5066. Go to a Fish Boil in Door County

 Besides walking to Cana Island lighthouse and going to Washington Island, the only other MUST do in Door County was go to a Fish Boil. The hubby kept telling me there was only one place still doing fish boils in Door County but I found several of them. 

I opted to do the Fish Boil at The Old Post Office in Ephraim because we were staying in Ephraim and my cousins also did that fish boil a few years ago. 

What is a fish boil? It is a exactly what it sounds like. Boiled whitefish, along with potatoes and onions. It is a Scandinavian tradition dating back to the late 1800s where they had to feed large number of works. Fresh caught fish, potatoes, and onions would flash boil

When you make your reservation, they tell you to show up 30 minutes beforehand so you can watch the show. The whole point, in my opinion, of going to a fish boil is the show. You watch as the fish boil master, for a lack of better term, prepares the fish boil... stoking the fire, adding the fish to the potatoes and onions already cooking, and explaining the process.

As the oils from the whitefish rise to the top of the kettle, kerosene is added to the flames creating a boil over and giant flames. This spills the fish oils over the kettle and lets everyone know the fish is ready to eat. The boil over last for only a few seconds so you need to be prepared when they add the kerosene to get good pictures.

Along with the fish, potatoes, and onion, you also get homemade bread, cole slaw, and of course cherry pie. It's Door County, of course you are getting cherry pie. When they bring you your meal, they ask if you want your fish de-boned or not. They will actually take out the bones of the fish for you. Other places, according to the boil master, do not. I am so glad they take out the bones for me.

My cousin said she doesn't like fish boils because she doesn't like mushy fish. I don't like fishy fish so I was worried I wasn't going to like the fish. However, for the most part it wasn't mushy or fishy tasting. I actually enjoyed the meal. The hubby wants to do one in October when we go to Washington Island so I guess I'm enjoying two fish boils this year.

If you like fish even just a bit, I would recommend a fish boil especially at The Old Post Office. Heck, if you don't like fish you can still see the show and have chicken or ribs for dinner. It is worth the $22 a person and is a Door County tradition. Embrace the tradition and have some fresh.

5011. Go to Cana Island lighthouse in Bailey’s Harbor

 The one thing I wanted to do in Door County was walk to the Cana Island lighthouse. Cana Island Lighthouse is on an island, obviously, and there is a causeway that allows you to walk over to it. Since the lake levels are so high, it has been underwater and you can get a tractor pulled wagon ride over instead. Walking across the shallow water sounded more fun. This is is the whole reason I suggested Door County for our girl's weekend.

Getting to the lighthouse:

It is about 6 miles off Hwy 57 in Door County. There is a small parking lot to park in otherwise you are parking on the road. We got lucky and someone was leaving so we got to park in the lot. We did not walk to the lighthouse. We opted for the safer option of riding the hay wagon. We did talk about walking back.

On Cana Island

Once on the island, you stop in the visitor center and pay the entrance fee to climb the lighthouse and see the keeper's house. It is $10 for an adult to climb the tower and see the house. The tractor drive is like get your ticket to lighthouse but only one person needs to go in and pay for the tickets, then go get in line to climb the lighthouse. Once you've done that you can explore the house and grounds.

We were group 5 so we had some time to kill before we climbed the lighthouse. Only about 20 people at at time are allowed to climb the tower. 

In the mean time we checked out the keeper's house which is your typical lightkeeper's house. 

We also checked out the grounds. It was interesting history and nature. 

Climbing the Tower

The lighthouse has a spiral staircase of 97 stairs to get to the view platform of the lighthouse. 

The viewing platform has great view of Lake Michigan and the Island. 

I will be honest the climb freaked me out. I really don't like open back stairs. Once I got to the top I was fine. The climb down wasn't too bad until the end when there was less to hang on to. I survived. Been there, done that.. don't need to do it again.

Return trip from Cana Island

Stacy and I did walk back from the lighthouse. We contemplated walking barefoot since we were both in sneakers but were advised against it since the stones were not as smooth as they looked. 

