Maybe I'm a little OCD about it but I like to plan out these kinds of things in advance, at least to some extent. We have a friend who would sometimes grab his kids, hop in the car and drive in whatever direction they felt like going until they were half way through the money he had available for the outing, stopping along the way to see whatever caught their attention. Then, when they reached the half-way point with the money they'd turn around and come home, everyone having enjoyed a nice little vacation. Well, I'm not quite that open to spontaneity, I like to have a little bit better idea of what we might do and what we might run into along the way. So I like to plan ahead for this kind of stuff. Anyway, maybe its not so much planning as just researching what options there are along the way. And the Internet makes that real easy. I like having the Internet, especially now that it has been around several years and has "matured" somewhat, shall we say. So I picked the scenic drive up to Door County and began looking at things that might be fun to do on such a drive. I like driving and seeing pretty country, but I also like to get out of the car now and then to see stuff, too. And Brombeere is good about letting me do this and going along with the plans pretty good.
What I had settled on was to drive up to the end of the peninsula and take the ferry out to Washington Island and ride our bikes around on the island for a while. The island is not real big and there are a surprising number of things on the island to do and see. Every little tourist trap has their "hook", right? I like to stay away from cheap and kitschy but there were still more than enough things on the island that looked interesting that we decided to do that. And that kind of trip didn't look like it would be too expensive, either. So we threw the bikes on the bike rack and decided to head out at what we thought would be early enough to do all that. Oh, and we also decided to stop at the Cana Island Lighthouse on the way.
As the appointed day got close enough to start watching the long-range weather forecast I did. First time I checked it looked great; a nice sunny day for the day of the trip. I checked every day for the ten days ahead of the trip and each time the weather was looking real good - no rain, not too hot, not to windy, all that jazz. But then on Thursday evening when I checked the forecast called for rain on Saturday. Bummer. But you know how the weather can change. I would check and as the day got closer the forecast got bad but then started looking like a little better, like the rain was going to hold off until after we expected to be back from the island. I was okay with that.
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| Draw bridge over the Sturgeon Bay |
As we were leaving home it started to rain and I was thinking this could still work because Washington Island is far enough away from home that the weather isn't always the same. But as we drove and drove the rain would come and go. And I'm still thinking this could still work out okay. Along the way we saw some pretty interesting things. An elephant, among other things. Not a real elephant, but a sculpture out front of a shop. We saw a gnome, not a real one but a giant statue, out front of another shop. Remember all the Bob's Big Boy restaurants with the Big Boy statues out front? This was better than those, and more unique. As we got a ways up the peninsula we passed a sign that said there was a "geological feature" up ahead so we decided to stop. Turned out to be a marker that marked the halfway point to the North Pole. Who would have thought? 
Back on the road again the next stop was the Cana Island Lighthouse. That was interesting. I'm glad we stopped there. The lighthouse is actually out on a small island a ways out from the mainland. Normally there is a causeway you can walk out to get to the island, although when the water level gets high on Lake Michigan the causeway floods and you'd get wet walking out. On our visit it was plenty dry and easy to walk. The walk from the parking lot out to the island and to the lighthouse looked to me to be about 100 yards or more so after we parked we unloaded the bikes planning to ride all the way to the lighthouse. But they don't do that. As soon as you get off the causeway there is a little admissions office where you stop and pay admission. We were expecting that. But what I wasn't expecting was that they don't let you ride bikes beyond that point. We weren't the only ones surprised by that. There were already some bikes parked in the rack. So we parked and locked the bikes and walked the rest of the way which, fortunately was not a real long way. Spring is in full swing and there were lots of flowers out and in bloom on the island. Both lilacs and wild flowers. Real pretty. On the island there are also several out-buildings in addition to the lighthouse. And a low, rock wall around much of the compound. Made the whole place quite scenic and nice. The island is about 8.7 acres and very low to the water.
The lighthouse was built in 1869. It was first fueled by lard, then by kerosene, then by acetylene and now by electricity. It was manually operated until finally automated in 1944. Now the Coastguard operates it and comes out only periodically to service it as needed. It even has a system that automatically rotates the bulbs when they burn out. The working bulb and three back-ups. It has run pretty much continuously (during the dark hours) since it was first built until now. The Fresnel lens, built in France, working in it today is the original lens installed 79 feet above the ground back in 1869, making it one of the longest continuously operating lighthouses in the country. Amazing. The last live-in lighthouse keepers left in 1995 when the Coast Guard took over. The grounds today are maintained by Door County Maritime Museum. I thought it was cool.
We ended up staying at the lighthouse longer than originally anticipated but that was quite alright - it was worth it. As we left the only "glitch" of the whole trip occurred - our antique GPS devise let us down. I'm not sure if it was an operator error, which is always possible, or a failing of the devise. Anyway, as we left it lead us astray, in a circle actually. Away from the lighthouse and then back to it. And the site was remote enough that neither of our cellphones were getting enough signal to use the GPS app on them. We actually had to pull out the old fashion map we keep in the car and use that to find our way back to the main road where we were able to pick up enough signal to get us back on our way to the ferry.
While we were at the lighthouse and then getting ourselves back on track to get to the ferry the rain storm we had left behind caught up with us so that as we were getting to the ferry at Northport it began raining off and on. As we pulled into the parking lot of the ferry we were looking at the time and remembering that since the last ferry back from Washington Island left the island at 5:00 we really didn't have enough time to go out to the island and do much of anything before it would be time to come back. That was a little disappointing but it also meant there would be something left to do on a return trip sometime in the future. So we took a few pictures and toured the visitors' center. That was fun. I had seen on the map that there was a small lighthouse on Plum Island, an island the ferry had to swing wide of to get around on the way out to Washington Island. We didn't have any binoculars but my camera has a pretty good zoom so we were able to get a pretty good view of that lighthouse. It wasn't as nice as the Cana Island Lighthouse. Actually, the two such lights on Plum Island aren't lighthouses at all, they what's called "Range Lights", installed to guide boats into the passage between the islands. There's no visiting Plum Island, its now a wildlife bird refuge closed to the public to protect the bird nesting habitats.
We hung around the visitors' center a little while, long enough to see the ferry off, and then made our way back down the peninsula toward Ephraim where we were planning on playing a little mini-golf and eating lunch. 
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Ephraim so had the rain and we decided we didn't want to golf in the rain. Yet something else to save for our next visit to the peninsula. We stopped for lunch at Wilson's Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlor, an establishment that first opened in 1906 and has been in operation ever since, passing hands through several owners and operators but surviving all the economic ups and downs of almost 110 years. Their main stay is the ice cream although they do have a respectable menu as well. So we both had a ruben sandwich, some of the soup of the day and some ice cream. Very yummy. I departed from my normal ice cream flavor of chocolate and had some real good black cherry ice cream. After all, this was Door County we were in. We had posted on Facebook about eating there and one of the guys at church today mentioned to me that he and his wife had eaten there a few years ago when they had been up that way. They liked it, too.
We also stopped at a general store called the Silly Goose General Store. A nice little gift shop that has been operating there in Ellison Bay for quite a while. If fact, the lady behind the counter, who looked to be in her sixties or seventies, told us her mother had named the store when she first opened it. We looked around a while, bought a few things and then left. Got some nice things and didn't spend any more than we would have spent on the ferry out to the island. 
This far up the peninsula there is apparently a lot of Scandinavian heritage, unlike the strong Polish heritage farther down in the state. Saw lots of Scandinavian names of places, even saw a restaurant with a grass roof with miniature goats up on it, keeping the grass in check. We also drove passed the Door County Maritime Museum and talked about stopping but ended up not. That would be fun to go back to another time. Saw some kitsch as well.Then, alas, it was time go head for home. It was a good trip - interesting things to see and do, and a good way to spend some time with my favorite person. We decided we'll have to make the trek again, not only to get out to Washington Island, but we saw plenty of other stuff that looked interesting to us as well. Time to start doing some more research. . . . . . .
