By Steve Bergsman

The "poppy-folk" duo was called Future Stuff, and they were performing at the band shell in the small village of Sister Bay. The young man, Gabe Burdulls, was playing electric guitar, and the woman singer, Althea Grace, played a variety of instruments. It was a cool evening with a slight breeze blowing off the bay.

My wife and I were sitting on a picnic bench. To our left was a small beach and beyond the marina. The waters of Sister Bay, which is part of upper Lake Michigan, were choppy but not like the day before, when a strong wind blowing south from Canada forced considerable waves upon the shoreline and prevented kayakers from braving the rough waters.

At first the duo played their own compositions — modern, tuneful folk songs — and then the female singer, in a pure, Baez-like voice launched into "Angel of Montgomery," a John Prine composition best interpreted by Bonnie Raitt, whom we had just seen in concert a few days before in New York.

For a moment I was transported back in time to decades before, when I was a long-haired college student sitting cross-legged on a lawn, grooving on some band and imbibing cheap wine. It was like being in a parallel universe. Of course it was different now, with the audience drinking expensive California vino, wrapped in fleece and windbreakers, and sitting on portable high-tech chairs.

But the real revelation was how quaintly small-town America from the last century this was. I mean, we were watching singers perform in an open-air band shell for whoever felt like coming out on a gorgeous evening.

That is the charm of where we were - in Door Country, Wisconsin.

Look at a map; the state has one geographic outlier, a peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan, and it is a thing of beauty — small towns along a heavily forested and agricultural stretch of land. It's like Cape Cod with the land pushing into a Great Lake instead of an ocean. And unlike Cape Cod, there is nothing trendy here. There are no restaurant chains, no retail chains and no hotel chains. Everything is local and fascinatingly idiosyncratic. It is the one of the great vacation spots of America that few outside of the Midwest have heard about. Those who know of Door County come back often. This was my return trip.

My wife and I were heading to a family reunion in Chicago, and we took an extra few days to spend in Door County, about a four-hour drive from O'Hare Airport. We booked a room at a place called Country House Resort, which was really an inn. I suspect the place called itself a resort because it had an outdoor pool and hot tub.

In Door County they grow cherries, and for breakfast every morning there was a big bowl of cherry smush and an equally large bowl of yogurt. The two together provided the perfect way to start the day — along with excellent breads and locally made muffins and scones.

The resort sat on a bluff overlooking the northern shoreline of the peninsula, where the waters are called Green Bay. To walk to the shore meant entering a dense maple and beech forest, where there was a nature trail, which in one direction led to the village of Sister Bay. We didn't even have to get into our car for the journey to town.

This time of year in Door Country means outdoor activities such as kayaking, fishing, sailing, golfing, bicycling and hiking. My wife and hiked in two state parks, Peninsula and Newport. Generally these hikes were across rolling hills or along the shorelines.

A variety of mammals have made Door County home, from deer and raccoons to coyotes. There have been reports of wolf sightings on the Door peninsula, but the experts suspect it was probably a large coyote.

The whitefish from Lake Michigan usually finds its way to the menus of the local restaurants, which are plentiful and surprisingly good. There is also a Scandinavian heritage to the peninsula, so a lot of people try the Swedish pancakes, lighter than American flapjacks and topped with lingonberries.

Since we were into the small-town vibe, one night we went to see the Peninsula Players (original performances in a garden), where we enjoyed the lightweight fare of "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," which was based on a story by Oscar Wilde. Two things to note about the Peninsula Players: It is America's oldest seasonal resident theater and the actors are all equity performers, mostly from Chicago. Many of them came from theatrical venues such as the great Steppenwolf Theater.

That was it. Door County was an in-between time for us - New York in the days before and Chicago ahead — and it was all about relaxing in a small-town vacationland, hiking and doing quaint activities like listening to performers in an open-air band shell.

We loved every mid-20th century moment we spent there.

WHEN YOU GO

There are a number of smaller airports closer to Door County, but for accessibility fly into Chicago O'Hare and then drive north about four hours to mid-peninsula Door County.

There are no hotel chains here, but you can find myriad inns, B&Bs and resorts. We stayed at the Country House Resort in Sister Bay — a great, picturesque location: www.countryhouseresort.com

Door County has no chain hotels, but there are plenty of good inns to accommodate visitors. Photo courtesy of Steve Bergsman.

A visitor explores a trail along the north shore of Door County Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Steve Bergsman.

Steve Bergsman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.