Day 8, 9 & 10 - Sturgeon Bay

Another vacation is in the bag and we have decided to keep our boat in Sturgeon Bay for the Month of Aug.  With the weather we have seen this summer it is probably best. Lake Winnebago has been unbelievably green with algae.  The lack of rain and hot temps has spoiled the lake.

On Saturday we started out struggling with the boys and are contemplating a slight change for next years vacation.  Our plan is to have a long weekend with the kids and then have our crossing trip just Susan and I next year.  We have decided it is just not fun to have the stress for that long.  Maybe it is the cramped quarters I don't know what it is, but we agree it may be best to shorten it until they are a bit older.

The rest of the day went well.  We spent it by the pool and had fun with the boys.  It helped that Pierce found a 12 year old girl that was an awesome playmate.  She and her younger brother who was 3 and they all had a lot of fun.  Peyton had some other kids on and off that he played with, and Susan and I would get in the mix when we would get too hot sitting poolside.

On Sunday we got up late cleaned the boat and decide to go home after having a meal at Mel's. Mel's Place was a greatnew find for breakfast. It is located right across the street from Centerpointe marina. I had the best salmon eggs benedict.  It was severed perfectly and had quite a kick to it as the hollandaise sauce was fused with many spices as well as jalapenos. The kids enjoyed french toast that Mel should win an award for.  Peyton had the normal serving and Pierce did the kids version.  Each dish had it's own twist.  Neither boy could finish.  Peyton was convinced he should get the normal serving as he has bad luck with the last few places.  He seemed to come away hungry all week; not at Mel's Place though. Everything here was fantastic! Their service was a bit slow, however, we gave them some leeway, because they were getting slammed.  We also over heard a cook called in sick.  The food made up for the time we had to wait and we sat outside on a gorgeous day.  I am excited to go back and try more of the menu.

We will be back to Centerpointe for the next few weekends and look forward to enjoying door county some more and possibly even staying on the hook some night. Until next time~bye~

Day 7: KIDS DAY!!! Sturgeon Bay - CenterPoint Marina

After a bit of a wavy night in Egg Harbor we made breakfast on the boat and then headed to Sturgeon Bay to finish our vacation. After some challenging times with kids this week, we decided to make it a day geared towards everything kids and have as much fun as possible!   Once in Sturgeon Bay we pulled into our final marina for the vacation, CenterPoint.   This marina is absolutely beautiful with a great pool, georgeous landscaping and very nice outdoor cooking stations.   We lucked out with a perfect slip, off the way a bit from the main house, but right near the front so it is easy access to the potty zone for the dogs!!  I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect location as it will also come with beautiful sunsets as our stern is positioned towards West.

We settled into the slip and then headed off for a short walk to get the truck.   We were required to walk over the bridge and was presented with a great learning opportunity for the kids, as the bridge was opening.   Peyton had a great suggestion to actually walk to the top as it was opening, but obviously we all know that would be impossible.  It made for a quick lesson in physics!   Once in the truck we were off to PC Junction which is the ultimate kid zone.   We were there back in 2009 or '10 and had a great time on a rainy day, so we were excited to see what we could do on a sunny day.  Unfortunately, the wait was an hour to sit at the main train track table so, with tummy's growling, we decided that a table that allowed us to view the train would be good enough.  Deep fried goodness was had by all and with stomach's full, we were off to enjoy the atmosphere of go carts, slides, swings, basketball hoops and the quest to search out our wood plank we painted on our first visit there 2 or 3 years earlier.   If you have never been to PC Junction, they allow you to paint a wood plank with whatever you fancy and then they nail it to the walls on the property.   It makes for grand entertainment looking at everyone's masterpieces, unfortunately we never did find ours.  We searched and searched with no luck.  Oh well, guess that means we will need to return to look again someday. After PC Junction, we went to another sports park for some motorized go carts, ice cream and arcade games.  The boys had a blast and it was nice to have some good quality fun with them.

In the evening we grilled out and had a relaxing night on the back of the boat while listening to it rain... one of my favorite vacation activities!

Oh... and I should probably mention this huge boat that was docked here for the night.  Paul obsessed over how large it was and with some quick Google searching had the full details for me on when it was built, where, how much gas it uses,etc.   If you know me, I don't really get worked up on the size of other's boats. From my perspective, if it floats, then it is a good boat :)  Let's just say there was a whole lot of things packed onto this boat, if I recall correctly it was over 100' in length, and it was still floating, so that is as much of my attention span it would get.

