Lion's Den Gorge and Our First Night in Port Washington

After visiting Holy Hill on a blustery cloudy cold morning, the sun came out and the temperatures really warmed up:  just in time for a short hike in Lion's Den Gorge!

Lion's Den Gorge is a 73 acre Nature Preserve in Ozaukee County.  You have your choice of  several different hiking trails.  You can view a marshland, take a handicapped accessible trail through the woods, or enjoy a half mile of 90-100 foot bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan...which is what we did!  Just look at these views!

The trail started on this well-maintained boardwalk. 

Very shortly we were treated to this beautiful view!

The trail we took also went through a shady forest.

There were pretty bridges to cross.

Then it was time to descend down all these steps into the gorge!  These steps lead you right to the beach!

It was fun getting off the trail and getting so close to the water.  Here is a short video where you can hear the waves of Lake Michigan.

Now it was time to climb back up those stairs (which was not as fun as climbing down) to get back on the trail and back to our car.  We decided to take the handicap accessible trail back because it was shorter and easier.  This trail is straight and flat, but doesn't offer the cliff side views of the bluff trail.

The map below shows all the trails at the nature preserve.  The curving trail running alongside Lake Michigan was the one we took at the beginning.  This is the trail with the views, but both trails will take you to the gorge.  We then took the one-way trail (steps) down into the gorge, but on our return trip we took the handicap accessible trail (which is the straight line) back. 

By now it was late afternoon and it was time to reach our final destination for the weekend:  Port Washington.  We booked two nights at this gorgeous historic hotel located downtown.  Once we parked our car, we never moved it again until it was time to go home for everything was in walking distance. 

The Port Hotel is in-between a bed and breakfast and an actual hotel.  You're not forced to mingle with other guests like you are at a typical bed and breakfast.  My husband and I appreciate that as we are not fond of small talk and prefer our privacy.  But the rooms and feel of the hotel had all the amenities of a bed and breakfast place.  It's not a hotel, because there is no front desk clerk.  Your room is open when you arrive and the key is waiting in the room for you.  If you have any issues, you have a phone number you can call, and we had an issue...we were given the wrong key!  So I called the phone number and they came right over with the correct key.

Other than the key incident, the rest of the weekend was wonderful.  We loved our romantic, vintage room and took advantage of the fireplace even though it was late summer still. 😍

The first thing we did after checking in, was walk a few feet to the main business street to enjoy a fish fry.  I googled "Best Fish Fry in Port Washington" and The Steerage kept coming up, so we went there.  It was quite pricey compared to what we normally would pay for dinner-for-two but it was delicious and I couldn't even eat my entire portion, so we split it for lunch the next day with some smoked salmon I purchased at a local deli.

The Steerage is quite the experience.  It is located in the basement of this chiropractor office, so it is not handicap accessible.  It was really cool going down this long, dark, narrow staircase and seeing these nautical decorations and photos of the history of this old shipping town.

We always eat early when traveling, so it wasn't that crowded, although there were  people around the bar and the booths were all full.  They sat us right next to a party of four, which was kinda awkward, as we didn't have much privacy, but I didn't want to ask for a different table.

You can see how close we were to the other party in the photo below.  It was hard to even get a photo of my hubby without getting the person in the photo right next to him.  

Hubby ordered a clam chowder soup in addition to his fish fry but he didn't think it was that great so I don't recommend their soup.

The fish fry on the other hand was the best!  I highly agree with the google reviews.   You got two large portions of Panko-encrusted cod (now you understand why I only had room for one!) and a generous amount of steak fries.

It's always hard taking photos of restaurants because I want to respect people's privacy.  I did get a photo of the bar because it's only staff mostly visible in this photo, but the booths, which are on the opposite side of the bar, were loaded with people so I didn't want to take a photo.  There were cool vintage booths though, made with solid wood and had tall backs.  They have a great video on their website HERE where you can see the entire restaurant beginning with its location, down the dark stairway and into their establishment.

Well I hope you enjoyed my little hike in Lion's Den Gorge and hearing about The Port Hotel and The Steerage restaurant.  Next week I'll be back with tales of the rest of our visit to this charming little Old Shipping Town of Port Washington.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Holy Hill

Now that my travel series to Branson is over, I thought I would spend the next several weeks sharing our fall travels. My husband and I travel a lot during the fall for we enjoy all the fun activities fall has to offer.  We love the fall foliage, all the fall festivals, and the cooler weather, if there is any.  It seems the past few years fall has felt more like summer and then suddenly goes straight into winter.  We planned our first fall weekend trip the second week of October, where there is usually a riot of color.  This year however, the color was very late, if we had any color at all.  I tried to google what happened to our fall color in Wisconsin, but no one had any answers for me, other than most people thinking there wasn't much color this year.

