North from Milwaukee

Monday morning, June 12^th, was breezy but much less so than the entire weekend had been.  From our dock, Lake Michigan looked calmer than the forecast was portraying and we decided to leave for Port Washington.  The 27-mile run north from Milwaukee was pleasantly smooth.  Unfortunately, Lazy W was invaded by swarming hordes of black flies that rode with us the entire way!  We arrived at the town marina by 11:00 and by the time we finished tying up the flies were long gone.  The smashed bodies of their dead comrades littered the decks and the captain was anxious to wash them overboard.

Have you ever seen the clever television advertisements for clothing sold by the Duluth Trading Company?  Frank and I always get a chuckle out of them (Frank more than me J) and we were pleasantly surprised to find that a Duluth Trading Company store is located right at the harbor front in Port Washington.  We had to stop in at this ‘store like no other’ and peruse the merchandise.  The displays proved just as entertaining as their advertisements!  However, Frank was reluctant to spend $80 on a pair of fire hose work pants only to wear them in Lazy W’s engine room where there are no beavers.  But he does now own a longtail T.

 

 

 

Located a few blocks away from the Duluth Trading Company is the Pebble House.  The exterior walls of the Pebble House, built in 1848, are covered entirely with thousands of smooth colored stones collected from the lakeshore by blacksmith Edward Dodge and his wife Elizabeth.  The collecting and sorting of the stones must have taken them forever!  The stones are meticulously arranged in rows by color to form an eye-pleasing pattern. Originally built on Sauk Creek, the Pebble House was moved several times over the years and now serves as the Port Washington Visitor Center on Grand Avenue. 



We climbed a 105-step walkway to reach the Port Washington Lighthouse

 

The Art Deco style lighthouse at the entrance to Port Washington

 

Next stop along the Wisconsin shoreline - Sheboygan, known as “the spirit on the lake” and “the Malibu of the Midwest.”  We arrived shortly before the fog rolled in and long before a line of wicked thunderstorms blew in that evening, forcing us to extend happy hour well into dinner hour at Pier 17 Restaurant.

An update to the Harley-Davidson story is in order.  While in Sheboygan, we received a reply from an archivist at the H-D Museum.  He confirmed that the motorcycle that Frank’s grandfather drove in France during WWI was an Indian cycle and NOT a Harley.  Mystery solved!

 

 

Not far from downtown Sheboygan is the Village of Kohler, a model community founded in 1900 when Kohler Company moved its manufacturing facility out of Sheboygan.  The ivy-covered walls of the plant itself are cleverly disguised from view behind towering trees along lovely landscaped boulevards.  The showpiece of the community is the American Club, a luxurious five-star resort that once served as a dormitory housing Kohler’s immigrant factory workers.  Also in town is the Kohler Design Center, fondly known as ‘the toilet museum.’  We give it a 5-star rating – a few stars above the Jell-O Gallery Museum in Le Roy, New York and the Pen Museum in Tokyo, all of which we have visited.

The 35,000-square-foot Kohler Design Center showcases all things Kohler – that is, mainly bathroom plumbing fixtures or as the brochure puts it “stunning examples of the company’s contributions to gracious living and interior design.”  A walk through the three floors of displays first introduces you to the modest beginnings of the Kohler Company in 1873 when it was a major producer of cast iron farm implements and machinery.   In 1883, founder John Michael Kohler enameled the interior of a horse trough/hog scalder and sold it to a farmer as a bath tub.  The rest is history!

How it all began...

 

The remainder of the museum traces the changes in consumer’s tastes in plumbing fixtures from the earliest days of indoor plumbing to today’s luxury spa bathrooms complete with ‘intelligent toilets’ that are self-flushing and feature interior bowl lighting (yup, that’s right), and an array of remote controls that open and close the toilet seat and even regulate the warmth of that seat.  Just what the average home needs – another remote control for the toddlers’ playtime enjoyment.  I wonder if the intelligent toilet is smart enough to prevent the flushing of its remote!

The Great Wall of China - look closely - the wall is covered with bathtubs and toilets!

