vacation in wisconsin

me chilling with the kids

 

hartman creek state park

hiking around the lake

We've been out of town for a week.  I thought I might post from the road, but that just never happened.

That's a good thing.  We all had a chance to relax and not do all the things that normally take up our time.  That includes blogging.



We're back now- in the  hot, humid Twin Cities.

We spent the week in Wisconsin- not because we knew that the state of Minnesota was going to shut down over the weekend.  We didn't.  The first part of the week had been planned months ago- camping at Hartman Creek State Park in central Wisconsin.  Our family- extended family- took 7 sites at the campground and took over that portion of the park for a few days. 

It's a gorgeous park- begun in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps and has matured nicely into a beautiful place to camp and swim.

jetty at peninsula state park

little man in the water

From there we headed east.  Gita found a good deal on a hotel in Kewaunee, and we decided to go.  Neither of us had been to Kewaunee, but the hotel looked gorgeous online and it was on Lake Michigan, so it couldn't be too bad.

I spent most of my childhood about an hour from there, so I had an idea of what it might be like- nice enough people, in a rough-around-the-edges industrial town in decline.  That pretty well describes Kewaunee, but with a few really gorgeous buildings and a top-notch Craftsman era hotel.

The Kewaunee Inn really was fantastic- perfect for kicking back and hanging out (I'm not being paid to say that by the way).  It was dead as a doornail at first.  We wondered what the story was- this beautiful hotel, not so expensive, with nobody in it.  The whole town seemed that way, really.  Interesting- but where were the people?

The people showed up eventually.  The food was fantastic, so we ate there a lot.  My parents joined us for the first night, then it was just the four of us, walking on the beach, drinking coffee on the veranda, driving up into Door County to see touristy things.  It was possibly the best way to spend three days we could have found. 

It's not a good destination for doing a lot in a short time.  More of a make-your-own-fun sort of place.  We found a little CCC-era park (I think that became the theme of this trip- though we didn't intend it)  outside of Kewaunee that had all of the best things I remembered from the parks of my childhood- merry-go-rounds, old funky drinking fountains, cool park shelters, and an old little zoo with deer and peacocks.

I'll get back on urban farming and sustainability next post.  I thought I'd just pass this on while it's still fresh and I'm still relaxed.  Real life will start again tomorrow.

mature arborvitae at kewaunee county park

an old drinking fountain makes a great toy

craftsman architecture at kewaunee county park

the kewaunee inn