Things Change

 

       We are back in Door County as usual for us at this time of year. We've made this trip over 20 times and have been staying in the same place and same room for the last three years. I don't mind this. If I know that the room and the bed are somewhat familiar, it's easier for me to go to sleep.

        I wanted to do some different things. Maybe take the ferry to Washington Island and bike around it. See the big lavender farm that is there even if there isn't anything growing this time of year. We could go to the Cana Island Lighthouse. We haven't seen it in over a decade. Eat at a new place, do something, anything different than we've done the last 21 years.

        Much to my frustration, C prefers to do what we have done every year. For some reason, he doesn't feel adventurous when we come here. I can understand this somewhat. It's comforting to know that the restaurant has something you like on the menu. He's sentimental about the places we visit. He is comforted by all this. I felt like it was getting a bit boring.

        When we went hiking in the Peninsula State park, we parked by the beach. I told C that we could skip the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. It looked the same every year and there was no reason to see it again. C insisted that the walk over there.

         The lighthouse was there looking the same as it always had. There were also two new buildings. In an attempt to make the lighthouse area look more like it did when it was a working building, two new buildings had been constructed, replicas of buildings that had once been there. One of them was a barn to house the animals that the lighthouse keeper owned like horses and cows. The other was a summer kitchen where cooking and food preservation would have been done during the warmer months. It was nice to see them. I was especially interested in the summer kitchen as I've always been interested in the day to day activities of normal people from the past. After a bit of exploration we moved on.

        When it got near to lunchtime we grabbed some sandwiches from a local grocery store. It looked like rain was going to prevent us from going back the the park. When it looked like it might be clearing, we went back. This time to Eagle Panorama. We had been there before we we accidentally hiked the difficult Eagle trail. The view from the panorama was wonderful, but I found a staircase that went down. It was old and rickety. I carefully started down. when I got to the bottom, I was rewarded with another view. C came down as well. An eagle swooped past, we could see the bird's white underside and white head. It was the closest either of us had been to an eagle. C was upset that he was not able to get his camera out quick enough for a picture.

        We hiked in Whitefish Dunes State park. Usually it's pretty windy and the water from Lake Michigan splashes on the rocks past the beach. This year the lake was pretty calm. The lake level was down several feet. There were lots of flat rocks that I had never seen before because they were under water. We walked on the path by the beach. There was a lot more beach showing another sign that the lake level was lower.

        As we drove back to our hotel, I realized that things here are not always the same. This year more of the trees were green due to the extended warm weather. Businesses closed and new opens opened. Restaurants changed names. There is always change and there are things that stay the same. And that's OK. (Still hope to get to Washington Island someday...)