LAST HURRAH OF SUMMER

We had a lovely Labor day weekend on Washington Island with my daughter Liz and her husband Andy ,that flew into Milwaukee from Portland, Oregon. It was probably the "last hurrah of summer" as the weather is turning cooler and boating on Lake Michigan is starting to wind down for the year. Although there were flight delays in Detroit we made it to the 6pm ferry on Friday evening, after a fun stop at a farm market on the way to break up the 4 hr drive from Milwaukee.

We had a nice relaxing weekend of family time- game playing inside in the cool evening hours and an outside horseshoe competition with Dave and Andy(they are getting pretty good and came in just as it was starting to get dark outside). We grilled out some Salmon for Liz (that we had caught a few weeks earlier this summer) and of course steak for Andy who loves getting his red meat( as Liz is a vegetarian). We also had a few meals at island restaurants- one run by an islander that does commercial fishing( great local fish) and another at the marina( great pasta and ribs!!).Liz mixed up some gluten-free breadsticks I bought at our local health food store but they were a bit odd and not too tasty and she is a good cook( the clerk recommended them as tasty... i guess not ?). I cooked up some french toast with ligonberries for breakfast , baked homemade carrot muffins and had ice cream sundaes with local fresh frozen cherries for dessert for treats. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

Liz enjoyed some closet treasure hunting looking for fun things she may want to take home from all the years of spending summer weeks on the island when she was younger. She found a pair of beige jeans that fit her like a glove, some art prints, photos. and a big wrap around wool sweater I had inherited from Dave's sister Anne (who passed away a number of years ago). She wore that cozy sweater for the rest of the weekend! She even talked me into cleaning my clothes closet( i think she was still looking for treasure-he he). I also went through and my pot and Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen which I really wanted to clean as overflowing since Dave put in our mini dishwasher and took my large pot cabinet to do so. She took some of my antique canning jars I had displayed on top my kitchen cabinets( as I have alot more), as she is starting to can local produce in Portland now. She also took some camping equipment we offered( and had sorted out in our garage on the island the weekend before they came)- a camp lantern, some camp cook pots and dishes and a small green dome tent that i think belonged to my brother Dale (Dale passed away in 1979 and was an avid camper , biker and hiker). I had also brought up some luggage from home that Liz wanted . So this worked nicely to just check 2 bags with the airlines when returning home to get the luggage and other things back to Portland, as they only brought two carry on backpacks. And I love living with less ....so hurrah for more things gone from our house!! We also took a nice batch of things to the "Twice Around Shop"- the island resale store housed in an old farmhouse( all proceeds benefit the Island Medical Clinic).

While Liz and I went to the TAShop, Dave and Andy also took a big batch of things we had cleaned out of the garage the weekend before to the "Island landfill. There is no garbage pick up on the island ,so you have to haul your garbage or discards to the landfill during the limited hours of wed or sat 10-3. The Island landfill also recycles items discarded by some but of use to others.( I love this idea!). There is also a huge pile of discarded metal items, most of which need repair or are not usable, but at least are not part of the garbage that has to be taken off island. Some people come to pick through this for things to repair or parts for other things they have but most of it is just discards and unusable as broken beyond repair. One elderly man we knew on the island( and passed away this year) always came to the landfill to pick up broken lawn chairs , took them home, repaired and sold them. It became his side business to earn income in his retirement. That's creative!! The landfill now requires that you use clear plastic bags to throw away garbage perhaps to put an end to non- garbage items getting put into the compacted garbage to reduce the amount and cost of garbage taken by expense off island for disposal. There is also a fish guts composting area and a building materials discard pile...all separate from the compacted garbage. They do recycle plastic/glass, , alum cans and cardboard. It is an interesting process,as when you live on a small island you have to learn to thoughtfully discard of things for the best environmental reuse or discard.

We also went for a nice bike ride to Sand Dune Beach and some lovely afternoon boating and beach combing on Poverty Island in Lake Michigan. Poverty Island used to be an active coast guard lighthouse, so it is fun to explore the coast around it as well as the old lighthouse buildings. We climbed to the top to the lighthouse among the dismantled buildings. The view is glorious...you can see for miles in all directions and the water sparkles in the Sept. sunshine. There is always some treasure to be found on the beaches and area around the coast guard buildings- pcs of driftwood, old commercial fishing net floats, pieces of metal from ships or dismantled machines. Most of all it is just a glorious afternoon of fresh air and coastal hiking.

The Poverty Island pier no longer exists so the only way to get ashore with the rocky coastline and shallow shoals is to anchor our boat in deeper water off shore and take a large rubber raft with tiny motor to reach the shore.We have done this on many different islands near W Island over the years and it is one of my most favorite Island pastimes as so very beautiful and relaxing to be out on the lake and coastlines for hours plus great photography!! It was fine going into Poverty but larger waves developed while we were on the island, so we got a bit wet on the raft trip back to the boat . We were also met by much larger waves for our motorboat to handle on the way back to Washington Island, but we made it in about an hour of driving through the 3 ft waves. Dave's a great boat navigator and since we have done this many many times, he is pro at driving the boat at just the right angle to keep the wet splash of most waves out of the boat (but our raincoats felt nice and warm anyway with the late afternoon sun starting to diminish).

All in all we had a nice holiday family weekend and even managed to miss alot of the holiday traffic by driving back to Milwaukee by taking the first ferry off the island on Monday at 7am (getting in line by 6am to be sure of this). It did rain all the way back but a light rain so not too much of a nuisance. We even got back early enough to pick up Dave's mom for a quick lunch so Liz could see her aging grandmother before their trip back to Portland. We missed Katie but know we will get to spend time with her this fall and at Christmas time so had to settle for some phone calls to her for now. It is always a blessing to spend time with family...these are treasured times when family members live so far away from each other!!