In my previous article (A Michigan Vacation), I described the first part of the road trip my wife and I started in the waning days of September 2025. Michigan and Mackinac Island had been our primary destinations and that part of the trip had been relatively easy to plan. The harder part was to figure out how to get back to our home in Omaha – what route to take, what sites to see, maybe more Upper Peninsula and/or Minnesota? My son suggested that we might want to include Door County, Wisconsin, in our itinerary, which we eventually did.
My wife and I had visited Wisconsin before. My nephew graduated from the University of Wisconsin. We had visited him in Madison while he was a student and enjoyed some day trips to “The House on the Rock” near Spring Green and The Circus World Museum in Baraboo. Madison is a nice university town, tucked between Lakes Mendota and Monona. My main memory of Madison is, however, a bit troubling.
I have, per my wife, a bad habit of “inching” into (usually unoccupied) pedestrian crossings at intersections, while preparing to make proper and otherwise legal “right turns on red.” For whatever reason, the citizens of Madison found my crosswalk incursions especially offensive. I have NEVER had anyone pound on the hood of my car anywhere else in the United States BUT in Madison – and it happened twice over a couple of days. I later mentioned this matter to a citizen of Wisconsin (not Madison), and her reply was “that sounds like Madison,” so maybe it is a Madison thing – not a Wisconsin thing. I should also note that one of the “pounders” was a postal employee delivering mail, and they have a reputation for getting a bit surly at times.
Early on, as we were thinking about the trip, we noted that the Creighton Bluejay volleyball team had games scheduled in Milwaukee (Marquette on October 2) and Chicago (DePaul on October 4). As season ticket holders, we found the idea of catching a couple of road games appealing. So we wrote those games and dates into the itinerary and worked backwards to set our travel dates. We would have to leave Omaha on September 23, to do what we wanted to do in Michigan and Door County, before the first volleyball serve in Milwaukee.
So, when we left Munising, Michigan, on Day 8, we headed south to Green Bay (near Door County). The trips vibe changed as we crossed the border from Michigan into Wisconsin – from lakes and water to shopping and volleyball. We were still driving along Lake Michigan, but the lake’s water seemed more tranquil and shallower; the shoreline was less imposing.
On Day 9 we headed into Door County. I had done my research and had dozens of things to see and do on our itinerary. The “2025 Official Destination Guide for Door County Peninsula and Washington Island” suggested that it was better to zero in on a few things for day trips – and that is what we eventually and reluctantly did. We drove counterclockwise on the Highway 57/42 loop, seeing a lot of the county; but zeroed in on the villages of Sturgeon Bay, Sister Bay, Ephraim, and Fish Creek. We made a point of getting to the 5 PM Fish Boil (pictured below) at Pelletier’s in Fish Creek. It was a wise, tasty, and a once-in-a-lifetime decision.
On Day 10 we tried to find downtown Green Bay before driving on to Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers. When I was young and living in North Dakota, “the” Sunday regional NFL game in the Upper Midwest featured the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, or Green Bay Packers. As such, Green Bay was one of my favorite teams during the Vince Lombardi era. The Packers are unique – the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, the last of the “small-town teams,” and the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team. We enjoyed walking around the stadium and walking through the huge gift shop. After Lambeau Field, we toured the nearby National Railroad Museum (photo below) before heading south to Milwaukee to attend the 6 PM volleyball game at the Al McGuire Center. Creighton swept Marquette 25-16, 25-19, and 25-18. It was a great day.
Day 11 was kind of a free day. The next volleyball game was at 1 PM (on Day 12) so we had a choice to make – hang around Milwaukee, a city we had never been to before, or head down early to Chicago, a city we had visited several times before. We wisely chose to stay in Milwaukee. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed downtown to the Milwaukee Public Market (in the historic Third Ward). We then saw a bit of the downtown from “The Hop” (the Milwaukee Streetcar). During the remainder of the day we drove down Lincoln Memorial Drive, waded into Lake Michigan at Bradford Beach, drove around the campus of Marquette University, and had a beer at the Miller Brewery Tour. Milwaukee is in the background of the photo below, taken from the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The weather was crazy nice; the air temperature was 86 degrees (21 degrees above normal) and the water temperature at Bradford Beach was a comfortable (for wading) 67.3 degrees.
The Day 12 itinerary was simple; leave Wisconsin and drive to Chicago in time for the 1 PM volleyball game. The Chicago traffic before and after the game was miserable but we got to DePaul early enough to walk through a bit of the university campus. Creighton defeated DePaul 25-8, 27-29, 25-12, and 25-17. It was a great day. I had toyed with the idea of driving downtown to “the Bean,” but with the miserable traffic and ICE demonstrations downtown, I decided to head on to Jolliet, where our hotel awaited. We did catch a glimpse of the Willis Tower as we fled Chicago (photo below). On Day 13, we drove back to Omaha.
A Final Word
While Wisconsin was not the focal point of our road trip, our stops in Wisconsin were all enjoyable. Looking back, I wish I had scheduled at least one more day in Door County. Our day in Milwaukee was the least planned, but it turned out to be one of the more fun and relaxing.
As we drove back and forth on Interstate 94, we passed American Family Field, where the Milwaukee Brewers won their baseball division last night by defeating the Chicago Cubs. They will soon be trying to win the National League pennant. Go Brewers!
The photograph at the beginning of this article was taken at one of the parks along Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee. The fake ducks and real waterfowl in the foreground kind of represent the fun and relaxing time we had along Lake Michigan (in Milwaukee) and in Wisconsin overall.