there were a number of reasons for this:
1. Airfare costs and the hassle of going through the airport TSA "meat grinder"
2. By driving instead of flying meant that we could bring much more stuff, such as our own groceries
3. Driving our own was much cheaper than renting a car. True, my car isn't new but it's well maintained and is in pretty damn good shape. Plus, driving your own car meant you were driving something you were used to.
With the resort room rented, all we had to do was double and triple check our pack lists prior to the trip and look forward to the adventure.
The other thing which struck me was that this was going to be my first vacation since retiring, so the idea of it being a vacation didn't make much of an impact on me. I was already on permanent vacation! But it wasn't the same for Patty as she was still working and would be for another couple years or so. I don't know if this was why the anticipation wasn't as keen as it had been when we were traveling to Maui or if it was the destination being just a six hour drive away. Not to say that I wasn't looking forward to this--not at all. But it just felt different.
Would it be worth it?
Previous: 4/23/2023--Best Historical Minnesota High School Hockey Programs?
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last updated may 29, 2023
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