 

Carrying the plumbing fixture motif throughout the home - a bath tub inspired setteee

 

On the drive to Kohler, our Uber driver pointed out the World’s Tallest Symbol of Freedom.  Attached to this 400-foot tall flagpole at the headquarters of Acuity Insurance is a 70-foot by 140-foot American flag, supposedly the world’s largest free-flying American flag. Each stripe is over five feet high and each star is nearly three feet across. We could see this flag as we approached Sheboygan along Lake Michigan – and it is not located near the lakeshore!

 

 

Continuing the plumbing fixture theme in Sheboygan (we need to move on soon!) is the John Michael Kohler Arts Center where the only permanent art exhibits are the six restrooms!  And are they ever over the top.  The artists who were commissioned to create these works of art had the full complement of the facilities, technologies and materials of the plumbing ware manufacturer at their disposal. Never before had I seen restrooms that were just too awesome to use for their intended purpose.  

 

One of the three hand-painted sinks and stalls in the main Women's Room

 

 

 

Hand-painted sink in The Social History of Architecture - the Men's Room - a tour of architectural periods from ancient Egypt to the present time.

 

 

 

From Sheboygan, we cruised north to the small town of Kewaunee and, after overnighting at Salmon Harbor Marina, we continued north to Sturgeon Bay.  The morning weather forecast called for fog.  I was not anxious to relive the Infamous-Great-Manasquan-Sandy Hook-Fog-Incident of 2002 but from our vantage point at the dock it appeared that the fog had lifted.  So we threw off our lines and headed out.  And as we approached the end of the Kewaunee breakwater the fog thickened.  So with the eerie horn of Kewaunee Light and the annoying intermittent blare of Lazy W’s fog signal permeating the still air, we hesitantly continued on.  We knew there were many small fishing boats out in the fog since there was a salmon tournament based at Salmon Harbor Marina that morning and a little fog would not deter the fishermen.  Luckily, the fog lifted after about half an hour and the remainder of the cruise was enjoyable.  Except for those marauding black flies!

Black flies whose aquatic larvae hatch over the water of Lake Michigan are still problematic on every lake excursion.  They have not been quite as bad as our first encounter since we have learned that if you kill one, 500 more show up for the funeral!  Now instead of our swat to kill ‘em tactic we have changed to a more benign swat to chase ‘em.  We are also experimenting with other remedies such as Avon Skin So Soft since Deet-based repellents are not effective.  As if to mock our efforts to eradicate them, a family of black flies congregated on the Deet spray bottle.

Approaching Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

A stately lineup of white pelicans and sea gulls was hanging out on the southern breakwater at the entrance to the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.  The seven-mile long canal cuts through Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula and consists of two parts – a dredged portion of Sturgeon Bay and a 1.3 mile canal dug in the late 1800s connecting the bay to Lake Michigan.  The purpose of the canal was to provide a safe route for freighters accessing Green Bay to and from Lake Michigan thus avoiding the shoal ridden passage at the northern tip of the peninsula.  We saw no commercial vessels in the canal as we made our way to The Yacht Harbor for a two night stay. 

The Yacht Harbor is the very place where Lazy W was first adopted in 1985!  While the marina no longer sells boats, its current owner bought the marina in 2004 from the man who sold Lazy W, then known as My Fair Lady.  She was moved to Ohio, sold twice in Florida where she was renamed C-Breeze, and then sold again to us in 2010.  Frank moved her north from Florida to Virginia that winter.  She is a well-traveled vessel.

Stained glass window at Door County Maritime Museum

While visiting the nearby Door County Maritime Museum, we also learned that in 1954 a man named George Baudhuin pioneered the Marine Travelift at his marina which is now The Yacht Harbor where we are docked.  This mobile sling-type boat hoist changed the handling of recreational vessels and has been the method used to hoist Lazy W into and out of the water numerous times.

We were up early on Monday morning for the 6:30 opening of the Michigan Street Bridge.  Now on to Green Bay in search of cheese heads...