looking for spring

In a where’s waldo kind of a way my daughter and I wanted a road trip, partly to get out of Dodge and partly to find some unfrozen signs of spring. Since I had to take her back to school in Appleton we decided to continue east and stay overnight in Door County. I could really use some waves crashing, beach stone hunting, peace of mind therapy. Since our snows at home have almost melted and I have actually had 2, throw the doors and windows open, kind of days, I thought my visions of walking along a rocky beach were logical. Even looking at the White Gull Inn’s website and seeing their “ha, ha” it just snowed 6 inches didn’t seem to sink in. It wasn’t until we were driving up past Sturgeon Bay and the whole friggin bay was solid ice did I truely realize that spring was going to be harder to find here than at home. To even get over the drifts to the “not waters” edge, we would have needed snowshoes. So screw that, we fell back to plan B, which apparently was to ignore the snow and find some fun places to eat. (And by the way, I did not find the 5 foot, cheerily lit snow cave by the entrance to our hotel to be amusing at all.)
Our evening meal was at The Wild Tomato in Ephraim, WI, fun in a cute guy throwing pizza dough and yummy pizza kind of way. And then, my main goal of going to breakfast the next day at the White Gull Inn for their award winning, cherry stuffed french toast. Thinking that my mission was complete, we hit a couple of token galleries and then knowing I had a 6 hour plus drive home we headed back to Appleton but decided to drive back on the quieter side of the peninsula. And what did I see that had me jumping up and down in my seat, was the most astonishing turquoise blue water as far as the eye could see. I jumped out as soon as I could, camera in hand, still ignoring that blasted snow everywhere. Rachel did lots of eye rolling but managed to keep her mouth shut while I communed with the lake.
I have never remembered Lake Superior being such a Caribbean blue and with lots of imagination the snow looked just like windblown sand. Another stop at Cave Point, with lots more pictures and soaking in the sounds of the lake, I felt justified that although my search for spring had failed, I was gifted that surreal blue lake vista. Just enough renewal of mind to make it through whatever April in Wi has in store for us. I am not getting the long underwear out again for a long long time!