Door County is without a doubt, one of the most unique places in the midwest. While its initial appeal is certainly the natural beauty of its beaches and shoreline, historic lighthouses, and rustic feel, there really is so much more which draws people here.
Door County has an appreciation of the arts which is unrivaled for a community of its size. Over 80 galleries dot the landscape. There are several professional theatre companies and many other amateur ones. Door County hosts a number of music festivals and is home to both highly acclaimed art and music schools. Artists of all kinds call Door County home and that makes it a true cultural gem of a community.
What is truly unusual is that Door County is such a remarkable draw to tourists when you consider it is home to less than 30 thousand people year 'round.
Think of that. We have less than 30 thousand residents, but will host over 2 million visitors over the course of the next year. That's a ratio of nearly 70 tourists each year for every 1 full-time resident.
To give you an idea of just how incredible a ratio that it, consider two other tourist destinations in which we once lived.
Las Vegas, the Sin City playground for grown-ups, has about 2 million residents but is visited by 40 million tourists each year. To equal the Door County ratio of 70 visitors to 1 resident, another 100 million people more than usual would have to go to Vegas next year to lose their wallets.
Or consider Hawaii, the birthplace of the Bicoy family, the ultimate tourist paradise, and the dream vacation for most Americans. A little more than 1 million residents of Hawaii host 7 million toursits. To match the Door County ratio, more than 60 million extra people would have to fly to paradise next year. Door County is a really unique and special place - and that's why people from throughout the Midwest flock to our community.
So when it comes to political yard signs, the artists of Door County would be ashamed to display something so average and boring like this...
Some enterprising artist came up with their own version of a Barack Obama yard sign for Door County...
It's really just a simple sketch that has been painted on a giant piece of plywood.
But you can now find them everywhere in Door County.
On the sides of buildings...
Along rural county roads...
In the windows of businesses...
And even in people's front yards...
In an attempt to be non-partisan, I'd be glad to post the John McCain counterpart. Unfortunately, there isn't one. I guess McCain doesn't generate as much enthusiasm and inspiration among Door County artists. However, Sarah Palin seems to be picking up the slack and is inspiring some computer graphic design artists all on her own.
Bretty recently celebrated his 10th birthday...
And for his birthday he received a few things with the Falcon's logo...
Yes, oddly enough, Bretty is an Atlanta Falcons fan.
Before his lovely mother Cari saw the light, she was a Packers fan. His father, of course, spent his entire life walking in the light as a Cowboys fan.
Bretty, ever the considerate one, decided to cheer for neither team and instead sought out a team whose uniforms incorporated his favorite color of red.
The 49ers were out, because, well, they're the 49ers and they are evil.
The Cardinals were out, because, well, they're the Cardinals. We didn't want our son to live a life of heartbreak.
It could never be that team from Washington because as decent people, it's hard not to recognize that the term "Redskins" is horribly racist.
So when it comes to a team with a red as one of their colors, the best choice is clearly the Falcons.
Bretty has embraced his team with his entire heart, and a true Falcons fanatic he has become. In addition to the new Falcons hat and Falcons watch, Bretty wanted a Falcons jersey.He also wanted to be like his sister Nalani and go to Build-A-Bear to build his own stuffed animal.A stuffed animal that would dress up in, you guessed it, a Falcons uniform...
Oh, the jersey number 18?That's because his birthday is on the 18th day of the month.
Happy Birthday Bretty!
Our son was so inspired by Sarah Palin that he too, wanted to run for Vice President...
Kekoa said, "If she's qualified to be Vice President, than so am I!"But when we explained to Kekoa that the Vice President doesn't actually put lipstick on a pig, he grew bored and decided instead to focus on this weekend's flag football game.The Lions' coach does a good job ensuring that everyone gets a chance to play every position - so here's Kekoa as quarterback handing it off...
Kekoa is also quite a good defensive player because he never stops running...
Now this is flag football - and the oldest kids playing are 9 years-old. In other words, they're just learning football and so most of the plays are runs.But every now and then they put a pass play in the game. That happened when the Lions had the ball on fourth and goal.And Kekoa was one of the two players lined up as wide receiver on that play.It was a text book play - the quarterback took the snap, looked to his primary receiver on the right side of the end zone, causing the defense to shift that way.Kekoa had slid out to the left side of the end zone as the second option.The quarterback looked off his first receiver and heaved the ball (when you're 9, every pass involves a "heave") to Kekoa at the back left corner of the end zone.Both Cari and I - along with her parents - all happened to be standing on the sideline at the left side of the end zone.I take pictures whenever Kekoa is on the field - so I watch much of the game through the camera lens. I saw Kekoa run into the end zone through the lens, but just had to glance back to see what the play was. Most of the time Kekoa would be a decoy drawing the defense away from the line to set up a run. But it was clear that this was a pass play - and that the quarterback was looking off his first option and the ball was gong to be thrown to Kekoa.My heart began to race. My hands began to shake.Remember, there aren't many passes in these games - and because you rotate positions so frequently, this was the first time in four games this season in which a pass was being thrown to Kekoa.Kekoa hadn't done a particularly good job in practice that morning catching the ball. But here we were - fourth and goal, and it was all up to Kekoa.I was so nervous that my hands shook and this is the picture I took...
Note the brown blur in the upper right corner which is the ball coming into the picture.Somewhere else in that blur is Kekoa - about to catch his first touchdown pass!Go Lions!In a complete non sequitur, our boy’s favorite TV celebrity, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, was recently informed by the website, Gay.com that he was the celebrity with whom most their male readers would like to have a relationship.
Tough guy Mike’s response?
"What can I say? I'm honored." "I would, however, like to take a moment to clear something up. Even though I got my start in theater, sang for years in the Baltimore Opera, moved to San Francisco and never married, I must tell you all again, for the hundredth time... I am NOT a celebrity.""Not that there's anything wrong with that."
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