This was a 3 plus week trip, so this is a long blog… enjoy
This trip was suppose to happen 2 years ago, but my lovely wife got very sick (heck, they said she wasn’t going to leave the hospital alive kind of sick), but she proved them wrong and we went on the trip last September / October. This is the time we travel each year as it’s around our anniversary time. This time the trip included our good friends, Leo and Norma. We’ll start in Maine and go through, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, then back to Maine.
Our first day had us traveling through New England with our first stop in East Stroudsburg, PA. On our way, we stopped at a great little place for a late lunch, early dinner at Muller’s Diner, located in Bushkill Falls PA area. The meal was late, because I don’t stop to eat when I travel, or so they say – I just drive, look around and enjoy where I am, but those who travel with me, like to eat, I don’t get it:). So the meal was great, large and very reasonable price, highly recommend stopping if you are near this place and enjoy a great meal. From here we went to my favorite stop in the area Country Kettle which has A LOT of CANDY!, but also has stuff for those that don’t have a sweet tooth. Jewelry, Candles, Old Fashion Metal Signs, Pocketbooks, Purses and so much more. After this we made our way to the first hotel of many coming up in this trip. Our first night was at the Penn Stroud Hotel. My wife and I have stayed here a few times and thought our friends would enjoy it and the area, which is downtown Stroudsburg. The area is pretty clean, and a hopping area for entertainment, shops and eateries. We walked around after we checked in and enjoyed the area for an hour or so before calling it a night. Still many days and nights to see and do things.
The next day, we headed on our way to our next stop which was going to be DuBois OH, but I changed it a few days before we left. The new next stop was now Youngstown, OH. which was about an hour closer to Ashland, OH for the next day, which was key, because after our next stop, we wanted to get into Shipsawanna, IN early enough to do something. The next stop in question was in Ashland, OH, Grandpa’s Cheese & Chocolates. We visited this place a few years back, the first time we went to Sturgeon Bay, and it’s a great, fun stop, and if you need an excuse, it’s a great place to stretch your legs and get some great treats for the next part of any journey.
After we did Grandpa’s Cheese / Chocolates, we headed to Shipshewana, IN and our hotel – The Van Buren Hotel, just a bit outside of town. A very nice, quiet, comfortable place at reasonable prices. We choose this area, because we stayed here as well a few years back on our first trip to the area. We did stay at a different hotel, (The Blue Gate Garden Inn) which was right in town and very convenient to walking, shops, eateries and more. It also has a great entertainment venue attached. The only reason we didn’t stay here this time, was it was booked up:( If you can get in, do it, as they have a Great Entertainment center located right there and some pretty damn cool acts that play there. If we lived closer there’s at least 4 acts we would have tickets for right now.
So we spent 2 days and 3 night here as there is a ton to see and do. The Main Street, like most touristy towns, is the main attraction and this place is no different, except maybe because it’s a bit more Amish than most other parts of the country. The shops are neat and clean and plentiful. One of the Big attractions here is the Shipshewana Flea Market which is said to be one of the largest in the country. Ok, I must admit, based on what we saw (a bit late in the season), I would skip this the next time we were here. Not because it wasn’t cool with a bunch of neat stuff, just nothing of interest for me or those with us on the trip. We did find some very cool shops to check out while there and many of them I would revisit should we come back. I’m a sucker for cool “General Store” kind of shops as well as Food Shops, Candy Shops, and I also enjoyed checking out the Amish Furniture stores and more. One of my favorite stops here was the Blue Gate Restaurant & Bakery, oh yeah, right up my alley. One of the only things that bums me out lately, is I can’t eat all this great food, just don’t have the room for it all. Another fun stop was Yoders Meat and Cheeses … and more. Cinnamon buns that should be against the law, they are so damn big and delicious.
One of the cool things happening in the area was a hay bale art contest. I had first seen hay bale art in Killington Vermont area and was taken back by it. I was excited to see how these might differ from the ones in Vermont, and I’d have to say, the ones in Vermont were generally much large, but these folks do a great job. Here are a few of the many on display throughout Shipshewana and other small towns in the area. Photo’s courtesy of Norma & JoAnne L Thank you ladies!
