Having told you about Island Time from our recent vacation, I thought I would tell you something about our time on the Island. Our route there was very simple; we don’t usually take the freeways anymore. We headed north out of Madison on US Hwy 151 until we reached Manitowoc, where 151 terminates. Then we drove north on WI State Hwy 42 from Manitowoc. When we reached Door County we felt like we were very close to our destination, though that wasn’t quite true. There were still at least 57 miles which, given the speed limits and the Saturday traffic, could take 1.5 – 2 more hours.
Continuing north on Hwy 42 we could really tell we were in Door County just by looking at the passing orchards. When you see branches bending under the weight of large bright red cherries, you’re definitely there!
Before we completed our drive to the ferry dock, however, there was one very important stop that we had to make at Gills Rock, Charlie’s Smokehouse. We had to stock up on vacation-time smoked fish!
Mouse over the small photos in galleries to see captions.
Click on any one to enlarge, then use arrows to scroll through the rest of the images.
Then we drove the final couple of curving miles of Hwy 42 to reach the Washington Island Ferry Dock in Northport, where Hwy 42 literally and geographically terminates. In the past when we arrived at the ferry dock there were often many cars waiting. This year it was much better. The line was short and the ferry was already being loaded. It was the Eyrarbakki. We always pay attention to the name since the most common question when we first meet other family members on the island is “What ferry did you catch?”
The sky was mostly clear when we boarded the ferry but clouds soon moved in from the west. The Washington passed by heading for Northport under darkening skies. As we got closer to Detroit Harbor it looked like a huge bank of clouds was preparing to roll over the island. When we got off the ferry and headed towards our cottage the rain began to fall. Then it began to pour! It was raining so hard when we reached the cottage that we ran to the porch, struggled to unlock the door under pelting rain drops and rushed in. We didn’t bother to unpack the car.
Kathy put a towel over my wet head and I watched the storm out over the lake (actually it’s Green Bay since our cottage faces west). When it finally let up, we unpacked the car and sat down for our traditional first meal on Washington Island, fresh smoked fish from Charlie’s Smokehouse and cold beer. I always love that meal even though stray cats would be following me around the island for the rest of the week!
So, what did we do on this quiet island? Did we sit around and watch TV? No, we had more interesting things to watch like boats cruising past on Green Bay. Although various fishing boats are almost always out there, we always enjoy seeing “ore boats.” Ore boats are specifically designed to transport iron ore across the Great Lakes, but we pretty much call any big, long boat an ore boat. Our view of these boats was obscured on a couple days this year due to smoke from wild fires in Canada. The pictures below show how the clarity of the sky varied during the week. Check out the captions in (mouse over) these pictures for specific information on these three “ore boats.”
The poor, hazy quality of the air affected all of my photos, the greater the distance to the subject, the greater the affect. It may have given some of them a different, sometimes interesting, look.
On Tuesday Kathy made her usual fantastic ham meal for the entire gang. We had to advertise our location so people would not end up lost in the woods! After the meal we walked down to our scenic viewpoint to talk, watch the sunset, and eat S’mores.
Wednesday was an interesting day for me. The owner of the Fair Isle Bookstore, Deb Wayman, invited me to sign copies of my book “North of the Tension Line.” I self-published this book earlier in the year when she asked if I would be willing to take on that project. The photography books in her store tend to cover all of Door County and have only a few pictures of Washington Island. She had seen some of my Washington Island photos from an exhibit that I had quite a few years ago and thought they would make a book that would sell. So, I made the book and she ordered fifty copies.
I didn’t have to make a formal presentation; people just wandered in for close to two hours to talk to me and have their book signed. A few people had specific requests for how they wanted me to sign their book but most just wanted the book signed to them. The most interesting one was for a woman with a smile on her face who said she was buying a copy for her husband. When I asked his name she said “Michael R. Anderson!” So, I signed “To Michael R. Anderson, From Michael R. Anderson.” Most of the books were sold that day. When I saw Deb before going back to Madison she asked to buy fifty additional copies!
Every year we take a family picture. Since it’s not often that we are all in the same place at the same time, we grab a photo when we can. Matthew and Lisa arrived mid-day Wednesday and Eric had to leave Thursday morning. So, after the book signing and before Eric got on the ferry we tried a few poses for our 54th Anniversary picture. Which is your favorite?
If you’re curious, you can see a wedding photo and 53 previous pictures at Our Anniversaries.
The rest of the week was slow but fun and relaxing. We saw a whole bunch of clocks, had a nice lunch with Eric, and Matthew gave me a “North of the Tension Line” t-shirt. As always we ended it with a wonderful song-along. Are you going fishing down to Figenschau Bay?
With respect to weather, our ferry ride home from the Island was similar to our ferry ride to the Island. Yes, it was wet. We stopped for more smoked fish on the way and pondered Washington Island 2026 while driving back to Madison.