Day 3 - Washington Island

We woke in the morning and decided to go to Al Johnson's for breakfast.  Their trademark "The place with the goats on the roof" always leaves the kids astounded. We went early as the place fills up quickly and had a great breakfast.  From there we decided to travel North to Washington Island.  We have never been there before and planned to spend 2 days. The water was beautiful and calm as we headed to Shipyard Island Marina.  Lou, the harbormaster helped us into a nice slip that was across the street from "The Red Barn" and next to a small public beach.

We decided we were going to head to the downtown area to see what Washington Island was all about.  I must be honest, it was not what I expected and was underwhelmed with what I found.  We rode our bikes down the county roads all 4 of us on our own bike which in the beginning seemed like a huge mistake.  Pierce learned to ride a bike (barely) last summer, but has been getting better and better, so we thought why not bring his bike along as opposed to the tag along.  Well, after much whining, crying and a whole lotta "I CAN'T!" we made it to the downtown area (about 3 miles from our slip.)  We were going to stop for lunch but Paul encourages us to keep pushing on to the rock beach.  His rationale was that it was only 1 more mile and there was food close by.  So we kept on treading... up hill and made it to the famous rock beach called School House Beach.  Apparently it is one of 5 in the world with smooth stones.  We are having so much luck on our annual vacations that we have now seen 2 of the 5 over the last 4 years. Determined Peyton even managed to find sand after digging through the rocks.

I was disheartened when I saw that there was not any restaurants near the beach so after a little while there we decided to trek back to the downtown and stopped at a roadside restaurant for a quick lunch and then started back to the marina.  Overall, Pierce managed to make it 8 miles, which ended up being a great opportunity for him to get more comfortable on his bike.

We swam at the nearby beach for a little while in the afternoon and then ate at a wonderful restaurant that was right next to the marina.  The food was absolutely fantastic at Sailors Pub!  Hard to believe there is a 4 star restaurant on Washington island, and while a bit pricey, was definitely delicious.  When we arrived at the marina we noticed people working in the restaurant starting at around 11AM but the restaurant did not open until 5pm.  Come to find out they are only open to 8pm, after a nice waitress informed us that "this wasn't Chicago!"

Boys Doing Flips on the Beach!

Beautiful Sunset at Dinner at Sailor's Pub!