Friday, yesterday was our first day in the area.  We just wandered around.  The peninsula of Door County is composed of a chain of small towns linked by Route 42 and Route 57 which makes the area easy to drive in about an hour.  A few of the towns are Sister Bay, Ephriam, Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, Sturgeon Bay, Bailey’s Harbor.  If the place names spark your imagination, that is because a story is behind every one of those places.

The tourists have departed, ourselves being the exception.  The leaves are in the final phase of color, there are many Fall displays of pumpkins and gourds embellishing the entry ways of shops, and each town is likely to have a coffee shop.  Therefore, for two people who enjoy reading, this is paradise.  We spent the day wandering from town to town, seeing what we could see, and having some memorable conversations with local individuals.

Here are the photos, that I brought back with me.  Enjoy!

 

One of the first places that we stopped was Door County Distillery and Door Peninsula Winery in  Sturgeon Bay.  We disciplined ourselves to purchasing

just six bottles of wine.  I think that I am “too fond” of the grape.  We enjoyed the Distillery with our eyes only.

The displays in the tasting room were visually appealing.  This is a well run business.  A brief conversation with a employee about the design of the labeling was memorable.

Visiting a business such as this causes me to consider the ancient role that alcohol has played in society.  A good beer, or glass of wine is a component of enjoying a meal with others, of socializing.  We are social animals.

I feel apologetic for offering the next photo.  I am a gear-head.  That love of fast cars, of motorcycles, anything with a internal combustion engine gives me a nudge when something extraordinary strikes my eye.

The Ford GT40 was parked by the curb in Fish Creek I believe.  it is a bona-fide super car.  The cost of this vehicle is in the neighborhood of $450,000.  I have never seen one on the street.  I took quite a few photos.  If you look closely you can see the twin turbo charged V6 through the back window.  Several hours later we happened to be in town when the owner left with his car. The car was easily heard over other traffic.

I never grow tired of viewing pumpkins used to symbolize Fall as the time of harvest.  This display was on top of a hay bale, which was covered with a carpet of green sprouts.  Perfect.

Galleries abound in Door County.  We enjoy stopping in as art is a unique expression of meaning, of human conceived beauty.  This studio glass piece caught our eye.  It was a standout among many other pieces of fine work in the place.  The unusual orange vessel and the glass stems of flowers flamed in the natural light.  I think the asking price is reasonable, about $2,000.

We finished out the day with a session of reading while enjoying coffee and tea at the Blue Horse Beach Cafe.  It’s an independently owned coffee shop.  I purchased the endless cup of coffee, and we split a extra large chocolate chip cookie.  I came close to finishing my reading of Isonomia by Kōjin Karatani.  His thesis is that philosophy originated with the towns of immigrant Greeks who settled the coastline of what is now Turkey, in 600 BCE known as Ionia–rather than with Athens.  The book has been a life changing read.  Life is short and death long.  Why would I read anything that is unlikely to be life changing?

There was a wooden sculpture in the Blue Horse of a weeping Buddha, a Buddha kneeling with his head in his hands.  The image caused me to pause and reflect.  Apart

from academic abstraction it is simply not possible to isolate discrete areas of life.  All is connected in a seamless fabric.  Nature cannot be parsed into physics, biology, astronomy, nor are those separated from psychology, religion or from politics.  I suppose that the Buddha must weep with the realization that the outcome of the mid-term elections in a few days will do little if anything to heal the antipathy and ill will of the times in which we live.  When Americans of a certain view that society ought to be made more humane, more welcoming, more collaborative are demonized by Americans of the opposing opinion that society ought to be more competitive, and that reward is only to be earned–one side demonizing the other, etc.

Is any election going to reverse the slide toward increasing conflict?

The Buddha weeps…..