Sister Bay Fall Fest wrapped up last weekend and with it, the main run of Door County’s festival season.

Halloween is still coming, and there is genuinely plenty to do up here through November and into winter.

But the county is shifting gears. Businesses are starting to close for the season, the roads are quieter, and that late-October quiet that longtime visitors know and love is settling in.

It is a good time to be up here if you can get away.

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This week:

A few things worth knowing about this week.

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the World Series. For the first time since 1982, Milwaukee is in the Fall Classic. The Brewers swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League pennant, and they will host Games 1 and 2 at American Family Field this week.

The Tampa Bay Rays knocked out the Cleveland Guardians last night, winning the American League pennant. The Brewers will now face Tampa Bay and will have home-field advantage on the strength of their 103-win season.

Here is the full schedule, all games at 7 p.m. Central on FOX:

Game 1: Friday, October 23, at American Family Field
Game 2: Saturday, October 24, at American Family Field
Game 3: Monday, October 26, at Tropicana Field
Game 4: Tuesday, October 27, at Tropicana Field
Game 5: Wednesday, October 28, at Tropicana Field (if necessary)
Game 6: Friday, October 30, at American Family Field (if necessary)
Game 7: Saturday, October 31, at American Family Field (if necessary)

If you are up here and want to watch the games, here are some of the best spots to do it:

Husby’s in Sister Bay is the first call. Door County’s original sports bar has 14 flat-screen TVs inside and outside and has been the center of sporting life in the northern end of the county for decades.

Stabbur Beer Garden in Sister Bay brings its own energy to a big game night. The outdoor setting is one of the most unique in the county and the beer selection gives you plenty of options for an evening of Brewers baseball.

Mink River Basin in Ellison Bay is a Door County favorite with the kind of laid-back tavern atmosphere that makes a World Series game just right. A great option if you are up north.

Bayside Tavern in Fish Creek has been a peninsula institution for decades. The kind of place where everyone heads when the game is on.

Door County Fire Company in Sturgeon Bay brings craft beer and a comfortable taproom setting to your World Series watch party.

Stone Hedge Golf and Pub is a relaxed pub setting that works perfectly for a fall evening of baseball.

Brick Lot Pub in Sturgeon Bay is a reliable sports bar option for the southern end of the county with plenty of screens and great game-day specials.

Shipwrecked Brewery and Restaurant in Egg Harbor has big screens at the bar and a large upstairs dining hall with plenty of viewing options.

Kitty O’Reilly’s Irish Pub in Sturgeon Bay is a solid option if you want a full meal with the game and prefer the Irish pub atmosphere.

AC Tap in Baileys Harbor is a local institution that draws a loyal crowd for big sporting events.

Door County Brewing Company in Baileys Harbor is worth checking if you want craft beer and a relaxed taproom setting for the game.

Fall color update.

The color is running later than most years but it is finally delivering. The middle villages, Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, and Ephraim, are showing strong color right now and the timing sets up for a late October visit. The northern villages are beginning to drop leaves, which creates its own kind of beauty.

Kelly and I posted photos from our recent visit on the site and reader photos are coming in as well. We want more. If you are up here this week or any day through the end of the month, send us your best fall shots and tell us where and when you took them.

The fall foliage guide is updated weekly throughout the season and includes an interactive animated map that lets you track the color progression across the county.

October in Door County means pumpkins everywhere. Farm stands, orchards, roadside markets, and village decorations that make every corner of the county feel like fall. The complete pumpkin guide covers where to find them, which spots are worth making a dedicated stop for, and what else you can pick up while you are there.

Read the complete Door County pumpkin buying guide here.

Every week we spotlight a recently sold home and an active listing to give you a feel for what the Door County real estate market looks like.

JUST SOLD: Fish Creek

A three-bedroom, three-bath home in Fish Creek sold for $975,000. Tucked on five private wooded acres, the home opens to mature trees and the kind of setting that makes you forget you are minutes from Fish Creek’s boutiques, beaches, and marina.