The water was only ankle deep but with the waves it could be knee high or higher at times even though it didn't seem that bad. 

The walk wasn't bad at all. The hardest part was not to fall over when a wave crashed. I was worried about dropping my new phone.

We made it back safe and sound. I would definitely walk it again. It was fun and not as cold as we thought it would be. In hindsight, walking back from the lighthouse is the way to go otherwise unless you have water shoes on, you are going to be climbing the tower in wet shoes.

Cana Island Lighthouse is worth seeing. Take the hayride, climb the tower, walk back. It was an enjoyable afternoon and definitely should be on your door county bucket list.

Exploring Madison's Craft Beer Scene

The last couple of years, Stacy and I have stumbled upon a winery during girls' weekend. Since we were in Madison, I figured a winery or a brewery would be a good stop. When Stacy looked at the initial itinery she was like we can do Capital Brewery but there are so many other craft breweries. I was like the only reason I picked that one was because my plan was to end the weekend at a brewery and since we were in Middleton Capital Brewery made the most sense. 

Since the weekend didn't go as planned, which wasn't a bad thing, we decided to check out a couple smaller breweries yesterday. Then the volunteer gave us a couple suggestions for today -- one which was only open Thu-Sat. We ended up hitting a total of three different breweries which is just the tip of the iceberg of craft beers in Madison and sampled a wide range of beers. I kind of let Stacy dictate where we were going to go.

One Barrel Brewing Company 

These are handmade beers made in small batches... one barrel at a time. They had 12 different beers on tap from pilsners to stouts and everything in between. This was probably had a beer for everyone. Stacy and I split a flight since we were going to hit another brewery after this one. Stacy doesn't care much for IPAs and I am not one for really dark beers.

Fresh Froth -- Lemondrop APA.. I knew what an IPA was but I never knew there was an APA as well. This one was nice and summery. It was probably my favorite of the four.

Forward FC -- Cherry Kolsch .. This one wasn't bad. I would probably drink it again.

Breakfast Beer -- Imprerial Coffee Milk Stout. I am not a coffee fan or a stout fan but I was willing to try this one. It was exactly like I thought... coffee flavored beer. Stacy drank this one. 

Birthday Barley -- English Barleywine.. This one wasn't bad but it wasn't a favorite. If I had to I would drink it again. 

For four beers and a snack of cheese, sausage, and crackers was less than $20. This place you could hang out with friends any time of the day.

Funk Factory Geuzeria

Stacy asked me if I liked sour beers. I was like I never had one but I'd be willing to try one. 

Funk Factory specializes in sour beers. A sour beer is just made with sour yeast like sourdough bread. It has a different, unique taste. Again they brew small batches of their beers. They do not offer flights but instead you could get 6 oz samples of anything on tap plus they had a whole menu of 375 ml bottles of beer. There were 5 Funk Factory beers on tap and 3 guest taps.

We initially split a bottle of De Bij which is a blend of multiple vintages of MT beer with honey added later. These beers are sipped more like wine or cider. I honestly can say I was not a fan of this one. I might be because of it being a sour beer or it lacked another flavor. I drank my glass. 

Stacy tried another bottle off the menu which I don't recall. I went with the Blackberry Meerts. It was definitely a tart, sour beer. Every though it was nothing that I would expect in a beer, it was good in a weird way. It does take some getting used to though. 

I am one to try beers and wines based off of name only. For this reason alone, I had to try astronaut juice. It is beer with tang mixed in. It is their festival beer. Astronaut juice rocks my world. I would drink this any time. It tastes just like tang. 

Word to the budget conscious people, the bottles are $18 and you get about 2-3 glasses out of them. The 6 oz were $4 or $5. Stacy said the bottles were not worth it. 

Funk Factory is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They roll up garage doors and the bar is in there. The atmosphere is laid-back awesomeness. Back in the day, they had neighbor bars.. now Madison is introducing neighborhood breweries. Great concept. 

