I am vacationing in Door County with my family, which includes my husband, seven year old daughter, parents, and two 14 year old nephews. We are staying in Fish Creek, but yesterday we decided to make a day of it on Washington Island. I've been to Door County many times in the last 12 years, it's become a yearly excursion, and somehow we've never been to Washington Island. What would it be like? What would we do there? What adventure awaited us on the other side of the ferry?

There were seven of us, so we had to take two cars. Round trip tickets for a car is $24 (JUST the car), adults are $5.50 and children are $3.75. When we got off the ferry we immediately headed towards the Lookout Tower in Mountain Park where the view from the top of the tower was amazing! After that we split up for lunch, with my husband, daughter and I going to a restaurant on Main Street that promised breakfast all day, soup, sandwiches, wi-fi, and a baby grand piano in the dining room, oh and let's not forget the kayak tours. Close your eyes and imagine it with me, do you see a fireplace? Someone playing the piano? Customers lounging around, laptops open, blogging away? Coffee bar perhaps?

Okay, now you need to snap back to what I'd like to call: the reality of island life. The restaurant was about the size of my living room, the baby grand was in the corner with a fence (FENCE?) around it, zero laptops, no fireplace, and only two other tables of customers. The waitress moved on island time, and she even stopped taking our order at one point so she could help someone else find a fork. However, it must be said that that was the best darn grilled cheese sandwich I'd had in a while. AND I was able to log onto wi-fi with my iPod Touch so I could email my brother and check on my dogs.

After lunch we met back up at Jacobsen’s Museum were we met a life long resident of the island. Then we visited an Art & Nature Center, where I searched for a painting to add to my Door County collection (didn't find one though). My nephew bought a boomerang, which my husband immediately tried out in the parking lot. He threw it towards the woods, and I'm sure he expected it turn around right before the trees, but it didn't, and my nephew had to trounce around in the trees until they found it.

Note to anyone with a boomerang: learn to use it before you throw it towards the woods.

We decided it was time to head back to the ferry. My dad's car got on no problem, but we were told we'd have to wait an hour for the next ferry, so we pulled off to the side to wait. Next thing we know we are being waved ahead, once we got up to the ferry it was pretty clear that only one of those little Smart Cars would fit on the deck. The guy leans into the driver's window and says to my husband, "okay, what you're going to do is turn around here and backup onto the ferry, (and then he pointed) sideways there behind that car". And then I looked and saw him point towards my mom, who was already rummaging around in the cooler that was in the hatchback of their Equinox. My husband and I looked at each other, surely this is a joke, right? He didn't just tell us to back up on the ferry, did he? And then we laughed. And from the look on his face we realized that it wasn't a joke, and that we were going to be backing up sideways on the little itty bit part of the deck.

So that was our once in a lifetime Washington Island experience. I think that it'd be a perfect place to go for a bike ride. Maybe next time!

I'm dreaming of a getaway to Door County. Last June, right before the busy season, we vacationed for five days in Fish Creek and it was wonderful! We spent our time doing things like: riding our bikes through Peninsula State Park, painting pottery at the Hands On Art Studio, visiting The Peninsula Bookman (where the owner has my dream job), drinking lots of coffee at Blue Horse Bistro (where the owners have my other dream job), and eating as much pizza as we can at Moretti's Pizzeria -- YUM!

Where are you dreaming about getting away to?

My family really enjoys a good water park. We've been to a few of them, some have been outstanding and some have been disappointing. For instance, Paradise Landing which is located in the Milwaukee Hilton was a complete waste of our time. The Kalahari was too large to keep track of everyone easily, and that toilet bowl slide? I didn't see how that was fun, I mean a girl could lose her swimming suit on that one. However, Moose Mountain Falls at the Timber Ridge in Lake Geneva is worth the trip.

My daughter attended a birthday party at the Country Springs Hotel's Waterpark and when I picked her up I thought it looked like the perfect afternoon getaway. The cost, $25 per person. Right, like I have an extra $75 just laying around to go the waterpark for the day. I don't. Good news though because they do offer special rates occasionally and I was able to get tickets today for only $15 per person. That's a pretty good price, and if it weren't a school day, and if three people at work weren't in Mexico right now leaving me in charge (my plane leaves on Feb. 7th!), I'd be willing to be at the water park at 9:59 a.m. with my swimming suit on!

My family could use some fun, have you been reading about our lives lately???? What with the near explosion, the vegetable oil spill, a car crash an eye infections and a waiter who changed his tip, or how about a boulder of ice --- I think my family deserves to ride the Triple Dog Dare until the cows come home!

Let me know if you have any indoor water park recommendations!

Tonight my husband and I are switching from Mid-America Bank to Landmark Credit Union. Why? I've been unhappy with Mid-America ever since they switched from St. