Kathy Visits Door County Wisconsin

We go with them vicariously...   

10/18/2016 - The Adventure Continues Begins At Sister Bay Wisconsin (Page 2)

Up and at  'em... Time to have breakfast and see the goats at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay.

Visiting Doors County October 2016

Visiting Doors County October 2016

Did You Know? - Sister Bay is a village in Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 876 at the 2010 census.

The Village of Sister Bay is a friendly, thriving community where residents and visitors alike enjoy the natural beauty of its surroundings enhanced by well-maintained parks and the natural environment.

The unique charm of the Village's waterfront, library and businesses are enjoyed and utilized by all. As Northern Door County's year-round village, it balances the needs of a growing retirement community, while attracting and supporting its younger population with a viable economy. The Village has carefully controlled growth to maintain its charm, character and natural beauty.

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Green Bay is directly ahead

Visiting Doors County October 2016


Plenty good grub

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant has a unique feature... Roof Goats

Did You Know? - The two web cameras mounted on a rooftop peak of Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant are pointed in slightly different directions, so they reveal 95% of the sod roof's surface.

If you can't see the goats in one picture, look closely at the other…it's a rare day that you can't see the goats somewhere on the roof…unless it's night-time, of course, because the goats are brought down each evening and spend the evening in a peaceful barn on the outskirts of Sister Bay.

Note that the goats are NOT on the roof in winter! They usually go onto the restaurant's sod roof at the start of each tourism season, in late May, continuing through mid-October.

   

The sod on the roof came first; sod roofs are popular in Sweden, and it's a Swedish restaurant. The goats arrived as a practical joke played by Wink Larson while the restaurant owner, Al Johnson, was away on vacation. That was in the 1960s. There have been goats on the roof ever since.

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Sure enough.... There they are!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The critters keep the sod trimmed

Did You Know? - A sod roof or turf roof is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log houses in Norway and large parts of the rest of Scandinavia. Its distribution roughly corresponds to the distribution of the log building technique in the vernacular architecture of Finland and the Scandinavian peninsula.

The load of approximately 250 kg per m² of a sod roof is an advantage because it helps to compress the logs and make the walls more drought-proof. In winter the total load may well increase to 400 or 500 kg per m² because of snow.

Sod is also a reasonably efficient insulator in a cold climate. The birch bark underneath ensures that the roof will be waterproof.

Read More....

Visiting Doors County October 2016
They are also used as guard animals... Just kidding!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The restaurant is quite large

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Sister Bay Marina is just across the bay

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The condo's have a great view of the city

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Sister Bay shoreline and marina

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The Sister Bay Marina light signals the vessels coming into the bay
Latitude: 45° 11′ 38″ | Longitude: -87° 7′ 6″

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The aerial view provides an excellent view of the marina... It's winter and all
the boats are carefully stored on-land so the ice does not squash them


It's changed a bit since 1912

Visiting Doors County October 2016

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Nice to stroll down the bay

Visiting Doors County October 2016
On the way back, we had to stop and revisit the goats!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Excellent view of the passers by!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
... and I have a friend!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
"I am a handsome devil!"

Visiting Doors County October 2016
"Reminds us of a song..... I Can See Clearly Now"

Visiting Doors County October 2016
The folks who milk us have a terrible time up here on the roof!

Visiting Doors County October 2016
"I will never tell them!"

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Oops! Discovered revealed! The Great Goat Escape

Visiting Doors County October 2016
Most direct route to the roof

Just A Few Miles North On 42 To The Niagara Escarpment

Visiting Doors County October 2016

Did You Know? - An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as an effect of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs predominantly east/west from New York, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. It is composed of the Lockport geological formation of Silurian age, and is similar to the Onondaga geological formation, which runs parallel to it and just to the south, through western New York and southern Ontario. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over which the Niagara River plunges at Niagara Falls, for which it is named.

Study of rock exposures and drill holes demonstrates that no displacement of the rock layers occurs at the escarpment: this is not a fault line but the result of unequal erosion. The escarpment's caprock is dolomitic limestone ("dolostone"), which is more resistant and overlies weaker, more easily eroded shale as a weathering-resistant "cap". The escarpment thus formed over millions of years through a process of differential erosion of rocks of different hardnesses. Through time the soft rocks weather away or erode by the action of streams. The gradual removal of the soft rocks undercuts the resistant caprock, leaving a cliff or escarpment. The erosional process is most readily seen at Niagara Falls, where the river has quickened the process.

Visiting Doors County October 2016
A dedication to the Niagara Escapement is in place

Visiting Doors County October 2016
...an amazing geological setting

Visiting Doors County October 2016
It was a great day for exploring

Visiting Doors County October 2016


Page Three - On Up To Gills Rock & Northport & Cana and Eagle Cliff Lighthouses