What a wonderful week we had!

Last week we were on vacation.  So that I don't overwhelm you with pictures, I'll be sharing for a few days what we did.
Here's our first day:
This past Spring, we had been in Ludington and saw the big ferry, the SS Badger come in.  We decided it would be a fun thing to do and it's how we started our week.
We had to be in Ludington at 8am, to board the ferry which would be leaving at 9am.  The trip across Lake Michigan, to Wisconsin takes 4 hours.

The Badger is huge.  It was interesting to see cars, trailers and semi's being loaded on.  We left our car to be loaded and went up to the passenger area.

We were amazed at everything on this ship.  This area is on the top, and with the breeze on the lake, we thought it was too cold for us to stay there, but quite a few people did take advantage of it.
There is a gift shop, a museum, a restaurant, a game room, a theatre, numerous seating areas and state rooms you can rent if you want.  There were people providing music and games being played in another section.

Here is the view from the deck as we pulled out of Ludington.  This is the Coast Guard station.

And the light house at the end of the pier.

It wasn't long till we were out of view of land.
Bob and I had a nice breakfast and then found several different places to sit and enjoy the view and read.
We also walked around the ship several times, checking out different areas.

Thankfully, we didn't have to use these!

It didn't seem like long before we were heading into port at Manitowac, WI.

We steamed past the lighthouse there and it didn't take too long to deport.

We had a picnic lunch on the shores of Lake Michigan, then visited an old mansion that was built in 1852, which also housed an art museum.

This was out front - it's named "Late for a date".
The mansion was beautiful and we enjoyed the self guided tour.

In front of the museum, is this little plaque that shows where a piece of Sputnik crashed.  Inside the museum is a recreation of that piece along with photos and newspapers that reported it.  It was nothing big, but still fun to see.


We then drove to Sturgeon Bay in beautiful Door County where we were staying for the next few days.  We had been told that one of the things we needed to take part in while there was a 'fish boil', so once we were settled in we checked the area for one of them and made reservations.

This is the restaurant we went to, it seemed to have the best reviews.  It's an old boarding house which has been renovated.  When we got there we were escorted outside.

Set up outside was this huge kettle which was filled with boiling water, potatoes and onions.

We were all seated around it, and this man told about the history of the fish boil.  It was started by the Scandinavians who settled here and brought some of there culture here, using what was available in the area.  Fish could be caught in the lake, and potatoes and onions grew well.

After the potatoes boiled for 30 minutes, the fish was added along with salt.  That was boiled for a little over 5 minutes, then kerosene was thrown at the fire.

 resulting in this huge fire!  The fire causes a large boil over, which gets rid of all the stuff that floats to the top of the pot while cooking.

 It also puts the fire out.  The pot is so big that it took 2 guys to carry it into the restaurant.  We followed and were served supper.

Here's supper!  Fish, potatoes, cole slaw, bread and then dessert which is another tradition - cherry pie with ice cream.

The meal was very good, and I don't usually like fish!  Seeing the presentation just added to the whole evening.
After dinner we spent some time walking around town.
It was a very good day!