Pemene Falls

What a difference a year makes! Last year on Independence Day Noelle, Sierra and I were in the birthplace of our nation: Philadelphia. We took the train down into Center City and made our way through throngs of people to watch fireworks from the rooftop deck of my brother's apartment. This year, however, was much different. We spent the day in the quiet woods of northern Wisconsin with a quick trip into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a visit to Pemene Falls on the Menominee River.

Cave Point County Park

After our visit to Whitefish Dunes State Park we headed over to Cave Point County Park which is essentially located within Whitefish Dunes. The park was free and packed with people. From the parking area we walked out to the rocky promontory overlooking Lake Michigan. We saw people out kayaking on the lake

and enjoyed the view from the rocky shoreline.

We soon noticed dark clouds moving in from the west and decided to head back to the car. Good timing, as the skies opened up soon after we reached the car. We hit some really heavy rain on our drive north to Wausaukee.

Whitefish Dunes State Park

From Potawatomi State Park we made the short drive over to the eastern side of the Door County Peninsula to visit Whitefish Dunes State Park. This was a place Noelle remembered as one of her favorite childhood spots in Door County and we were not disappointed with our visit.

Since we had Parker with us, we were forced to hike about 3/4 mile to the pet beach.

The hike was easy, but towards the end of the hike the mosquitoes were quite vicious. We hiked through the dunes to the beach and enjoyed the sun and sand.

Even though the water was cold (53 degrees F) we even waded in the water a bit.

Sierra especially enjoyed "climbing" up onto the dunes.

After about two hours of walking and lounging around on the beach we decided it was time to move on. Noelle volunteered to walk Parker back on the trail while Sierra and I walked through a flock of gulls
on the beach to return to the car.

Potawatomi State Park

We arrived in the campground yesterday evening and were quickly made aware of the presence of a robust mosquito population. We cooked and ate dinner as quickly as possible and even made time for a desert of kringle

before retiring to the tent for the night.

This morning we visited a small stony beach on Sturgeon Bay and enjoyed the view and throwing rocks into the water.

The bugs were not too bad on the beach and so I let Noelle and Sierra enjoy the mosquito-free environment while I went back to our campsite to pack things up.

Once we were reunited we drove over to the observation tower

for a view of the surrounding Door County landscape

before hitting the road to check out Whitefish Dunes State Park.

James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden

Last night we stayed with some friends of Noelle's family in southern Wisconsin. We had a wonderful stay, and Sierra even got to swim in a swimming pool for the first time ever.This morning we headed north with a first stop at Mars Cheese Castle for some cheese curds,

then on to Racine for some O&H Kringle. It is the official state pastry of Wisconsin after all!

After we fortified ourselves with Wisconsin provisions (minus the beer), we headed further north still into Sheboygan. Here we veered off our main route to visit the James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden. The sculpture garden is one of those funky places reminiscent of Concrete County Park or Cadillac Ranch. We enjoyed it even though it was a bit buggy in the woods. Probably the coolest feature was the fence

separating the gardens from the road.

The gate, with its bears was especially fun.

There were lots of other cool things to see though too!

A Little Taste of Chicago

We were hungry after our morning adventure on the beach. We packed up camp and then hit the road north into Chicago. Our destination was Superdawg, an authentic Chicago hot dog joint.

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of hot dogs, but the Superdawg was actually quite delicious. The french fries were however, not that great. Superdawg is a drive-in, so rather than eat in the car, we set up our camp chairs just outside the vehicle.

After enjoying our hot dogs we drove to nearby Niles, Illinois to check out the famous 1/3 scale replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa called the Leaning Tower of Niles.

After some photos

it was back into the car for the drive through the rest of Chicago and into Wisconsin!

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore: Lake View Beach Access

Wow! Last night's storms were very intense! A medium sized tree branch fell just inches from our tent. The lightning was like a strobe light and the wind was really whipping. We survived though, no thanks to the ranger who had us seek shelter in the bathhouse after the storm had ended. Anyway, we did not get a whole lot of sleep last night. Still, we were happy to get out to the beach to enjoy some sand and dip our toes in Lake Michigan.

Sierra really enjoyed the beach

and wanted to get into the water badly.

We walked to a tannin-colored creek

and then turned back to the car.

We saw lots of bird tracks in the sand.As far as wildlife, we saw a crayfish

and a lot of weird moths flying around and landing in the sand.

After enjoying the sand in our "piggies" ,

we rinsed off

and headed back to the campground to pack up our slightly drier tent for our drive into Chicago for lunch.