Working Draft

This brewery was recommended by the volunteer at the Botanical Gardens. The best part is they were open at 11 am in the morning. Again Stacy and I split a flight of 4 beers. They had 9 beers to choose from.. half of which were IPAs. There were a couple guest beers on tap as well.

 

Hey Dey -- Vienna Lager. This one wasn't bad. I may drink it again but it was still along the lines of Miller and Bud. 

Ain't Bad -- Festbier. I was not a fan of this one at all. It was too malty and tasted too much like Miller Lite. We decided I am one for malty beers or festbiers. 

Pulp Culture -- Hazy IPA. This one was my favorite of the day. Stacy figures I prefer hoppy beer to malty beer since I liked this one. It also has a hint of grapefruit and pineapple. I just think I like fruit beers since I really like Summer Shady.

Mom's Jeans -- Maple Whiskey Barrel Aged Stout. For a dark beer this was amazing. Stacy was amazed by the low ABV (5.5%). It is an oatmeal stout that aged in maple syrup whiskey barrels. I would definitely drink this one again.

Each of the breweries we hit were unique in their own way. Beer tasting is so much better on the wallet than wine tasting since you really aren't obligated to buy any more beer once you finish your flight unlike wine tasting where I always feel obligated to buy a bottle. 

We just barely scratched the surface of the Madison craft beer scene.  I like the hole-in-wall craft breweries... small batches and once they run out too bad so sad. Then you know it's good. 

I told my cousins we need to do a girl's weekend in Madison and do beer tasting all weekend. I could keep up if I do flights of two beers or split a flight with someone. I know the hubby doesn't have the same taste for craft beer (or wine for that matter) as I do. I'm sure it won't be difficult to find someone to explore the craft beer scene with if I decide I need a beer fix in the future.

5063. Go to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison

Another thing I wanted to do in Madison was go to the Botanical Gardens. I've heard many wonderful things about them and flowers are always pretty to look at. I originally penciled this in for Saturday night because they were open late (8 pm during summer). Our plans changed and we headed here first thing in the morning.

The line to get in was quite long.. until we realized that was the line to pay to go see the butterfly exhibit. Olbrich Botanical Gardens are free unless you want to see the special exhibit such as the butterfly exhibit. The butterflies were $8 a person. I've seen enough butterfly gardens in Costa Rica. We decided to skip the butterflies and headed to straight to the gardens. Note: There was an additional wait inside once you paid to actually get in the butterfly exhibit.

There are numerous gardens spread over 16 acres. I think we may have hit them all. It wasn't signed very good and the paths kind of zig-zag you this way and that way.

In the sensory garden we could touch and smell the plants. If you rubbed the leaves, they gave off a scent (pineapple, popcorn, etc).

The sensitive plant would close up if you touched it.

Across the bridge was the Thai pavilion and gardens. It was very serene. There many sculptures, especially of elephants, in this garden as well.

After about an hour, I had enough wandering through the gardens and looking at flowers. We did see an awful lot of flowers and shrubs.

I did enjoy the botanical gardens and would go back. There is plenty to see for people of all ages. Take some time to check out the gardens when you are in Madison.

A Creepy Random Pyramid

When Googling "Random Things in Madison," I stumbled upon a mini pyramid hidden in the city. I told Stacy we needed to find the random pyramid.

Since we had a bit of time before we had to go see Beauty and the Beast, we decided to go find the random pyramid.

All I have to say is I'm glad I made note of the actual directions to get to the pyramid. Because once we reached the address for the pyramid, we would have never found it.

The directions were as follows, per Roadside America

Behind the Madison School and Community Recreation building, which is on the north side of Regent St. at its intersection with Glenway St. Park in the lot, then walk east along Regent St., past the building, then turn left (north) and follow the overgrown driveway to the rear parking lot. Walk to the very back, to the fence, and turn left. Follow the trail into the trees. You'll quickly see a small path on the left that leads to the pyramid.

Yup, never would have found it without the directions.

We found the pyramid. It was a bit creepy.. almost something used to worship Pagen Gods or something. I am glad it was relatively light out yet when we hiked to the pyramid because I don't think I would want to visit it in the dark.