Washington Island

This is the first year we felt we could attempt a "longish" bike ride as a family. Joey rides a 21-speed bike on his own and can keep up with us quite easily (or, are we keeping up with him?). Sam is on a third wheel (tag-a-long) and can choose to pedal or not. Lily is in a child seat on my bike.

We were feeling a bit (over?)confident and decided to bike Washington Island--a sparsely populated island located at the tip of the Door County peninsula. We left our car on the mainland and took only our bikes on the ferry across to the island.

I immediately regretted that decision and imagined us dealing with whiny, tired kids on the other side of the island with no way to get back to the ferry. Surprisingly, we made it all the way to Schoolhouse Beach--our first stop for the day and on the opposite side of the island--with only one short break.


The kids had a blast skipping perfectly smooth, round rocks on the water--fun that is until some guy told them they couldn't throw rocks into the water because the rocks were protected. The rocks actually are protected and you can not take them from the beach, but I don't believe that throwing a few rocks into the water is going to cause much harm. Afterall, they got that way from being tubmbled in the water and washing up on the shore. Anyway...I digress.


Joey learned how to skip rocks and Lily learned that if you throw a rock into the water in the precise location where your brother is, he gets hit in the head and yells.

After lunch and a brief stop at a local bar to purchase a bottle of Death's Door gin for my favorite summer cocktails, we thought we would just head back to the ferry boat. But the kids were feeling strong (Mom and Dad, not so much!) so we decided to take a little detour to the Washington Hotel. The Hotel is a restaurant, hotel and culinary school. They emphasize local products in their cooking and I really wanted to try it out.


It felt like an oasis in the desert--it was such a welcome retreat!


We arrived at 3 p.m. and while they weren't serving lunch or dinner, they were serving drinks--exactly what we needed after a day of bikes and beaches.




Sam loved the locally brewed beer ; )

In the end, the kids made it all the way back to the ferry (the trip was a total of 18 miles).

We were treated to this beautiful sunset on the drive back to the cottage--a perfect vacation day!