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Door County Living Autumn 2021 – Volume 19, Issue 3

Published

In this issue

  • 75 Years of Fall Fest

    This Oct. 15-17, Sister Bay will celebrate its 75th Fall Festival. The big party was postponed for a year because of COVID-19, which means that residents and visitors will be even more fired up to commemorate the annual end-of-season bash.  The festival is a huge moneymaker for nonprofits and local businesses, some of which make […]

  • Celebrate Autumn with an Apple Galette

    Step outside into the brisk, autumn breeze of Door County. Put your arms in the air, and turn your body so the wind brushes your face and blows through your hair. Take a deep breath in; let the deep breath out. Then repeat.  This time of year beckons to me to slow my pace and […]

  • Interiors with Artistic Flair

    Artist and photographer Elizabeth Heller shows why we should venture away from our safe creams and tans when reimagining wall color.  After she and her husband, John, canceled their spring 2020 trip to Florida because of COVID-19, they turned their vacation money into renovation money and created their own spa-like bathroom out of the smaller […]

  • Crafting a Cocktail Scene

    When Mike Holmes and his partners launched Wickman House in 2012, he knew he wanted to create a lively bar scene centered around a craft-cocktail menu.  There just wasn’t a clear path to his vision. The first hurdle was the marketplace: Most residents and visitors didn’t know what a craft cocktail was, let alone an […]

  • At Twisted Tree, Shannon Mough Curates Connections and Community

    As with trees, sometimes the biggest dreams can grow from the smallest seed. For Shannon Mough, her daily yoga and meditation practice planted the seed for a new home and a new career.  “I was living in Chicago, doing meditation and yoga, and somewhere along the way, I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll open a yoga studio […]

  • Publishing on the Door Peninsula

    Door County is known for its thriving arts community. An array of talented and accomplished visual artists, musicians and thespians call this place home. Consider the many galleries, art schools, theaters and stages. The peninsula is bursting with creativity, and one medium that was once under the radar is truly starting to soar: writing. As […]

  • On the Road with a Lens: Luca Fagundes

    There seems to be a pattern in Luca Fagundes’ life in which his childhood experiences directly influence his interests and direction as an adult, from his career to his hobbies, cycling included.  “When I was very young, I was a gymnast,” Fagundes said, but a torn meniscus in his left knee put an early end […]

  • Golf Takes Nick Kwaterski to New Places — and Now Back Home

    Few golfers can successfully hoist a 317-yard drive over the woods and onto the green, cutting off the dogleg on the 353-yard 10th hole at Peninsula State Park Golf Course. But, it’s a feat that Peninsula general manager Jason Daubner has seen Nick Kwaterski pull off.  “I’ve never seen a player with as much raw […]

  • Staying on Pace: Door County Half Marathon

    Runners don’t have to go it alone at the Door County Half Marathon. Krista Eliot, wife of founder David Eliot, has been leading the pace team since 2013, helping guide runners to a successful finish.  Eliot, a veteran of 40 marathons and both the New Balance and Nike pace teams, says her goal is simple.  […]

  • Door to Nature: Royal Fall Wildflowers

    The exciting array of showy wildflowers that decorates northeast Wisconsin’s country landscape in all directions might be called the “royal purple and gold” of autumn.  One of my absolute favorites is the New England aster, which is in peak bloom by late September. Asters — sturdier and more successful than most wildflowers — are in […]

  • Capturing Autumn Through the Lens of Brett Kosmider

    No season in Door County ushers in change that’s more palpable than autumn. Hot, humid air gives way to crisp, dry breezes. The lushness of summer surrenders to blazing fall foliage. Beaches go quiet, and days get shorter. Photographing a Door County autumn can be described as “hurry up and wait.” With the jet stream […]

  • The Artists of the North: Creativity thrives at the tip of the thumb

    Door County visitors who continue their drive past Sister Bay are sometimes surprised by what they find near the tip of Door County. And often it’s the Ellison Bay Art Crawl, held in spring and autumn, that draws them north. “Often we see people from Sturgeon Bay, and they said they didn’t know this was […]

  • A Blissful Transformation: Marketplace breathes new life into downtown

    A centerpiece of old downtown Sturgeon Bay sat empty for two years, leaving the city scrambling to find a tenant who was willing to take on the former Younkers building at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Louisiana Street. It turned out that city administrators didn’t have to look very far to find a perfect […]

  • Compassionate Law: Immigration Attorney Luca Fagundes

    There are early experiences we have that, in the moment, appear to be isolated incidents or even nothing more than a meaningless part of the everyday minutiae. Unbeknownst to us, however, these tiny blips on the timeline can actually become cornerstones for some other aspect of our life down the road.  For Luca Fagundes, such […]

  • CURIOSITIES: The Memorial Pole at Peninsula Golf Course

    As you tee up on the ninth hole of the Peninsula Golf Course, the primary hazard in your vision isn’t a sand trap or a pond, but a 40-foot-tall pole and monument. Good golfers have no trouble avoiding it, but bad golfers will either be drawn into it or find themselves in the adjacent driving […]

  • Curiosities: Ephraim’s Brown Thumb

    Picture Ephraim, and you’ll certainly conjure up an image of white buildings lining the shoreline, the two white steeples of the Ephraim Moravian and Bethany Lutheran churches popping out of the treeline, and sailboats moored in Ephraim Harbor.  A handful of buildings add splashes of color to the palette. There’s the quaint Firehouse Museum nestled […]

  • CURIOSITIES: JJ’s Best Customers

    James “JJ” Johnson is known to have such an eye for a deal that he has a hard time passing them up. That’s how he once ended up coming back from a restaurant auction not with a cooler or a pizza oven, but with the whole darned restaurant.  Early in his days as a restaurateur, […]

  • A Run for Everyone: Door County Half Marathon is many things to many runners

    A half marathon means different things to different people. For some, it’s an opportunity to travel, see new landscapes and make new friends. For others, it’s a chance to test their physical limits on a challenging course. Then there are those who use the experience to find themselves again after a major life change. And […]

  • EDITOR’S NOTE: The Autumn Essential

    This article appeared in the Autumn 2021 edition of Door County Living magazine. The hoodie.  Simple. Versatile. Essential. How many Door County evenings have been made better by its presence? How many have been ruined by its absence?  In early spring, I jump the gun, shedding the thick layers of winter at the first sign […]