“Aqualand!” Where did the name come from? Allthough the Door Peninsula is pretty narrow, Aqualand doesn’t touch the shores of either Lake Michigan or Green Bay. Aqualand was originally built as a petting zoo in the early 60’s. The 67 acres that is now harbor to 150 RV sites was home to a myriad of animals. Some you could touch and others you couldn’t.
After you paid your entry fees into Aqualand you would enter the park by walking down a ramp and the first exhibit was fresh water creatures, big and small, in a large aquarium with porthole viewing along the way. The aquarium was probably state of the art at that time. Thus the name “Aqualand.” We have pictures of the aquarium.
On the last post I forgot to mention that Lily now works at Cloud Nine a smoothie-juice-food bar across Hwy 57 from Aqualand. She can walk to work. This is a new business and Lily is helping them grow. Josh, Lily, Isa, Diane and I went there last week before going to the beach. Lily and Isa had lunch while Josh, Diane and I had juices or smoothies. Totally fabulous. Lily works in a great place and we can tell the owners are glad she works there.
Monday it was still raining when we got up and it actually didn’t stop until about 1:00 pm. The sun came out and it was quite warm and a little humid. We gathered up the computer and drove to the Door County Brewery where we could log onto their Wi-Fi and post to the blog. Diane is working on where we are staying on our way east and she continued doing so at the brewery while I loaded pictures and posted to the blog.
When we got back to Aqualand we relaxed in the screen room waiting for the thunderstorm that was predicted to hit the area. At about 9:00 pm we were in our tent reading when it started to rain along with thunder and lightning. The rain, thunder and lightning kept getting more and more intense. At one point it seemed that lightning was occurring about every second. It was almost like we had a strobe light in our tent and it kept going. We both had fallen asleep during the thunderstorm. At about 10:15 a very, very loud thunderclap woke us up. It made all 3 of us jump. We stayed up for a little while laughing at how that bolt scared us and eventually fell back asleep.
Just yesterday Josh was telling us that they sometimes get doozies of thunderstorms and last night was proof.
Another thunderstorm was due to hit this area Tuesday afternoon and it did. This storm had loud and long rolling thunder along with the lightning and rain. We don’t get many storms like these in Southern California so they were a treat for us.
Wednesday we took a drive down to Sturgeon Bay to see the local sights, and then had a nice lunch with Josh and Carol at Grasse’s Restaurant in Sister Bay.
Thursday, our last day on the Door Peninsula Josh introduced us to his neighbor across Hwy 57, Keith Clayton. Years ago Josh helped Keith on some projects and they remain close friends today. Keith is a glass artist and is somewhat renowned from what we understand. He dabbles in all types of glass artistry, blown glass, molded glass, glass combined with metals. He also does a little bit with wood and bronze sculptures. Basically whatever his artistic mind comes up with. Keith is a very jovial man. It was fun to be around him. Thanks to Josh he and his fiancée gave us a private tour of their shop and gallery. We saw his work and other glass artist’s works. Diane and I are glass collectors and it was great to see his and the other artist’s work which was all very interesting.
He and a few other artists were going to do glass workshops so people could come and learn over the Labor Day weekend.
Josh and Carol invited us for dinner so we were off to an afternoon visit to north Door County for the afternoon. When we got to Gills Rock at the end of the peninsula we decided to take the ferry to Washington Island, a few miles off the end of the peninsula.
It just so happened that one of Josh and Carol’s friends that we met at the party on Saturday was on the ferry with us. Drew and his mother Peggy were on their way to the island to see if Peggy might want to live there.
On the ferry ride over to the island Drew and Peggy informed us a little bit about the history of Washington Island and Door County. For instance, as we were about half way across the channel to the island Drew said here we are at “Death’s Door.” Lore has it that there are many ships that have sunk in this channel. Drew said that the confluence of the relatively warmer waters from Green Bay and the colder waters of Lake Michigan combined with the “Lake Affect” that guides storms across the Great Lakes produces some big swells and heavy winds, some swells have been recorded at 20 feet. These factors have led to boats capsizing and the deaths of the passengers thus “Death’s Door.” This is how the Door Peninsula got its name.
Peggy and Drew told us about the history of Nelsen’s Hall. Nelsen’s Hall has been in operation since 1899. When Prohibition rolled around Tom Nelsen, a Danish immigrant and founder of Nelsen’s, wasn’t about to close his doors. Tom applied for and was granted a pharmacist license to dispense bitters as a “stomach tonic for medicinal purposes.” Tom hired only pharmacists to pour the bitters and he was able to serve shots of bitters legally throughout Prohibition. Angostura Bitters is 90 proof so Tom and his crew were able to cure a lot of stomachaches and most of what else was ailing his customers.
Peggy and Drew are members of Nelsen’s Bitters Club. They explained that to become a member you have to down a shot of Angostura Bitters, have your membership card thumb stamped by the bartender after he runs his thumb in your shot glass after you have downed the bitters and finally sign the register. About 10,000 people join the club every year. Nelsen’s Hall is by far and away the largest purveyor of Angostura Bitters in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Diane and I now store our stamped Bitters Club membership cards right next to our passports along with our other valuable possessions. Besides our shots of bitters we had a nice lunch with a glass of local beer at Nelsen’s then went out to see what we could of Washington Island.
The first place we visited was Schoolhouse Beach. Schoolhouse Beach is known for the well-worn rocks that make up the beach and part of the lagoon. Many signs at the park remind beachgoers that removing any rock from the park is a $250.00 fine. I get the fine but it was kind of humorous to me because the rocks were just light grey even in the water. We’ve been to a number of beautiful beaches in our lives and this was a beautiful beach. The pictures will tell the story. Our next stop was Mountain Park Lookout Tower. Lots of stairs but beautiful vistas.
That was all the time we had as we had to catch the ferry, get past, Death’s Door” and get back to Aqualand for Carol’s famous carrot soup.
We had a very nice evening with Josh, Carol, Lily and Isa. The soup was delicious. We were at Aqualand for 9 days and it was way too short. Hanging with Josh and Carol and the kids. Seeing the sights. Meeting Josh and Carol’s friends. It was totally fun by any measurement.
If you are ever close to Wisconsin make a trip to the Door Peninsula. People have labeled it the Cape Cod of the upper Midwest and it is. Stop by and say hi to Josh and Carol. If you are looking for a campsite they may be able to accommodate you at Aqualand and if not they can recommend other sites. If you want to know things to do on the peninsula Carol is an expert. Mention this blog and you will still have to pay regular prices. Thanks again Josh, Carol, Lily and Isa. We love you guys.
Wow! Fun to see our place through your eyes. Thanks for including us on your trip!