Fall for Door County

 By Donna Marie Pocius

Special to DoorCountyNavigator.com

It's time to don some microfleece, lace up hiking boots and head to Door County to take in a kaleidoscope of color.

Plan your visit around one of four major fall festivals taking place in September and October. Be sure to also visit the art galleries, clothing boutiques and home furnishings stores. They have fantastic sales this time of year.

And don't miss the opportunity to feel crunchy colorful leaves beneath your feet as you walk gorgeous trails like the Yellow Trail in Whitefish Dunes State Park, Sturgeon Bay, (near Jacksonport) and famed Eagle Trail in Peninsula State Park, Fish Creek (this writer's favorite trails).

But if you're more a city guy or gal, just hike Third Avenue during the Harvest Festival, set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, in Sturgeon Bay.  The day-long festival takes place on the historic avenue between Michigan Street and Jefferson Street.  About 40 arts and crafts exhibitors and many food vendors will be available.

Enjoy musical entertainment, too.  The Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center, which organizes the event, confirmed that Hot off the Grill, a Milwaukee area light rock band will play from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the intersection of Third Avenue and Louisiana. Also, Centerline, a Door County country western rock 'n roll band, performs from 1 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the intersection of Third Avenue and Jefferson Street.

Food sales at Harvest Festival benefit organizations including the Sturgeon Bay Rotary, Jaycees, Knights of Columbus, Marine Corps. League, Door Peninsula Detachment and others. People can choose from traditional fair fare like brats, burgers and roast corn.  Also available are steak sandwiches, quesadillas, fajitas, Italian sausage sandwiches, pizza and kettle corn. 

The fall festivities continue the following Saturday, Sept. 26, when Baileys Harbor hosts Autumn Fest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Car collectors may display their antiques in Baileys Harbor's fire station. Trophies will be awarded for different car categories. 

Autumn Fest will also feature music by the River City Six Band from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A bake sale will take place in the Baileys Harbor Town Hall, and brat sandwiches will be sold.

Arts and crafts exhibitors will display their wares in Kendall Park outside the town hall building, and visitors can buy tickets for a day-long raffle. Prizes, which were donated by Baileys Harbor businesses, include overnight stays at hotels, gift certificates and gift shop merchandise.

"It's a small hometown festival, and we run it," said Sandy Weisgerber, co-owner of Weisgerber's Cornerstone Pub and Restaurant in Baileys Harbor and a volunteer organizer for Autumn Fest.

"It's a nice getaway, and there are a lot of locals who come," she added. (And that's always a good sign, right?)

And many people plan a Door County getaway October 10 and 11, when the Pumpkin Patch Festival is staged in Egg Harbor and the leaf colors are usually at  their peak.  The Egg Harbor Visitor Center said that the event this year offers food sales, arts and crafts, a silent auction, live entertainment and a best putt contest.

Also, bring the kids for activities such as face painting and storytelling.

Then, the Sister Bay Fall Festival, Oct. 16 to 18, welcomes people back for a wide variety of activities. And if you haven't been here for a while, you may be surprised and delighted to discover that the arts and crafts exhibitors now spread out along Mill Street instead of in the park.

Food booths and bands are still staged on Hwy. 42, which is closed to traffic in town for fair activities, of course.  The iconic dropping of ping pong balls happens on Sunday afternoon, "affording a one in ten chance of winning a prize from a participating Sister Bay business," organizers tout. 

Now, how Door County is all that?

Fish Creek Female Artists

 By Donna Marie Pocius

Special to Door CountyNavigator.com

Four artists will open their galleries and be on hand to explain their creative process and current work during a Fish Creek studio and gallery tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25 and 26. 

People will have opportunity to meet and see work by painters Judi Ekholm and Kathy Glasnap. Also participating are fiber artists Wendy Carpenter and Gloria Hardiman.  

Judi Ekholm shows her large-scale oil paintings at Ekholm Gallery, 3913 Spring Rd., as well as at Edgewood Orchard Gallery, Fish Creek. Her landscape and floral paintings on linen are bold, romantic and dramatic.  Subject matter ranges from Door County fields and waters to poppies and wildflowers.

During the September event, Ekholm will unveil her painting of a Door County Land Trust property and also exhibit her new signature poppy paintings. Her art is part of more than 600 international collections.  

Nearby is Kathy Glasnap Gallery, 8873 Cty. Rd. A.  Glasnap is a self-taught watercolorist, who moved to Door County in 1995.

Many of Glasnap paintings include "Fred," the artist's name for a bright red cardinal who adorns her landscapes-especially winter scenes. She is also renowned for painting the Peninsula's iconic lighthouses, barns and other buildings such as churches.

Pumpernickel Press and the National Wildlife Federation regularly commission Glasnap's art for cards.

Next, people can peruse fiber art by Wendy Carpenter at her Interfibers Design Gallery, Cty. Rd. F (two miles off Hwy. 42 on Cty. Rd. F). Carpenter creates large fiber wall sculptures and hangings in a mix-textile media involving weaving, papermaking, dyeing and basketry.

During the tour, she'll demonstrate basketry wall hanging weaving with natural found objects. New this season at Interfibers is an Asian textile exhibition, displaying Carpenter's woven Chinese robe, infant-carrier and kimono wall hangings along with hand-woven ikat skirts and jade stones and jewelry.

Also open is Maple Grove Gallery, 9098 Cty. Rd. F.  Here, Gloria Hardiman, designer/weaver, will display her designs and woven garments as well as decorative pieces.  She creates jackets, coats, hats, scarves as well as home accents such as throws. 

The gallery is housed in a repurposed old country store, and there are antiques and other unique decorative touches around.  

Look for the red signs, and then look at all the wonderful art by these artists.