The 2nd day here we set some time aside to do a bit more exploring and checking out the sites and sounds of the area and surrounding area. This lead to a late afternoon meal and visit to The Essenhaus Inn. This is a nice Hotel with gorgeous grounds, a wonderful shop with a ton of cool stuff to check out, and a nice restaurant. It’s also home to one of the areas largest car shows in the fall, the Essenhaus Fall Classic Car Show, over 1500 cars of all types show up for this event.
After spending a good part of the day here we headed back towards town to think about calling it a day, with hopes my wifes Med’s have been delivered by FedEx so we could get a early start to our day the next morning. Sorry to say, her med’s weren’t delivered and now we are in a bit of panic mode, we’ll cut to the chase, they did get there the next day, and shortly after noon, so while it had us leaving a few hours later than planned, everything was ok – on to Mars Cheese Castle.
Mars Cheese Castle is a short 3+ hour drive from Shipshewanna, IN, ok, so with the big city traffic, more like 4+ hours but still doable. Here you’ll find all kinds of great treats. Cheese, Meats, Sandwiches, Beverages (a great selection of wines with some very helpful signage), candy, apparel, Pastries and I’m sure more cool stuff. Many items get sampled throughout the day, which is a real nice treat, especially for those venturing out to try and expand their pallet on different cheeses and meats – always great when folks have a Toothpick Buffet of their goods.
After spending a few hours here we headed on our way to Sturgeon Bay, where we would be spending the next 10 days or so, exploring and enjoying the area. This was our 2nd time to the area and the first time for our friends. After our first visit and talking about it so much, our friends asked if we could take them here when they retired, we said …sure. So a few years later, they’ve retired and here we are again.
The trip was pretty much a mirror of what we did the last time with a few new things added for us and a few things we didn’t do this time (the trip was about 3 days less this time, so we had to cut something’s out). It’s not easy planning a 3 plus week trip and getting everything planned in, but we did a pretty good job. Sometimes things come up, or now that it’s 4 people doing the sites it takes longer than planned. Meals take longer to eat and to order, and that doesn’t count the dreaded “what do you want to eat, I don’t know what do you want, I don’t care, what does Leo want, doesn’t matter to me, what does Skip want, he’s the fussy one”😉
The trip from Mars to Sturgeon Bay was about 3-4 hours. We drove along the waters edge as much as possible – damn these lakes go on forever… We stopped a few times along the way, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Algoma to get out stretch of legs and take in as much as possible of the lakes. Our friends were blown away by the lake and how it looks a lot more like the ocean than any lakes they’ve ever seen.
Once we got to the lake house, we unpacked and took a deep breath at the beautiful location we got and said “You did good Skip, this is awesome”!
The next day, we weren’t in any real hurry to get out and about, as we knew we would have plenty of time to see everything in the coming days – or so THEY thought. Again, there is a lot to see and do. At this point I’ll likely bounce around a bit, but hey, you’ll never know if it’s in order or not:)
One of the things we didn’t do last time was a Fish Boil. These are very popular in the area, so I did make reservations to do it this time. Our travelers said it sounded like fun, and they’d never even heard of a fish boil, so they were excited to give it a try. Now the most popular one here is Pelletier’s Fish Boil, so I went with this option (some folks we met said they did a different one and suggested it, but we stuck with our first choice. I will say, this was for my lovely wife, and Norma, as Leo and I had Roasted Chicken for our meals. The event leading up to the meal is quite something and at least half the fun of the event.
After the meal we walked along the waters edge and came across a small park that locals go to nightly to view the gorgeous sunsets.
I’ll try to get an article on some of the downtowns on Sturgeon Bay as there is no less than 5 for sure. There is one at each Bay or Harbor
Sturgeon Bay, Whitefish Bay, North Bay, Rowleys Bay, Sister Bay, Egg Harbor, Bailey’s Harbor, Jacksonport … Some of these places have a nice size downtown area with 15-25 shops and some have 6 or so quaint shops. most of the areas have a few restaurants, and the ones we did stop at where all very good. Speaking for food, the area is also known for Supper Clubs. I did a fair amount of research on which one(s) we should consider and why. I should point out, I couldn’t figure out the draw? They were restaurants severing food during their normal operating hours.
