A Summer of Lakes

Earlier this month we took our annual Power family vacation to Door County, WI. We've been taking this trip with the Power clan for about five years now, and every year it gets better.

This year we stayed just outside of Fish Creek in Juddville. The house we rented is called Kinney Farm, and it was a pretty spectacular place for a group like us. It had plenty of space, all the kitchen utensils and appliances we needed to make dinners for the whole family (plus Grandma & Grandpa Madel and Jim, who came for dinner one night).

The front

The back

The barn (the silo soon became a target for water balloon launching--keep reading)

The windmill

 And it was covered in wallpaper. Amazing, wonderful wallpaper.

 

Did you count? Nine. Nine flowerific, plaid-tastic, dot-mazing wallpapers.

But of course, we had fun outside of the house, too. Our first full day together, we went up to Washington Island to tour around and see what all the fuss was about. John and Fran had been there before, but none of the Power kids had memories of it, so even if they'd gone, years and years ago, they were too little to remember.

We took a ferry to get up there...

...and then we hopped on the Cherry Train (which is not actually a train) to see some of the Washington Island sights.

Sadie and Uncle Trevy-Trev, on the "train"

The Powers, heading up the caboose

We stopped at a little farm and Sadie hung out with this fellow.

He seemed a little vain to me.

This is the kind of rain barrel we're going to get for the new house.

Rae and Fran, getting real up in the Do-Co.

Uncle Neill, trying out the horse

Um, why is no one watching?! This is tremendous!

Aaand, Sadie shows us how it's done.

We headed back home that night, sun-burned and happy. Sean hooked up his giant projector screen, which he'd set up in the Kinney Farm's huge screened in back porch, and we watched cartoons, stand-up comedy, and episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

The next day we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's place to spend some quality time with them. And Grandma immediately set us to work pulling grass out of her beach walkway. We didn't mind at all, and it turned out that we're really good grass pullers.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to pull we go!

Sadie's hands are too small to be good at pulling (yet...), so she and Sean hung out down at the water.

Who's cool? These three.

The finished, grass-free walkway

After we worked, we relaxed with Grandma and Grandpa. The day was warm and breezy, and we had a cooler full of beer and some of the best company I could have asked for.

Sean, Angelique, and Sadie, hanging around

This is one of my favorite places in all of Door County: the Madel's back porch

The only thing that was missing was a big meal, so we decided to meet out that evening for dinner at Cooper's Corner in Fish Creek.

The whole gang!

The youngest Power sibs

After dinner, we wandered up to Dippy's Ice Cream Shop for a couple of cones, and spotted a fish boil. Of course we stopped to watch.



Our second full day on the farm was a pontooning day. We rented a boat from a place in Sturgeon Bay and headed out at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. We'd packed beer, sandwiches, and cookies, so we had all of our bases covered.

Captain Neill

Angi and Fran as we headed out onto open water

Fran, contemplating the day ahead (and looking good doing it)

The crew

Roo, unwinding after her adventures in the water (she did not like it and almost drowned Neill as he tried to get her back on the boat)

We returned to the farm that evening even more sun-burned than we'd been after the trip to Washington Island, but--I think--even happier: our bellies full of Coronas and egg salad sandwiches (a better combination than you may think), our arms tired from swimming, and our eyelids a little droopy with vacation fatigue.

But were we too tired to have more adventures that evening when we got back to the farm?

Hell no.

We all wandered down to the water to watch the sunset that night (we'd tried a night before, but missed it). The waterfront was rocky but serene, and we were the only people there. We watched the sun go down, skipped some rocks, and tried to ignore the hundreds of alewives on the shore.

The sun goes down at Kinney Farm

Who's that maniac in the middle of the picture?

That's us.

Auntie Rae and Sadie, just hanging out

And we couldn't end the night there, so we headed back up to the farm...

  ...and onto something that was essential to our stay in Door County: launching water balloons.

I'd gotten a water balloon filler-upper at the store the week before our trip. It was purple and came with about a thousand little colorful balloons, and I knew that we needed it for our vacation. So, coupled with a giant slingshot that just happened to be among our vacation supplies, the balloons became almost better than fireworks.

The Power boys get ready for the shot, as Roo looks on.

The next day, before T. and I headed back home, we all spent a bit more time together at the farm...

...hanging laundry...

...drinking beer...

...running with a tennis ball...

...knocking over Laura...

...goofing around with Letty...

...pretending we're a puppy...

...and being an amazing family.

We stopped by Jim's place on our way out of town, where Sadie and Grandpa John got some final minutes of quality bonding time.

So, Grandpa, here's how this game works...

Got it? No? Okay, I'll explain it again.

And Trevor dug up some of his old scouting gear (or was it Sean's? that point is still under contention).

It should still fit. Yep. I'm sure of it.

And then T. and I left the rest of the gang--who were staying until the next morning--and got on the road back to Crystal Lake.

The weekend following our Door County vacation, T. and I joined the Borks for our family vacation to celebrate G.B. senior's birthday. But that is a blog post for another day, so look for it later this week.

Until then, enjoy this weird July autumn!

Bye, now. Gobble gobble, and such.