Wisconsin, Vacationing in Wisconsin, and why I Heart Fall.

We took a weekend trip to Door County this weekend and I'm in love. Matt said some of the little lakefront towns reminded him of New England; I'm less familiar with New England, but they reminded me a bit of heaven. It was a perfect time to go--apparently the very last weekend of the tourist season, there were few people but a preponderance of splendid red-pink-orange-yellow trees. We are so lucky that Jeff Leach plays bridge with a lovely woman who happens to own a lovely condo in Ephraim, on the west coast of the peninsula. Here is the view from the back porch of the condo:



Sigh.

Door County Peninsula protrudes north (and a little east) from Wisconsin into Lake Michigan, and as such has little towns and harbors dotting its more than 300 miles of shoreline (little fact: this county has more shoreline than any other in the U.S.). Here's a map to help orient you, if you're at all interested in being oriented (Door County is the part in red).



As I mentioned before, we stayed in Ephraim, a village founded as a Moravian religious community in 1853. If you're like me, 'Moravian' means nothing to you--a little research taught me that it's a mainstream protestant denomination that apparently started in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the 14th century. Anyway, there are several historic buildings still standing in town, including a one-room schoolhouse and Moravian church dating from the mid-1800s, but other than that I'd say there are several small shops and restaurants and many very pretty lakefront homes, and not much else. Here are a couple pictures of the lake right across the street from where we stayed:





It was, as you can see, absolutely gorgeous. I nearly died the morning after we arrived, when I could see exactly what we had somehow fallen into. We drove into Bailey's Harbor on Saturday and then visited a kind of infamous little bar, the Blue Ox (probably only infamous to those who have heard Jeff's story of the Lawrence University pre-med Door County retreat--if you haven't heard this story, it's probably worth hearing at some point). Jeff, this picture is for you:



We later went wine tasting at Stone's Throw Winery, which had some very good wines, and then went in the afternoon to Fish Creek, a very touristy but very beautiful little town with a stunning harbor.





Vinny was Mr. Popular all day. I swear, in Fish Creek, every person who passed us stopped to exclaim how adorable he is (and he is adorable, so I don't blame them).



Aly was in charge of dinner and it was delectable. For me personally, she did portabella mushrooms with goat cheese in a balsamic reduction, and I was HAPPY. Much wine was also consumed and we slept very well in the quiet of a basically abandoned condo complex in a deciduous forest on the shore of Lake Michigan. As you can imagine, this suited Matt, who is still recovering from a week of intense exams. It also suited me, who had to deal with Matt while he was dealing with a week of intense exams.

On Sunday we went to breakfast, packed up, and left Ephraim. I wanted a quick stop in Egg Harbor, which we'd driven through on the way up, just for photos. It's breathtaking.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif



We drove home through the more rural areas of eastern Wisconsin and I must admit, I love those too. Wisconsin farms are different from California farms; they're greener, more old-fashioned; they seem as though they haven't changed in 100 years.



It was a wonderful weekend. On top of the fall colors, it was clear and in the high 60s and low 70s all weekend. Perfect weather. If you want to see all the pictures, go to my Picasa website.

Happenings in Wauwatosa

I was sort of over the whole blog thing but I find that recently I have so much I wish I could share with friends and family about our experiences out here in Wisconsin. So I think that I'll just share, and people can read or not read, and I hope it's not too terribly dull. I guess the thing is, this move doesn't only represent a (pretty extreme) change in location, at least not for me; perhaps more interesting are the little changes that have accompanied our new circumstances: being out of 'the nest' again (finally), cooking for ourselves, learning to live together, figuring out education and career stuff, making new friends, etc. And all of that on top of the fact that there are so many interesting and curious things about Milwaukee, and about the midwest in general, that I'm learning every day. AND the fact that Matt's in medical school, which (I'm coming to realize) is such an extreme circumstance in and of itself.

So, those are my excuses for starting this blog. To be honest, the real impetus was a run I took yesterday that led me to Hi Mount Road, or maybe two blocks of Hi Mount Road, on the edge of the Washington Highlands. The Highlands consist of about a square half mile of truly lovely (and large) homes, many of them designated historic sites; this neighborhood conveniently begins right across the street from us so I run through it fairly often and lust after the elegant English tudor and colonial revival-style houses and well-manicured yards. Here are a couple pictures of some of the houses--these aren't the best, actually, so I'll try and take some better ones soon.





Anyway, back to Hi Mount Road--I don't think it's technically part of the Highlands. It's a little farther east. The houses are similar in scale but a little older, I think, and they are set even further back off the road. The entire street is covered with a canopy of huge old trees, which is, I think, why I like it so much. Most roads in Wauwatosa are tree-lined in an almost movie-set sort of way, but this street in particular is almost forested. It's absolutely beautiful. I'll post a picture as soon as I get the chance to take one because I'm clearly lacking in my verbal explanation.

The reason I wanted to write about this street is that it kind of represents all the things I am coming to love about Wisconsin. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful here. We live in a suburb, but it is nothing like a California suburb--the houses are old, and they are all unique, and they were built in a way that leaves space for the trees (which, since it's starting to be fall, are truly spectacular). People are out in their yards all the time, and the yards don't tend to be fenced with 9 foot security fences like they are in the west. We have little kids running through our backyard daily, going from one neighbor's house to the other, and I love it (so does Vinny--he's made some fast friends). Maybe the real word for it all is 'charming.' And it's not surface-level charming, either. We've been here almost two months now and I keep finding new things I love about it.

I'll try not to go off the deep end about Wisconsin's wonders. Clearly, California remains possibly the best state ever invented and pretty much everyone I meet out here would rather be there than here. But it's heartening to move to a completely different place and immediately become aware of its virtues, rather than its shortcomings, and to realize that there are places outside of California that are worth living in, and that it's actually refreshing to escape the west coast for a while.

I have so many other things to talk about, namely: jobs, wine club, the countless joys of the slow cooker (I swear), and the approaching winter (ominous, at best). But I'll have to do that later. I'll leave you with a picture of our house, taken just today. It's no historical site, but I like it. (We're on the left.)