Seniors Enjoy the Spirit of the Lake

Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan, offers senior visitors an alluring mix of sandy beaches, historic B&Bs, luxurious spas, and the majestic Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center.

The town’s location on the lake first made it a shipbuilding hub, but today attracts an array of surfers who enjoy the thrill of challenging waves. Surfers like to refer to the coastline as the “Malibu of the Midwest.”

I’ve always liked city names like “Sheboygan” and they usually carry with them an interesting history. There are many theories as to how the city got its name, but the most likely one indicates Sheboygan was a Chippewa Indian word meaning “passage or waterway between the lakes.”

French explorers Jean Nicolett (1635) and Joliet and Marquette (1643) were probably the first “white men” to experience the shores of Sheboygan. Many years passed until in 1699, Father St. Cosme landed at a Pottawatomie Indian village at the site of the Sheboygan River.

Seniors Like Sport Fishing and Museum Hopping

Sheboygan is about 50 miles north of Milwaukee and 60 miles south of Green Bay. The Bookworm Gardens and the Kohler Arts Center are two top attractions in the city. Parks and museums abound and senior tourists enjoy them all.

If you enjoy fishing, take one of the sport-fishing charter boats and try your luck hauling in some good size salmon and trout. If you enjoy history, take the Wisconsin History Tour in Sheboygan. The county has 44 sites on the National Register of Historic Places and 23 are found in Sheboygan.

Migrants from New York, Michigan, and New England, were among the pioneers to the Sheboygan area in the 1830s. Among them were English immigrants, who had continued to enter the US in the early 19th century.

Lumbering was the first major industry and as one settler remarked “Nearly all the settlers were from the New England states and New York.” Today over 5,000 Hmong from Laos call Sheboygan home, resettling after the war in southeast Asia.

Seniors Attracted To The Arts

Senior visitors enjoy exploring three unique shopping areas – the South Pier Peninsula, the Riverfront Shanty Shops on the Boardwalk, as well as downtown Sheboygan.

The city is home to the refurbished 1920’s Stefanie Weill Center for the Performing Arts, as well as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, nationally recognized for its collections of folk and vernacular art.

Senior visitors will discover that…”Our beaches are brighter. Our fish are bigger. Our golf is better. Our food is the best! And it’s fun to say our name. Try it…go ahead…She-boy-gan.

How do you Sheboygan? We surf, kite surf, wind surf, sail, kayak, jet ski, boat, fish, bike, hike, climb, race, golf, eat, drink, dance, relax, spa, enjoy. And we fry brats! We are the Bratwurst Capital of the World, after all.”

I know this to be true as I have been to Sheboygan and those brats are great. -jeb