After months of struggling with Island Fever, we finally took the cure! In case you haven’t been following along, for the past couple of months many of the Sustacheks, Sorensens, and Andersons have been suffering from a severe case of Island Fever. The CDC even issued an alert about it, which you can see on Facebook. Based on advice from our doctors, we took a week-long cure, which required moving entire families to Washington Island, Wisconsin. The cure worked fine for the whole week but there is some indication that the fever could return again. We might just have to go for another cure.
One of the first decisions we had to make before catching the ferry to the island was what type of smoked fish to buy. Fortunately, the staff at Charlie’s Smokehouse in Gill’s Rock will let you buy more than one kind! Then it was on to the Ferry Dock for our ride to the island. We were anxious to get there because we had rented a different cottage this year; one that we’d never seen before except for pictures on the internet. As it turns out, the cottage, called the Burgoon House, was excellent. It sits right on the shore of Green Bay where you can watch the sun set every night. We’ve already reserved it for next year!
So, what did we do all week? Well, it’s always difficult for me to explain to people what we do on Washington Island. Fortunately, Dan Sorensen was back again this year. He had not been able to join us for a couple of years, but when he sang a song about the island that he wrote quite a few years ago, he reminded us that we “do a little fishin’, do a little eatin’, do a little drinkin’ and we have a good time.” That about sums it up. In honor of Pudge, Dan and his brother Tom gave everyone a t-shirt that said The Official Washington Island Fishing Team. We all wore them for the group photographs (there were several group photos this year).
Kathy and I were happy that Eric was able to make it from Saturday night until Tuesday morning. Although we didn’t do a little fishin’, we did a little drinkin’, we did a lot of eatin’, and we had a great time! Monday night was Italian night so Eric got to enjoy the cuisine whipped up by Mama Sustacheckini and her clan. Uncle Jim Bob did a marvelous job again with wings, corn dogs, and other deep fried delights. He hauled out the oil cooker again on Thursday when we had Fish Fry and Mexican Night on the same night. Kathy, of course, also did a fabulous job with her traditional ham, beans, potato salad, jello, and brown bread meal. Yeah, we did a LOT of eatin’!
The other main adventures of ours during the week were a wonderful long boat ride on the Norwegian Wood given to us by Steve and Wendy, and a trip to Rock Island. Since we don’t fish, unlike most of the group, Kathy and I don’t usually get out in the boat so we appreciated Steve and Wendy taking the time to pilot us around. Other than the fact that my knees got very sunburned — it turns out that when you sit down, formerly protected flesh gets exposed to the sun — we had a great ride. Since we hadn’t been to Rock Island in a couple of years, we took the Karfi over there one day and spent a few hours hiking up to the lighthouse and exploring Viking Hall. It’s always a fun place to visit.
After packing up and checking out at the end of the week, we delayed our departure by doing some last-minute shopping and stopping at the Annual Washington Island Fly-in Fish Boil. Alas, then it was back to Madison. Note, however, that there’s only about 50 weeks until next year’s trip.