Madeline Island is the largest of the Apostle Islands which sit just off the coast of Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shoreline. It is the only one of the Apostles which isn’t a part of Apostle Island National Lakeshore and the only one open to development. The permanent population of the island hovers around 300 but grows considerably during the summer months. The island is named after Madeline Cadotte, an Ojibwe woman and the daughter of Chief White Crane who married a white fur trader and lived on the island in the 19th century.
The island is important to the Ojibwe as a spiritual center and was also the home of Chief Buffalo, the man responsible for negotiating the Treaty of 1854 which helped create a permanent Reservation on the Lake Superior coast.
Madeline Island was a major fur trading post for many years and later industries included commercial fishing, logging and tourism. Both Father Marquette and Bishop Baraga (the “Snowshoe Priest”) visited the island and helped establish missions there.
I had a great visit to Madeline Island. The ferry only took about 20 minutes to make the crossing and I brought my van with me and stayed at wonderful Big Bay State Park on the far side of the island. The ferry docks at La Pointe, the island’s only town which has several restaurants, bars and shops. It’s also where I found Tom’s Burned Down Cafe, one of the coolest bars I went to in the state. I enjoyed hiking in the state park and a long drive around the island on a very well maintained dirt road. I was sorry that the museum was closed when I was there, but I’m sure it had some interesting artifacts in it. Sunset over Lake Superior looking back at the mainland was magical. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time on beautiful Madeline Island.
Washington Island is just a quick 30 minute ferry ride from the tip of the Door County Peninsula, but you have to cross Death’s Door to get there. The story I heard was that Potawatomie and Winnebago (now referred to as Ho-Chunk) Indians occupied opposite sides of the passage. One day they both sent war parties in boats to attack the other side but a storm came up and killed all of the warriors who set out that day. When they later recalled this story to French trappers, the passage was named Porte des Mortes or Door of Death. This is where Door County gets its name.
I had a wonderful visit to Washington Island and crossed Death’s Door twice without incident. The island is a pretty good sized rock and traces much of its European heritage back to Scandinavia. I read that Washington Island has the highest concentration of Icelandic-Americans in the country. I learned about some of the island’s cultural history at the Jacobson Museum and some of its fishing and boating history at the Maritime Museum. At Nelson’s Hall the bartender told me that the proprietor got his pharmacy license during Prohibition and served up straight 90-Proof Angostura Bitters to his patrons as “stomach medicine”. Now you too can join the “Bitters Club” by doing a full shot of it yourself (which obviously I did). Nelson’s is the top seller of Angostura Bitters in the country. Next door at K.K. Fiske’s you can enjoy a fresh grilled “Lawyer” or Burbot fish, although sadly they didn’t have any there for me during my visit. The Stavkirke is a beautiful recreation of a traditional Norwegian Stave Church and is really quite breathtaking to see and definitely one of the top highlights on the island. There are other cool Scandinavian buildings around as well and many people proclaim their heritage with that country’s flag on their mailbox. I spent a lot of time at Schoolhouse Beach which is a beautiful protected harbor on the north side of the island which boasts a beach made up of perfectly smooth stones. If you’ve followed me long enough, you know I have a special place in my heart for islands and will explore them whenever the opportunity presents itself. I really enjoyed Washington Island, especially since I could bring my van out there with me. I only wish it had been sunnier while I was there so you could really see how beautiful it was, but the weather is what it is when I am where I am, and it was pretty cloudy during my stay on the island. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Washington Island because I had to cross Death’s Door to get them.
Phil Foster Park under the Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach is one of the coolest places I’ve visited on this entire journey. Situated on a small island literally under the bridge in the middle of the intercoastal waterway, this park is surrounded by warm, calm, turquoise water perfect for swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving. Considered by some to be one of the top shore dives in the world, I had to go see for myself. Geared up with equipment rented from nearby Force-E Dive Center, I walked off the beach and descended into the blue. It really was a spectacular dive site full of big and little creatures alike. Plenty of fish were around, as were crabs, shrimp, lobsters, starfish and even one small nurse shark. I found two elusive scorpion fish - see if you can spot them in the two photos below the starfish in this post (and remember you can always click my photos to see a bigger view). You can only dive this site one hour before and one hour after high tide, so you do have to time it properly, but Force-E is there to help with tide charts and sound advice. After my spectacular 100 minute dive (it’s only about 20 feet deep), I had just as much fun above water as below. The park has a nice little beach to relax on, a good sized picnic area, bathrooms and showers, a fishing pier and great views from every angle. It was a perfect place to hang out and relax and watch the sun set behind West Palm Beach. If you ever find yourself in central east Florida, stop by Phil Foster Park for a dive, a snorkel, a swim or just a picnic and some great rays. You may end up there way longer than you planned to be. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time under the Blue Heron Bridge in Phil Foster Park.
I first went to Cumberland Island National Seashore now almost 30 years ago. We went on our 8th Grade class trip on a tour that included Charleston and Savannah, and perhaps our favorite at the time, Kings Dominion amusement park near Richmond. I’ve often thought about Cumberland Island and how much I wanted to go back. Since I was there, I’ve visited 320 or so units of the National Park Service, but Cumberland Island has eluded me. Because you have to get there and back by ferry, it takes more than a few hours of commitment and at least enough planning ahead time to make a ferry reservation. But finally I made it back to the wild island off the coast of Georgia, and it was spectacular. One of my friends asked if it was as beautiful as she remembered and I told her one of the most beautiful things about a National Park site is that it doesn’t change much - that is, in fact, the whole idea! So while I am older and bigger and perhaps a touch wiser, Cumberland Island is much the same…
South Bass Island is a tiny little 3.7 mile by 1.5 mile island which sits 3 miles off the coast of mainland Ohio and is surrounded by Lake Erie. I love islands and have lived on several in my life, and am particularly fond of those not connected by road. They are neat little pockets of culture and I always enjoy visiting them. Accessible by boat or air, South Bass Island is often called Put-In Bay, and has been referred to as the “Key West of Lake Erie”. While that may be a bit of a stretch, it is a really neat place with some great bars and restaurants and some interesting history. I enjoyed visiting the fascinating Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, which commemorates the naval battle for Lake Erie during the War of 1812. While I was there in the off-season and on a chilly and rainy Monday, I still had a really great time on the island and wanted to share these photos from my trip. While not as off-the-beaten-path as the trip you may remember I took to Daufuskie Island in South Carolina (read that story HERE), Put-In Bay is a really cool place and definitely one you should visit if you are in the area.
Somewhere inside of me, there will always be an island kid. I've spent about three years of my life living on islands, and there is just something special about them. When I'm talking about an island, I mean a real island, one you can only get to by boat. As soon as a bridge connects it, it becomes a peninsula in my head. It loses its charm. It becomes just another part of whatever it is connected to. A real island is isolated and quirky and the residents are eccentric and innovative, as anything they need - from groceries to lumber - probably has to come from somewhere else. Daufuskie Island is a real island and a beautiful and charming one at that. It's hard to believe it's only 20 minutes by water taxi from mainland South Carolina because it feels a world apart.
