Running, Picnics, & a Fish Boil!

Every year that we come to Door County, there are certain things we absolutely have to do. Yesterday we accomplished three of them!


My favorite thing to do running-wise is to run from our cabin down to Fish Creek, then run through the Peninsula State Park all the way to the lakeshore beach. It's a good 8.5 miles (all downhill), so I always coerce one of my sweet sweet family members to drive down and pick me up. Because, first of all, I'm not running 17 miles on vacation. That's just crazy. And to run 8.5 miles downhill and return and run 8.5 miles uphill? No thank you.

Beautiful lake in the morning.

So yesterday, I made the trek bright and early and ran down to the beach. I had some extra time before my mom was due to arrive, so I added on for a total of 10 miles. Perfect long run by the lake. 

I could run with this view all year long and never complain.

Second thing we did yesterday was a picnic lunch! We returned to the beach area for some essential laying out and wading in the water. And a picnic!

Getting ready to CHOW!

Have I mentioned the weather here is gorgeous? High of 85 with little to no humidity, which is amazing compared with what we have been experiencing in Ohio.

Business Man: "Sara... it's just a picnic. We don't need 203942 photos commemorating it."

And because it's vacation, we had to have lunch dessert. My Business Man & I stopped at this cute little pie shop for some 'fresh yesterday' slices. 

My dream is to have a cute bakery like this someday. Sigh.

That three berry pie was sooo good.

After a bit more time at the beach, we returned to our lodging for some laying out by the pool. 

I know, it's a rough life. Too bad my Business Man refused to be our cabana boy and refill our drinks.

The last must-do activity we partook in yesterday was the good ole' fashioned Door County Fish Boil.

It's kind of a Door County tradition. Various restaurants hold them, but the White Gull Inn is the best.

The fish boil man gets a big pot of water boiling. The same guy has been doing it for as long as I remember. Probably one of the coolest jobs ever. When the water is ready, fresh-caught white fish from Lake Michigan and red potatoes are placed in a wire basket, then lowered into the water. The only seasoning used is salt, and that's just to raise the specific gravity of the water. (Whatever that means? Thank you, Wikipedia.)

Best. Job. Ever.

Once the fish oils rise to the top of the pot, the fish boil man adds a small amount of kerosene to the flames, which causes a big fire-like thing to happen and the oils all boil over the top of the pot.

Whoooosh!

Then it's ready to eat! A couple of guys come out and lift the big wire baskets out using a long pole-looking thing.

They take the fish inside, then we all follow them to eat.

Bad lighting! But delicious food.

And then you pour clarified butter all over everything. Which cancels out all the healthiness of the fish, but whatever, we're on vacation. :-P They also gave us coleslaw and yummy sweet breads but those escaped the camera. Oh, and cherry pie & ice cream.


After the fish boil, we headed down to watch the sunset.

Nothing like a sunset on the shore.


Today we're off for some sailboating and S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G! Wheee!