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Wisconsin's Door County peninsula balances beautiful locales and ...

EPHRAIM, Wis. - If you don't like the fish boils, maybe you'll get a kick out of the goats on the roof.

Settled by Swedes and Norwegians, Door County has a Scandinavian flair that permeates the Wisconsin peninsula. Beaches are small and suitable for young families, and the tourist towns — Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, Gills Rock — are closely clustered.

I found Door County as wholesome as a glass of milk.

"It is known as the Riviera of the Midwest," a real estate agent told me enthusiastically, "and also as the Cape Cod of the Midwest."

Such puffery isn't necessary. Door County has its own unique attractions:

Goats on the roof: People drive for miles to Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay. It's a one-story building, but its peaked roof is sod. Every day, goats are led up a ramp to the peak to nibble the grass and be four-legged tourist attractions.

What a gimmick! You can't look away. Plus, most of the folks snapping pictures of the goats end up inside the restaurant, feasting on paper-thin Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam.

The fish boils: If you are from Maine, you are never going to mistake this for a lobster boil. But it's all good fun, as area restaurants fire up steaming pots over wood blazes outdoors and boil fresh whitefish fillets and red potatoes. Tourists can find fish boils nearly every night somewhere in Door County. Just as the fish finishes cooking, the chefs douse the flames with oil, sending up a shooting fireball, guaranteeing a gasping crowd.

Reasonably priced small-plane sightseeing tours: Grizzly Scenic Air Tours runs out of the Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport in Ephraim. Up to three passengers can fly 30 minutes for $162 — that's just $54 each.

Air tours also are romantic, says pilot Dave Burke. He has had seven prospective bridegrooms pop the question in midair, "and six of them were successful," Burke says. The seventh? "He proposed, and she said, 'Not in a million years.' It was a long four minutes back to the airport, I can tell you."

Golfing: I am not a golfer, but the incredibly gorgeous public golf course at Peninsula State Park, with a hilly par-71 course and giant beech trees on Green Bay, has to be the prettiest course in Wisconsin. When I saw it, the course was packed.

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