We'll See You Again Next Summer, Door County!

I have to make this post short, because baby #3 is on his or her way any day and I want to make sure I get this done before I'm in zombie mode. So...

In June we made our annual trip to Door County, one of our favorite places. Like last year, we took the girls camping at Peninsula State Park. We spent three nights there and the first and last night it rained. Luckily after dinner! The girls did great sleeping in the tent, although we did go to bed early because of the rain and we had to mix up our sleeping arrangements. We had brought a little cot for Margot to sleep on while camping and she did not like it. She wanted to sleep on the air mattress with me, so Tom ended up sleeping on the ground by Isabelle for the trip (with a sleeping pad, I'm not that cruel). At least we had options.

Our first day was spent getting there, setting up camp and making dinner before it rained. The next morning we had breakfast and then went over to the Nature Center at the park for a children's program on hummingbirds. The girls loved it! We had lunch at Gibraltar Grill in Fish Creek, one of our favorites, and then spent the rest of the day at Nicolet Beach. It was packed! No surprise since it was over 80 degrees out. We managed to find a shaded spot and spent the entire afternoon there. Not even the freezing water could keep us away. It was maybe 50 degrees. Chilly! That night we cooked dinner at our campsite and enjoyed the campfire. We spent a lot of time at our campsite this year, because the girls loved exploring every inch of it. We ended that night with a walk to see the sunset. It was a great day!

On Sunday morning we had breakfast, hung out the campsite and then went to church. Our afternoon was filled with a lot of firsts. We had a delicious lunch at The Summer Kitchen in North Ephraim. It was our first time there and the adult meals included a bowl of soup from their soup bar. Their French cabbage soup was so good I had to buy the cookbook. Then we made our first trip to the Hands on Art Studio to paint bird houses. Such a fun place! While we waited for the bird houses to dry the girls played on the swing set. We had a hard time getting them to leave. Our next stop was Newport State Park. This was another first for us. Margot had fallen asleep at this point so we strolled toward the beach. I relaxed on a bench while Margot slept in the stroller next to me. Isabelle and Tom made their way along the shoreline and did some exploring. It was a such a peaceful park. I felt like we were the only people there.

That evening the rain held off again until after dinner, but it rained all night. We ventured into Fish Creek that morning to have breakfast at The Summertime Restaurant and to buy more trash bags to haul all of our wet gear home. Packing up was not a lot of fun, but the rest of the weekend made up for it!

On our way home we stopped for lunch at The Log Den in Egg Harbor and even with a private event going on, they were so helpful and attentive.

One last thing before I finish this post. Because Margot has a life threatening food allergy to peanuts and some tree nuts, we planned to make a lot of our meals at the campsite. We packed a ton of food! We also wanted to make sure that when we did eat out it was for breakfast or lunch. In case there was any allergic reaction that gave us plenty of time to notice it and get to the closest hospital in Sturgeon Bay. Normally it isn't that far of a drive from Fish Creek, but there was a lot of construction and it would have taken us 45 minutes. The campsite also doesn't have great cellphone reception, so we spoke with the park rangers and campsite hosts who were all very helpful. The restaurants we went to were also so helpful and with our questions and concerns to keep Margot safe. Such a relief!

We'll see you next summer, Door County!