Forget Ice Fishing Get Thee towards the Spa

Most people think about visiting Door County Wisconsin in the summertime or fall, nevertheless the winter can be a terrific time too. This beautiful peninsula just north of Green Bay (Packerland) is usually called the New England with the Midwest, but its microcosm of Nordic gene pools for example Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and in many cases Icelandic populations, gives Door County a Scandinavian influence all its own.

While it’s understandable you can find winter activities to partake in like cross-country skiing and tubing, ice fishing, or perhaps a romantic sleigh ride behind a team of massive draft horses, there are a lot of fun things you can do indoors that will make your winter visit unique and luxurious.

On a recent visit we stayed with the Lodgings at Pioneer Lane in Ephraim, where we enjoyed a good looking suite having a whirlpool bath and its own little deck. Waking up leisurely we spent the morning at Door County Coffee and Tea Company where we had a decadent breakfast of Marchia’s Cherry Bread Pudding, fruit along with bacon strata. I purchased some cherry “to-die-for” cupcakes for later.

There was lots of shopping at the same time at DCC&T. Their quaint store was stuffed with delightful gift items like little tea party sets packaged in picnic baskets to chocolate covered cherries, and of course we purchased coffee, some of the best I’ve ever had. The secret on their coffee is because just use #1 Arabica beans according to CEO and founder Vicki Wilson.

We then headed north to Sacred Grounds Spa to the one-and-a-half hour Body Melt Back Treatment

Just i want to the adjective “melt” certainly applies here. As I looked your window in the falling snow, I enjoyed a rigorous full body massage accompanied by steaming hot towels steeped in therapeutic herbs including arnica, rosemary, comfrey, witch hazel, and wintergreen. Outside the snow silently fell and accumulated while I enjoyed a most relaxing treatment.

That night we drove to Fish Creek where we experienced a unique Door County “Fish Boil” in the historic White Gull Inn. The White Gull, integrated 1896 is on a sleepy little road that dead ends within a canopy of cedar trees at water’s edge. We enjoyed the drama from the “boil over,” and after dinner consumed our fill of Door County Cherry Pie. The White Gull is a very quaint destination plus 2010 the Inn was honored with ABC’s” Best Breakfast in America” award for cherry stuffed French toast.

The following day we visited the little town of Egg Harbor where we enjoyed shopping at some terrific little boutiques including Jane’s Designs for Women where I purchased two colorful scarves and Maxwell’s House, a classy home furnishings store/art gallery where everything looked too artistically arranged to disturb it by ordering something. Down the street waiting for us was the highlight of the day, a cheese tasting with the Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese Company.

Head cheese monger Peter Kordon prepared a tasting for us that included some from the best cheeses the condition of Wisconsin can give. We opened bottle of 2009 French Vouvray to fit the selection of flavors and also the time spent there is just heaven for your tastebuds.

One in the more interesting cheeses was a semi-soft – Mobay by Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese, in LaValle,  unique Mobay comes from a classic French cheese making style which includes two layers separated by the layer of edible grapevine ash. A novelty originally created away from frugality by dairy farmers in France to adopt benefit of small batches of milk. In the United States, artisan cheese makers are creating the cheese by causing one layer goat then one layer sheep’s milk. The resulting creation is both delicate and rustic.

We did manage to get out one afternoon and execute a gentle snow shoeing from the Ridges Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor, a pristine 1,600 acre natural area that is a National Natural Landmark, an Audubon Important Birding Area, and a Wisconsin Wetland Gem.

So bringing winter travel our long johns did come to be prudent. When we reunited using the men inside our party we were holding happy, cold and loved the ice fishing!