Fresh lawyers!

Door County, Wisconsin is as beautiful as anywhere I've seen.  And Washington Island, just off the tip of the peninsula, might be the nicest part of it all.  We took the ferry to the island and rented bicycles, the hybrid/comfort things you see in the photo.  These are the bikes the girls rode, mine was under me as I took the photo, I think. They weren't bikes I'd be in a hurry to own, but for reasonably-priced rentals, they did the job.

We rode the length of the island, which was not really as great a feat as it sounds.  At the northern end, we lounged at Schoolhouse Beach, which is covered not in sand, but in perfectly smooth, white stones.  I'll say this about stone beaches -- they look much more inviting than they feel.  Sitting on rocks, even smooth ones, isn't that great a treat.  But man, did those rocks look cool.

Fiona swam in the icy Lake Michigan water.  Her mom and dad were content to watch from the beach, where they struggled to get comfortable and kept wondering how much better life would have been if we'd thought to bring a towel with us.  Or a bathing suit. 

When Fiona gets a blog, she can tell you how it felt to swim in her clothes and then get on a bicycle and ride back to the ferry.  I'm guessing it wasn't too comfortable.  But as always, our little trouper (or is it trooper?) was very stingy with complaints.  I admire that about her greatly. 

Back to the lawyers -- they're a fish, in case that wasn't clear from the window art. Their more official name is burbot and they're a kind of catfish/eel combination.  Yes, I realize that catfish/eel might be the least attractive combination in all the animal kingdom, but we were spared their unfortunate faces when dining on them.  They're basically a cod-like fish, so they were perfectly tasty in a cod-like way.

The owner of this neat little roadside restaurant assured me that the "fresh lawyers" sign is perhaps the most photographed spot on Washington Island.