FOR SALE: Baileys Harbor

A three-bedroom cottage in Baileys Harbor is listed at $1,100,000 with 101 feet of sand beach frontage. Built in 1960, the home features a dramatic fieldstone wood-burning fireplace and a separate heated studio building. The property is being sold as-is fully furnished.

Wood Orchard Market in Egg Harbor is one of those stops that becomes non-negotiable after the first time. We were just there last weekend and walked out with jam, apples, donuts, caramels, coffee, pie, and yes, pumpkins.

The market is the real deal. Everything is local, the baked goods are made on site, and the apple selection in October is as good as it gets anywhere in Door County.

Cedar Court Inn is one of the original lodging resorts in Fish Creek, listed on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places and set steps from everything the village has to offer. Shops, restaurants, the public beach, and the marina are all within easy walking distance, and Peninsula State Park is less than a mile away.

Rooms, suites, and cottages are arranged around a large private courtyard with an outdoor pool, gas fire pit, yard games, and picnic areas that give the property a relaxed feel. Select rooms and suites feature fireplaces, whirlpool tubs, and kitchenettes. The property has seen meaningful improvements in recent years while keeping the historic character that makes it worth coming back to.

If you are thinking about a fall getaway, browse Door County availability on Booking.com.

Red, a play about Mark Rothko, runs Wednesday at the Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek. The play explores the tumultuous relationship between the abstract expressionist painter and his assistant during the creation of his Seagram Murals. It is a thought-provoking piece of theater that holds up beautifully in a venue as intimate as the DCA.

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Lasers and Lightsabers takes place on Thursday. It’s a fun family-friendly Halloween event that takes the season in a different direction. If you have kids up with you this week, this one is worth a look.

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Halloween Hike at the Ridges runs Friday afternoon at the Ridges Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor. A guided fall hike through one of the most ecologically significant areas in Door County with a Halloween theme layered in. A beautiful way to spend a Friday in late October.

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Halloween Spooktacular Market runs Saturday morning. Local vendors, fall goods, and Halloween spirit in one of the county’s best market formats.

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The Ellison Bay Arts Fall Art Crawl runs Saturday through the northern villages. Galleries, studios, and artists open their doors in one of the most scenic parts of the county on what is shaping up to be a beautiful fall weekend.

A genuinely beautiful week is ahead. Tuesday arrives at 59 degrees and clear, one of the nicer fall days you could ask for. Wednesday warms to 61 and stays mostly dry. Thursday holds at 59. The whole week through Sunday is sitting in the upper 50s to low 60s with minimal rain, which is about as good as mid-October in Door County gets.

This extended mild stretch is keeping the fall color window open longer than usual. The leaves that are still on the trees are holding their color well in these conditions.

Sunrise Tuesday is at 7:08 a.m. Sunset comes around 6:09 p.m. Just under 11 hours of daylight. The evenings are arriving early and the light when it is there is rich and golden and worth being outside for.

AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock came out in 1981 and it was the first concert I ever attended. My parents could not find a babysitter, so nine-year-old Brian got to tag along. I will leave it to your imagination what that experience was like for a kid who had never seen, or smelled, a live show like that before.

Of the hundreds concerts I have been to since, I still think about that one. Not necessarily because it was the best, though it was remarkable, but because it was first. There is no replacing first. The crowd, the volume, the sheer scale of it, all experienced through the eyes of a nine-year-old who had absolutely no business being there. I am grateful my parents could not find a babysitter.

The title track, Back in Black, Hells Bells. They were one of the great live acts of their era and for a few hours in the early 1980s, I got to find that out in person.

No photos came in this week and we are heading into the best pet season of the year up here. Dogs on fall trails, running through leaves in Peninsula State Park, or sitting on the deck watching the last of the October color come down is what we want to see.

If your pet has been up here and you have not sent us a photo yet, now is the time. The best ones end up right here.

Get up here while the season is still giving.

See you up here,
Brian.