Note from Paul The boat was a 2008 Westport 130, Hull number 1525, Ships Name was Antares.  130' OAL, 26' beam. This was a monster and held 9,901 Gal of Diesel for the two engines that put out over 2700hp! Cruised at 24 knots or MPH could not find the measurement where it was listed either way that is fast for that boat!

Day 6 - Egg Harbor and the Best Behaved Dinner

After a night in Fish Creek of storms wind and rain we woke up and had breakfast at Pelletier's after there was a break in the weather.  Pelletier's is straight up the road from Alibi Marina where we stayed. As we left the boat I said to Susan, "Should I go back to boat and grab the rain gear?" as it was starting to rain, but not that hard.  Her answer was "no, it is not that bad." At the time is was just sprinkling and honestly it was hard to tell between rain and the blow off of the trees we were walking under...As a side note we have been gifted really nice rain gear and it hung in out closet on the boat as we walked through the rain...Then of course as luck would have, it down poured while eating breakfast which made me regret not grabbing it even more as I thought we would be getting wet. But as luck would have it again it stopped raining just as we were getting ready to leave.  We walked around the town and went in one or two shops and decided to get back to the boat and get ready to go.  As we sat there we checked the radar and winds to see what we should do. When we left for breakfast the wind was causing white caps on the bay and was not looking very good. We took our time getting ready to go and while we disembarked two boats arrived just as we where leaving and waited for us to leave the marina, as this marina is pretty tight maneuvering.  Turns out the first of these two boats was being directed to our slip.  We did not leave until after noon and the normal check out is 11am.  The deck hands were held up in the harbor house playing a game of Monopoly as the marina was not very active on a wet cold day.  They never came down to see if we actually left and just assumed.  As we were leaving Susan I chuckled thinking how funny it was that we almost caused an issue and timed our departure perfectly.

Our destination was the next harbor south about 6-8 miles away, Egg Harbor.  We stayed at the renovated municipal marina.  Egg Harbor redid there Marina about 2 years ago and did a very nice job.  I must give great praise to the city for rallying and investing in this gem on the the water.  There was much debate if they were going to put the necessary funds to rebuild it, as it was basically condemned a few years ago. When we got to the dock we checked in immediately, set our lines, power, water and cable and shoved off right away to the beach. It is right outside the break wall of the marina.  This allowed us to take everything with us to the beach and allowed Pierce to go up to the beach (what he likes best) and Peyton to play with the dinghy and swim in the deep (which he likes best). Actually, we did not leave immediately.  I had taken Peyton aside and have a conversation.  We were having some major issues to this point in the vacation with the boys behaviors.  I basically said to him - Susan and I plan these trips with great intentions of building great memories and so far this trip the only memories we sharing is having to discipline and yell all the time. If this continues we will not plan anymore of these type of trips....When Peyton and I got back from our sit down on the edge of the dock Susan started her message with both of them as audience and to my amazement was almost verbatim to the talk I had just had with Peyton.  I think this talk worked, because after playing on the beach we went to Trio, an Italia restaurant Susan found on Yelp, and we had the best dinner as a family I can remember.  Peyton suggested he sit next to Pierce promising it was going to be fine. Susan and I had our doubts and do not allow this as they fidget and fuss with each other and cause more stress for us. To our surprise it went off with out any issues.  Best Dinner Ever!

Egg Harbor Marina

Day 4 & 5 - Indecision!

As the title says, day's 4 and 5 of vacation were definitely the most indecisive of any of our vacations.   Monday was a scorching hot day with the winds all over the place on the lake.  Our largest concern was not necessarily getting over to Grand Haven, it was in fact to get back.  I absolutely need to return home by Monday and it looks like wind and wave forecast continue their strength through the week.  Normally, we would target to come back on Saturday, but 3-6 foot waves are not something that we would cross in.   If we were alone it would be different and we would risk something like that, but with 2 small boys and 2 dogs, one of which doesn't necessarily like boating all that much, 6 foot waves on Michigan would be treacherous.

So what to do???   After much deliberation, and due to the extreme heat we decided that Monday would be a day at the pool and that bright and early Tuesday we would head to Milwaukee.   Once there we could find plenty to do, such as a Milwaukee Brewer game, the children's museum or just hanging out at their beach and enjoying their parks and restaurants.  At 3AM Paul woke me up and told me that he was putting the canvas on the back due to rain, at 5AM, like clockwork the dogs woke me up for their morning potty break, then at 6AM it was a wake up call from Paul.   Apparently huge storms were due to go through Milwaukee, it was either leave now or never.  After much review of the various weather stations we monitor, it looked like that if we went to Milwaukee that we would spend the day in rain, with additional rain scheduled for the remainder of the week.  




