Sunday, September 9, 2012

Walking in Port Washington

The sun woke me up yesterday morning around 7:30 AM. Nice to see bright sun and clear blue skies. I went to breakfast and then hit the road to Port Washington. I found the Dockside Deli without too much difficulty, but managed to fall up the steps from the street to the deck around the cafe. Customers inside saw me and almost rushed to my help, but I got up and went inside and assured them I was OK. Later I tried to figure out why I fell, and I think the rise of the steps was higher than I expected and my foot just caught about one inch below the actual step. (Update -- Feel better about my solution -- I'm watching Holmes Inspection on HGTV and he found a home that had the front steps at the wrong rise and that leads to falls. That's exactly what happened to me. We have it built into our mind-body coordination how high a rise of a step should be!)

I was soon away on the walk, electing to do a 5K after doing a 10 K yesterday.


The first part of the walk was along the dock area for the charter fishing boats. I thought the view of the church on the hill was lovely, but had the sinking feeling that I might eventually end up there and it did look like a climb.

The walk continued around a small park. One feature is a monument to fishermen -- yes, no mention of women who fish -- on the other hand I didn't see a single woman out fishing either.




Here's another view of this area.
The walk continued around the perimeter of a park area. In the middle was a monument to commercial fishermen.

Then the route went to fisherman's dock which was lined with men fishing. It seemed to me that fishing here is a serious business and serious recreation.

I found fish cleaning stations along the harbor area.

The walk route cross Sauk Creek at the point at which it enters Lake Michigan.

I walked parallel to the creek for about one kilometer seeing many bike riders along this route. The route went to the Union Cemetery, this for those who are doing walks under Spirit of Walking Cemetery Stroll Special Programs.

Then it headed back towards the center of the town going past the Teed/Eghart House. This house was built between 1870-1872, and remained a private home until 1969. Now it is a museum, but open only on Sundays during the summer tourist season.

By now I had completed 3K, but the next 2K went up and down in a significant way.The information about this walk was quite clear that it included stairs, but I didn't quite understand what was in store.

The map for the walk explained that Port Washington is built on seven hills with many streets being connected by stairs.

Here's the first steps up -- all 79 of them!

At the top I turned right for about 50 feet and then it was 59 steps down on a set of stairs set at a right angle to those I had just walked up.




Then I went by the Ozaukee County Courthouse and really back into the business district.

Turning on Franklin Street and found the following on my route map:
"Ascend the 85 stairs to St. Mary's Church."  This church, built in 1884, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The stairs were actually fairly easy to climb, the rise was just right.


The church is French-Gothic, quite impressive with three beautiful doors. Here's one of them.

The route continued around a retired light house.

And since I was very much on top of a hill the lake view was very nice, too.

And of course, next were steps down -- 102 to be exact.


From the bottom of the stairs I found my way back to the Dockside Deli where I had a sandwich. If this place was in my home town I'd be there a lot. The food is very, very good!




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