Mary Beth made it in last night in perfect time to catch up a little with out staying up way late which was good because our plans today required an early start. We drove up the east side of Door County to the ferry….our favorite part was the zigzag road, we have no theories as to why the road was made to zigzag but it is definitely memorable.
From there we boarded a ferry to Washington Island.
The ferry charged a pretty high rate for people and a pretty high rate for cars, you would think that the car rate included the people but it didn’t. We knew that before we went and we also knew if we were going to go the car route that we would have to pay to take two cars across and that just wasn’t going to happen. So we had a packed lunch, rain ponchos, and had dressed for cold weather. With the fall colors it was quite beautiful.
It was a three mile walk to town and a five mile walk to school house beach one of five round rock beaches in the world. As much as I would have liked to make it to Rock Island or schoolhouse beach by the time we got to town we knew we weren’t going to make it all the way.
The walk was beautiful, the colors amazing, the slight breeze was heavenly, and the dry skies were a heart warming gift from above.
The kids got tired but they kept walking, Eve was slow but we were making it.
We stopped at the market in town and bought Chicago made root beer and cheese curds.
At a good six miles round trip and carrying Eve off and on when a very kind stranger stopped and said I have seen you walking all day as I have driven around, would you like a ride back to the ferry? We took him up on it at least for Chad and Eve. We were about a mile out or so, it felt like more than that but I think that is what the map said, and we caught up with Chad and Eve 25 minutes later.
Before we got back to the ferry my phone died so there were no more pictures to be had until I could plug in in the car. Half or more of the ferry ride was spent enjoying the breeze and rocking, excitedly, boat. The kids were practicing their sea legs but the water was quite rough so it was hard to stay standing. The other half we spent in the warmed cabin watching Eve make, “best friends” of all the old ladies who were on the ferry with a tour. There were quite entertained by her. After the ferry we went to Sister Bay and walked through the shops we got a fig and almond goat milk gelato that was fabulous.
We enjoyed the pretty flowers and then headed on to fish creek and Egg Harbor as we made our way down the west side of the peninsula. We stopped at Mr. Helsinky’s for dinner but it would be an hour and a half wait and plan B Wild Tomato had no parking in the lot or on either side of the road. It seemed that all the restaurants we were seeing were bustling. We finally stopped for dinner in Green Bay at Red Robin, I don’t know that I have ever had such yummy food. The kids were good mostly because they had been sleeping in the car and were still quite tired, we all checked Facebook really quick and I had to share some of the beautiful things we had seen that day. We all agreed that Washing ton Island was not at all what we had imagined. Way less touristy all though we did see two tour busses there were only a few shops and a few restaurants and a grocery store that reminded me of city market it had been in business since 1906 and looked it and the friendly faces coming in and out of there you could tell were not tourists. All in all it had been a great day sill. We made it home around 10:00pm and we quickly crashed. I could not stay awake to type this blog so you can try to guess where I kept falling asleep and resumed this morning. It was a short visit so today we better get up and moving so we can enjoy what time we have left with Mary Beth before she heads back to the airport. Hope you all have a fabulous day!
Owens Endeavors 