So we did what we seem to do best, chase the sunshine!   We loaded up the trailer and headed north, up to Sturgeon Bay where we decided that if we couldn't cross then why not go to a place that had more options where at least we would be less dependant on the wind.    We packed up the boat in record time and were off, trying to beat the rain that was on it's way to Sheboygan.   In a few short hours we arrived in Sturgeon Bay and then quickly put the boat back together.  We called around to see if we could get a deal for keeping our boat somewhere for the remainder of July/August, and yet to find a place that is cost effective for us.  

For those of you that know me, I am a control freak and not having a plan is quite challenging for me, however, I woke this morning and decided that whatever the day would bring I would just go with it.   One thing that Paul always wanted to do was stay on the hook.   Since we didn't have a plan, or a slip at this point, we decided that we would head to horseshoe island and try our first night without being in a marina.  Once we arrived, we looked at the wind forecast and found yet again it was not in our favor.   Horseshoe island is protected by all winds except for from the south east.  You guessed it, winds were scheduled out of the east south east, and rain was scheduled.  After enjoying some time swimming and soaking up some sun at Nicolet Bay we decided we would have to wait staying on the hook due to the wind and rain.  We called and found a slip at Alibi Marina in Fish Creek.  

After what seemed like a completely exhausting day, I would have never guessed that I would be blogging from Fish Creek, but alas it was a beautiful day and I am always happiest when with my family!

Day 3 - Exploring and Beach Day in Sheboygan

Due to some unforeseen circumstances we are forced to stay in Sheboygan until at least Monday.  In the morning we made breakfast on the boat again and did some shopping.  We had to pick up some supplies and found a local Walmart.  On the way back we decided to try out a pizza place that was mentioned to us by some permanent boaters here.  The place was called Fay's Pizza and was very good. I would defiantly recommend it.

We spent the rest of the day playing on the beach and enjoying the waves. Around noon we prepared the dinghy for the trip over to the beach. The wave height was about 2 - 3 footers, and with four people and a boat full of beach items we were bouncing and splashing around pretty good. In fact on our way back it seemed to be worse as we caught air in the dinghy a couple of times.

  Peyton immediately jumped in as we came into the beach.  After he went in the water he helped me pull the boat to shore.  Susan and I pulled it up to the beach, which means picking it up and carrying it being careful not to drag it on the sand.  After getting the boat up onto the shore we decided that we need a hard bottom dinghy verses the inflatable bottom we have, then we would not have to be so careful.  The dinghy also has a 9.9 horse older Johnson on it, so it is pretty heavy. Picking up is necessary because repeated abuse from the sand could cause leaking over time.Once at the beach the kids had a good time. Peyton and Pierce enjoyed the waves and swimming in the lake.

After the beach we decided to go to town and check out two bars in town.  The 8th Street Ale Haus was our first stop.  This place was quite nice, 30 tap beers and great service.  They also had a full service restaurant as well. We should have eaten there, but I wanted to check out the original Legend Larry's.  The wing sauce here is award winning and world famous.  The National Buffalo Wing event has awarded Legend Larry's sauces year over year.  The wing eating contest has used their sauce for the wing eating contest in Buffalo NY for a few years in a row now.  One of my friends from college has married into the family and started his own bar in Green Bay.  I have to admit I was not impressed at all with the wings here in Sheboygan. They were not meaty at all (much better wings in GB I must say).

The weather this week is not the greatest for crossing. The wind direction continues to switch and it is very windy.  We will have to figure out what to do.  If we do not go across we will be going north or south; not sure yet, but only time will tell I guess.

Day 2 - Saturday July 20, 2012

Waking up on vacation!!!   Always RIGHT!!!!  After a long night, the boys didn't sleep in as long as I would have liked, and of course Appa was right on schedule with her 5AM wake up call (thanks Paul for taking her out this morning!), but waking up on the boat in a new city is always nice.  On the dog's second potty break, Peyton and I were on the main berth listening to the most horrible sounds of birds.  For the life of us, we couldn't believe the cackling that we heard outside the boat.  We are used to waking up to the sound of sea gulls either flying around, or in some cases enjoying a fish on our bow, but these noises were truly unique to us.  It even sounded like some of the birds were laughing.   When Paul returned he asked us if we heard the birds.  We both responded with a resolute YES, and asked what was going on out there!!!   He laughed as he began to explain that there was a device on the dock that is motion activated with fake birds rotating on a rod and making these horrible noises!    I guess what a great way to keep the sea gulls away, but lucky us it is right next to our boat!

