Door County Day 2: Baileys Harbor, Waseda Farms, Cherries, biking to sand bay Beach, wickham house bbq, Garrett Bay Boat landing, Ellison bluff sunset, Door County Creamery

(July 2020) I can’t believe this was one day. We did so much. It was raining so we took lovely county road F to Baileys Harbor for a very small farmers market at the town hall and excellent coffee and chèvre with honey and toasted nuts on a thick slice of sour dough at Bearded Heart. Almost everyone is wearing masks now (which is a relief) after a County mask order.

The rain was in and out most of the morning, adding drama to the bucolic waterfront and farm scenery. We stopped at my dream organic farm, Waseda Farms, to pick raspberries in the drizzle, taking refuge on the porch of a late 1800s school house during a downpour that made the gardens, full of flowers, fruit and vegetables, even lusher.

On to cherry land along Highway 42 from Egg harbor to Fish creek to Ephraim. We stopped at several varieties of cherry store from strange old-fashioned with grandma behind an old cash register (hyline) to sleekly commercial (laughenbach). We came home with raspberries, blueberries (from Michigan!) sweet cherries, brats, goat chèvre, and leftover bbq brisket and ribs from the lovely Wickham house in Ellison Bay. The main house is closed due to Covid but diners and takeout customers enjoyed the lovely gardens-side dining. Every one is improvising due to the pandemic with good results. Wickham house was serving only bbq and it was excellent.

After splurging on a caphrina in the garden we found an amazing empty spot overlooking a surreally calm bay to eat out takeout on a bench, driving deep in the woods until a clearing by the water, at Garrett Bay boat landing. On the way back to Sister Bay we hit a scenic overlook at the end of another clearing in the woods just in time for a spectacular sunset at Ellison bay bluff. We got to Sister Bay just before Door County Creamery closed for some goat milk gelato and then wandered the almost free of tourists main drag. I almost forgot to mention our 5 mile bike ride down Waters end road to Sand Bay, a small beach with soft sand, where we swam in Lake Michigan which was gentler and warmer than I remembered from childhood trips up north in Michigan. Glorious.