Color or no color, hotel reservations were made quite a long time ago for they fill up fast in the fall, so we still took our weekend trip and I was glad we did, for we had a great time.  We planned on spending the weekend in a beautiful small town on the shores of Lake Michigan called Port Washington.  But first, we stopped at a place called "Holy Hill" which has long been on my bucket list.

Holy Hill Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians sits on top of the highest elevation of Southeastern Wisconsin.  In the fall, visitors come from all over to climb its 192 foot scenic tower to get views of amazing fall color.  See that spire on the right in the photo below.  Yup, I climbed 178 stairs to the very top open window to get those scenic views, and for someone who is afraid of heights, yes, it was scary!

Approximately half a million people from all over the world make the pilgrimage to Holy Hill.

The Neo-Romanesque basilica was built in 1926. 

Visitors are welcome to attend daily mass, climb the spire, or walk their beautiful grounds and experience the Stations of the Cross.

Every detail of this basilica is incredible starting with these gorgeous entrance door. You are allowed to walk around the building and take photos, but not during mass.  They also ask that you be quiet and respectful as a lot of patrons come to the basilica in between mass to pray.

I am not Catholic.  I was raised and baptized a Catholic but converted to Protestantism in my early twenties.  I love the worship and Bible teaching of my current religion, but I often miss the beauty and holiness of the Catholic Church.  

The sanctuary has gorgeous mosaics.

Beautiful stained glass depicting the life of Christ surrounded the nave.

I just loved the arch ceilings! In the back, up in the loft, was more amazing stained glass and a large pipe organ.  An organist was playing music the entire time we were visiting.  It was so beautiful.

This incredible painting of Jesus was located in the Sacred Heart Alter.

The Shrine Chapel is located just off the main church and houses a rare statue of Mary.   It is separated by glass doors from the main sanctuary.  Here you can quietly light a candle and pray. I just loved the ceiling which looked just like a starry night sky.

Now it was time to climb the tower!  The warning of "Good Luck" climbing the 178 stairs was hysterical.

At first, the ascent was fun.  The staircase was wide enough and there were landings to rest a bit before continuing the climb.

We could hear the organ music playing in the sanctuary coming from the other side of this beautiful door. 

There are multiple landings with open, but barred windows to look out of before you get to the tippy top.  I felt pretty safe here.  It is very cold and windy the higher up you go.  The temperature can vary vastly from the ground to the top of the spire. 

I loved seeing the top of the spire that was opposite from the one we were in.  What a cool perspective. 

When you get to the very top, these are your views.  It would have been much more spectacular had we had any fall color this year. You can look at their website and see what this view looks like in a typical fall.  It is incredible.

I was most nervous at the very top so I don't have many pictures.  Even though I knew I was perfectly safe, I was really experiencing vertigo.  At the very end of your climb, the staircase gets very narrow and you have to crawl up a doorway to get to the final landing. 

After our tour of the Basilica and the 178 stair climb, we were hungry so we headed over to the Holy Hill Cafe.  There is a cafe, gift shop, and a guest house on the Basilica grounds.  We thought the cafe was super cute and the food and coffee was excellent.

I loved this little coffee sign!

This cross is the oldest relic of Holy Hill.  It was erected in 1858.  The 14 foot cross was hewn by a parishioner and custodian of Holy Hill from a white oak that grew at the foot of the hill.  Carved into the wood are German words that when translated to English read:  "I am the life, who believes in Me shall be Saved".

Perhaps my favorite part of Holy Hill was The Stations of the Cross.  It is a beautiful walk through a peaceful forest where you can experience 14 stations of the last few days of Jesus' life.

Pictured below is the entrance to the Stations of the Cross with the first station pictured in the background.

The Stations took Milwaukee sculpture Joseph Aszklar fourteen years to complete. He finished in 1928.

I won't show all fourteen stations, but here are just a few so you can get an idea of what they are like.  Pictured below is "Jesus falls a second time".

This is "Jesus dies on the Cross".

"Jesus taken down from the cross".

And the last one I have to show you "Jesus is laid inside the tomb".

There is also one more chapel on the property called The Chapel of St. Therese.  It is located below the main church.  Today this chapel is used for liturgies for special groups and for masses in the winter when the congregation is smaller.

It is a beautiful little chapel filled with stunning stain glass windows and interesting architecture.

The chapel is dedicated to a Discalced Carmelite nun from France who died in 1897 and was canonized in 1925.  She showed a remarkable grasp of Christ's grace and mercy in her autobiography.

I hope you enjoyed touring Holy Hill with me.  Our adventure continues with a stop at Lions Den Preserve before we spend two nights in the cutest small town ever:  Port Washington.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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