After filling our bellies with breakfast on the boat, we were off to investigate the marina, pool and showers in order to get our bearings.   We are staying at Skipper Buds Harbor Center Marina, which is the main marina here in Sheboygan.  They have nice and clean showers, which is always a major plus when staying on the boat, and the pool area is quite nice.  They have a great ship's store that is geared towards kids, with cheap candy galore!!   Peyton and Pierce had eyes wide open when going in there, and even tried to rope us in to buying candy and ice-cream at 10AM...  for those of you  that know me, there was no way that was going to happen!

Then off to the city to check out all the fun things we could do.   I knew from Sheboygan's tourist site that they have a farmer's market every Saturday, so that was my first goal.   We drove a short distance in the truck to find a row of easy up's near a park.   As we got out and approached the place, we quickly found out that we were in fact not at the farmer's market but found the art fair.   Once a year, this town puts on a arts weekend festival at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.   We decided to check it out and let the kids run a little bit, unfortunately Pierce didn't really want anything to do with it.   After only getting 8 hours of sleep the night before (he is used to 10-12 on average) he was quickly crumpling into a whining mess of a kid.  Needless to say we quickly walked the art fair, and saw some truly amazing works of art.   If only my pocket book could handle a piece of art that cost around $700 I would have brought home some amazing pictures, however I profess to being a cheap skate, so we bought some spicy nuts and headed off to try to find the farmers market.

The boys began the daily hunger game, and we quickly found out that they didn't eat enough in the morning.  After a constant "I'm hungry" for about 30 minutes we decided to stop for an early lunch.  Paul, always the coffee connoisseur, selected The Weather Center Cafe, a local coffee house on the river.  I didn't mind hoping that it would be as good as the Weather Vane, back in Menasha!  Overall it was good, according to Paul the coffee was good, and Peyton ordered a HUGE burrito.  To my amazement, he actually ate most of it and Pierce continuing his downward spiral to a whiny mess kept getting louder and louder.  We tried to make a fast exit out of there, but ended up with a 10 min potty break thanks to Mr. Whiny!!  On the way back to the boat, for some much needed R&R and a NAP, we stopped at the candy store as I figured I needed something for bribing....  I mean, positive rewards!  The Victorian Chocolate Shoppe was good, but in all honesty their caramels can't compete with some of the shops we have back home.

Once at the boat, it was downstairs for a much needed nap for both Pierce and myself.  Peyton decided to take the dinghy for a spin and I think Paul worked on the blog.   After waking up it was off to the pool for some much needed refreshment.  Pierce is getting amazing with being able to swim around by himself in the water with his super happy orange floating device, and Peyton is such a good swimmer that I never have to worry about him.  So I was able to enjoy some quiet time watching them have a good time, and quickly needed to join in the fun because it was just too hot to sun bathe next to the pool.  It was much more comfortable in it!

We ate dinner poolside and then in true Lake Michigan vacation tradition, wrapped up our evening with ice-cream at the South Pier Parlor.   We tried to dinghy it there, but found out that putting the dinghy at the docks reserved for "Mega Yacht Parking" would prevent us from actually getting out of the boat.   It was hilarious, but we drove it back and took the truck over.

Overall a GREAT and relaxing day!  As much as I may whine and contemplate to myself with stress when the kids get unruly, I really do enjoy these vacations and really ground myself with how fortunate and blessed I am!

Sheboygan or Bust!

This year we are starting out behind schedule as usual. My mother retired this week and had a party Thursday night! We are so happy for my parents; can't wait to see what adventures they go on now.... So anyway that limited our pre-packing to be all set to go on Friday. My plans on Friday were delayed by a group of friends from college days.  One I have not seen in about 5 years was in town. However, I did ask for some help after we hung out for awhile. My friends were able to get me back on track after a short bit.

The drive here was great until we got into town and the mapping system sent us down some residential roads. The route was lined with low hanging trees, so low that they hit the windshield on the boat. This caused a big mess, as the tree breaks up and falls into the boat. We did not leave Neenah until shortly after 6pm. After fueling the boat in Sheboygan at a station with pure gas(only took three stops to find one, thanks Qwik Trip, we did not arrive until 8pm.

Once at the launch at Skipper Buds - Harbor Center Marina things went realitivly well. Susan got a jump on putting things back together while I figured out what to do with truck, trailer and launch the dingy. The marina is very nice and the river walk here is very pretty. Tomorrow we will have explore as tonight we need some rest as we did not have everything in order until after 11pm.