Travel

**Beautiful Disaster** · 01-17-2011 11:48 AM

Once or twice a year I go out to CA to visit my best girlfriend. I decided this year I'd propose going somewhere else, somewhere new that neither of us have been. We would both fly from our respective starting points and meet up wherever we chose to go. It would be a 7 day trip, two of which would be spent flying, so 6 night stay in a hotel. I've been looking for great package deals for May (May is not set in stone, just don't want to go before April). We're leaning towards Seattle if we can find a great deal. Or Portland. We're pretty open to the destination. Does anyone have any suggestions of great places to travel? And if so, are you aware of any great travel packages (flight, hotel) available?

Also, keep in mind neither of us are financially wealthy.

**KMonte85** · 01-17-2011 01:06 PM

Anything in particular you two enjoy doing, or would like to do on your vacation? That might have a big impact... (ex: you want to spend the time shopping? you'd probably like NY, NY. But not so much if you want to spend time hiking in the great outdoors or scuba diving).

You could always visit Wisconsin, there's a whole lot of stuff to do (besides eat cheese) here

**jns** · 01-17-2011 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by KMonte85

Anything in particular you two enjoy doing, or would like to do on your vacation? That might have a big impact... (ex: you want to spend the time shopping? you'd probably like NY, NY. But not so much if you want to spend time hiking in the great outdoors or scuba diving).

You could always visit Wisconsin, there's a whole lot of stuff to do (besides eat cheese) here

Yes, you can visit cheese factories, see cheese sculptures, visit Lambeau Field, home of the cheeseheads, buy a cheesehead hat, visit dairy farms, visit milk processing plants, etc. And when you take pictures you can ask the people to say cheese.

**Beautiful Disaster** · 01-17-2011 01:13 PM

We are laid back gals...don't want to go on any fast paced tours or have deadlines etc. We like to be leisurely, eat great food, perhaps enjoy some live music, beautiful scenery....maybe a laid back eclectic sort of environment. Ideally, we'd be located in the heart of wherever we were so we could walk to places to eat, cafes, bookstores, sight seeing, etc. It's mostly going to depend on where we can get the best package deals....but I'm def open for suggestions.

I went to Baldwin Wisconsin once for work. There were lots of cows.

**KMonte85** · 01-17-2011 01:24 PM

You might want to do a little research into Door County, Wisconsin... sounds like something the two of you might enjoy. Very eclectic, great food, tons of site seeing (the do it yourself kind, not the touristy stuff). I know they have a big artisan festival in May and the Festival of Blooms. Wine/chocolate tasting at the local wineries, and a pretty good night scene.
Everything is a quick walk or bikeride away (they have bike rental places everywhere..).

And HARDY HAR HAR, JNS! (lol, even though it is pretty true..

)

**Beautiful Disaster** · 01-17-2011 01:29 PM

KM - That sounds awesome!!! I'm going to google it now!!!

**Beautiful Disaster** · 01-17-2011 01:55 PM

KM - How is the culture there? I looked it up, and it looks really cool. At the end of April and early May they have a "Groovin Sisterhood Weekend" which seems really neat. However, I looked at the pictures and (I know this sounds weird) but I didn't see ONE person of another race or ethnicity other than white. Is that pretty typical?

**KMonte85** · 01-17-2011 02:01 PM

The culture is laid back, very much just about indulgence of good foods, taking in nature, relaxing, reviving, kind of "artsy" I would say. But you're right, you aren't going to see a whole lot of minorities there. Not that anyone not "white" isn't welcome, but we're talking Northern WI and the demographic in that area is just predominantly white. I think there's something like 30,000 people living in the county and 28,000 are white, the others are mostly asian or native american.

I've been there a few times (I live about 5 hours South) and have encountered different races, just not as much as there are caucasians (spelling?) running around.

**jns** · 01-17-2011 02:57 PM

Sturgeon Bay is the biggest city and county seat of Door County. From city-data, it is almost 50% German ancestry and 2/3rds German, Irish and Norwegian ancestry. The largest minority grouping is Hispanic at 1.3%.

**Beautiful Disaster** · 01-17-2011 04:26 PM

Having grown up in an all white town...my girlfriend (who is black) feels sort of out of place being somewhere with little ethnicity. I guess it's a residual effect of feeling different and out of place her whole life where we grew up. She notices things I don't really notice. Like if I walked into a room of all black people and hispanic people (which happens often when I visit her in CA), I wouldn't think much of it at all, but when she walks into a room of all white people she feels uncomfortable and out of place. So I want to make sure we go somewhere with some ethnicity as I don't want her to feel out of place on vacation.