(This was written during a trip in July 2020.)
So glad we ditched our car and brought our bikes to Washington Island. There’s not much to see as far as attractions (a lavender farm, a fiber craft center, Schoolhouse Beach, a large white-pebbled beach) but the appeal is the isolated island feel, perfectly captured on a bike whizzing along largely flat empty well-paved roads with sun streaming through the forest and occasional glimpses of the shimmering blue lake. We took the Island Crossing ferry driven by a weather-worn guy named Charlie who also makes some mean smoked whitefish, which I bought at his smokehouse next to the ferry. This ferry is passenger only, bikes travel free, so preferable to the other ferry which takes cars and charges for bikes. It was an easy and pleasant 30-minute ride, during which we learned about far more terrifying ship passages that ended as shipwrecks. (This once-hazardous passageway was dubbed Devil’s Door — hence the name Door County.) Unfortunately several places to eat were closed on the Island because it was a Wednesday (so no Jackson Harbor Soup) and there’s a pandemic (so limited offerings at Island Cafe and Bakery.) We found decent sandwiches at the lavender farm and lavender flavored chocolate-covered caramels.
Couldn’t resist taking a photo of the restaurant sign below on Washington Island to share with the two young lawyers in our family…apparently lawyers is also a type of fish.
At night we explored Egg Harbor and didn’t find much there beyond the pretty Harbor Park so we returned to livelier (but still quiet) Fish Creek, where we enjoyed the vivid remnants of the sunset there at a park near the famous and lovely White Gull Inn.