TUESDAY AUGUST 30TH, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!!!!

Today we traveled from Fish Creek further up the Door county peninsula to Washington Island. Washington Island has one of the oldest Icelandic and Scandinavian settlements in Wisconsin. Before then, it was inhabited by the Potawatomi Indians.

The waters off the island are known as some of the most treacherous on Lake Michigan. Shallow shoals combined with strong currents from different directions along with the wind make this an area where hundreds of wooden ships have wrecked. The French named this area “port des mortes”, or door of death. Door County is named after this area.

It was a quiet ride over to Washington Island. No problem with the door of death. (thank goodness) We had cell service so I could look up info on the Internet. Ross and I were wondering about the Whitefish we ate the other night at the fish boil. Turns out they are very healthy for us and are higher in Omega 3 oils than even salmon. So hopefully that counteracts all the bad oils from the melted butter we drenched it in.  They are primary bottom feeders and eat crustaceans, snails and insects. I wonder if they eat zebra mussels? There are oodles of Whitefish and since they tend to be on the bottom the nets that the fishermen use to catch them are not a hazard to boating.

We took a bike ride once we got to the island. We happened by the Washington Island Post Office. It’s for sale in case anyone is interested. Price has been reduced from $169,000 to $159,000. There are many, many properties for sale on the island. The economy and real estate market has hit this island pretty hard I’m guessing.





This is a beautiful Stavkirke built back in the woods a ways. The name stavkirke means “church of staves”. It is a replica of a wooden stave church built in Norway around 1150. This replica was hand built by locals in homage to their Icelandic and Scandinavian heritage. It was completed in 1995. It still smells like fresh cedar wood when you walk in.

Close up of the 3 carved dragonheads.









 At the base of the alter is  carved the words HAN ER OPPSTANDEN. I researched the translation of this. It is the Paschal greeting of Christ is Risen. I couldn’t make a definite determination as to if the words are Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian so I’ll just say Scandinavian.

There is an evening prayer service held here once a week.
















 



The ceiling of the church.