Recess every day – that’s how the people choosing Door County, Wisc., for home sum up their lifestyle and the holiday opportunities they offer visitors in their chosen land.

Life is clearly fun, and interesting for the locals. That shows. Sure they work hard running restaurants with distinct personalities, all kinds of art and sports, plus bed and breakfast inns, mom and pop motels and lodges and cabins nestled in the woods or along the waters.

But something’s different here, in northern Wisconsin. Friendly. Relaxed. Glad-to-be-here mood. I heard someone at lunch eating fabled Wisconsin cheese curds say, “These folks are the salt of the earth.”

That’s Biblical, reserved for responsible, kindly people like lollipop ladies and shepherds according to experts in idioms.

No road rage in Door County. Maybe that’s because the drives are so pretty the full 75-mile length of this narrow county.

Water laps and crashes everywhere around the edges because this is a peninsula with 30 islands. It’s slender —18 miles at the widest southern end, narrowing to two miles by the northern tip. Enjoy 300 miles of shoreline.

That allows for lots of fishing and sailing, kayaking, beachcombing and rock skipping, plus swimming if you’re hearty since this water reaches only the upper seventies on a summer day.

Gentle rolling hills with red barns and Land o’ Lakes butter signs fill in the middle, making a crisscross style of driving as pleasant as hugging the coast. These are family farms, tied to the big dairy company but feeling small, personable, friendly.

This is a personable place. Everyone seems to have grown up and never strayed, or vacationed and then stayed.

I came home but hope to go back. My visit was four days in May so I tried out the balmy weather activities, but in winter you can do all the cold weather sports without the allure (or in my case the pressure) of downhill skiing. This is flat land where the bay freezes solid every winter.

Door County is framed by Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Fly into Green Bay, catch a Packers game or stadium tour, and rent a car for a short drive north.

No need for a plan after that. This is a place to just go. Discoveries and decisions come easily. Live in the moment in Door County.

That 300 miles of shoreline border a dozen or so little villages, with enticing names like Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Gills Rock and Sister Bay. Each has its own personality, and different eateries — locally owned, not chains.

Different shops and lodging too, with local owners setting the style. The one common denominator: Glad I’m here and hope you are too.

That might be why I ate a lot. The food and their spaces were interesting.