Wisconsin vacation
 

We are planning a vacation in Wisconsin in August. We will be staying a week at Mishicot at a time share. What are some sites to see? I remember hearing about a rock home? How difficult is it to get to Michigan and Mackinac island? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

Lois: The SS Badger will take you from Manitowoc, WI to Ludington, MI in 4 hours. It will be at least another 2 hour drive from Ludington to Mackinac Island. (www.ssbadger.com) You are staying in Door County - if you're into nature, you'll love the area - check out Peninsula State Park.

Actually, you're going to be a little south of Door County and about a 35 minute drive from Green Bay, near the Lake Michigan communities of Manitowoc and Two Rivers. I've got some notes (not outstanding, mind you) on Manitowoc, which will give you the link to the S.S. Badger, along with some other area attractions: <BR><BR>http://www.igougo.com/planning/journal.asp?JournalID=3220<BR><BR>You might enjoy some Lake Michigan charter fishing for lake trout and salmon (there's contact info for the Two Rivers Charter Fishing Association to help you set that up). I'm guessing your time share is at Fox Hills, which is a golf resort at Michicot. Enjoy!

You're probably thinking of The House on the Rock, which is a couple hours west of where you'll be (can't think of the town name). Supposedly it's the state's #1 tourist attraction. It's not for all tastes, and certainly wasn't to ours...The house (sort of FLW style) is interesting enough, tho I remember it as being kind of dank. But the museum on the grounds is high-kitsch. And when we were there, it was somehow a one-way path, so you could not get out w/o going all the way through - a nightmare. <BR><BR>Manitowoc has a funky little zoo, and a submarine. Other than golf, you will not find a whole lot to do in Mishicot or your immediate driving area, unless you plan to day-trip.

Kurtz's in Two Rivers is an interesting pub, good lunch menu. The Court House Pub in Manitowoc has an excellent dinner menu. Mantitowoc Maritime Museum, tour a WWII submerine. Rahr West art museum in Manitowoc. Rogers Street Fishing Village museum in Two Rivers. The Old School shops in Mishicot. The Washington House in Two Rivers for ice cream. Two Rivers proclaims to be the home of the ice cream sundae. Point Beach State Park. The Point Beach Nuclear Plant visitor center.<BR><BR>other nearby interests within 45 minute drive: Door County to the north where the Chicago tourist go, Green Bay to the Northwest for football fans, Sheboygan and Kohler to the south. Kohler has the American Club and Kohler design center, look them up.<BR>

Lois - Just so you know, for planning purposes...Door County is not a 45- minute drive from Mishicot...more like twice that to get up to where you'd want to start exploring (Egg Harbor - Baileys Harbor area).

About the rock home- House on the Rock- I would skip it!!!!! It is the oddest place I have ever been. I highly recommend going to Door County, beginning in Green Bay drive north to the tip-Gills Rock. Peninsula State Park is very nice as well as Whitefish Dunes State Park.

Do not go to House on the Rock! Our family still jokes about the time we wasted there. The house itself is mildly interesting although a bit claustrophobic. However, then you enter the museum area which is endless and one way with few exits. There is room after room of stuff. Some of it is interesting, most of it is not. Very little is labeled or explained. It really made us appreciate the work museum curators do in presenting things in interesting ways.