Somehow, despite five years of annual Door County getaways, we’ve never left the mainland of the peninsula to venture out to Washington Island – though we always wanted to. So we made Washington Island our top priority this year. We took ourselves and the Cutlass across on the ferry and spent the day in island paradise.
This island. Oh my goodness. One small grocery store, one gas station, a performing arts center (obvs. they have their priorities in order), a post office, one k-12 school with 62 kids, lots of farmland, a farm museum, a gorgeous hand-built Scandinavian church, a maritime museum, an ice cream parlor, a handful of restaurants with Door County cherry pie and fish boils, a bowling alley, a pizza restaurant, two bars (one of which was still allowed to operate during prohibition because it specialized in bitters – medicinal in addition to alcoholic – making it the longest operating bar in the U.S.), a few B&Bs, a tiny nature and science center, a stunning limestone beach, sand dunes, moped rentals, a lookout tower, cows, turkeys, Iceland horses, cherry trees, and lavender fields. And that’s about it.
{lavender gelato!? be still my heart!}
{the lav fields on Washington Island…except not in September}
{view from the top of the tower}
{feeding turkeys! life = complete}
{stunning church interior – I adore the stained glass and sailboat}
{hard cherry apple cider and a hot freshly baked pretzel with Door County honey mustard}
{fresh lawyers, lol}
{where else is the Death’s Door gin gonna come from?}
Bliss!
We can’t wait to return in the future, and perhaps spend a whole weekend in paradise.
