The Weekend in Door County

So this weekend we said "goodbye" to a Grand Aunt. It is sad to do that. I missed another funeral this summer. So there was some of that which was "hung over." I learned a little bit more about myself and the people that I love this weekend. I walked into a fabled place for the first time in my life. Revered... that's how to best describe the home in "downtown" Bailey's Harbor. I had never been there before. I never realized that you could have a fantastic view of Lake Michigan while you did your laundry, or washed the dishes or stored winter canning. This place had it. For years I had heard people talking about their grand-parents, who to me only existed in black and white photographs. For the first time, they became real to me. It was the stories... happy and sad that did it. For the first time I really listened.

For the first time I asked my surviving Grand Aunt a few questions. Simply listening helped me to learn... to learn about her life, to learn about things that happened over 75 years ago. To know how she, in 1932, at the tender age of 18 moved from rural Door County to Chicago. Talk about brave! Then to learn how the courtship between she and her husband lasted nine years! It was fascinating. I ask myself why I hadn't bothered to ask before... I couldn't be bothered? This woman knitted me green mittens with white shamrocks for crying out loud. I still have them.

We also spent time at the Hands on Art Studio in Fish Creek. I love it there. Stop by if you can. Where else can you weld metal art without owning a welder?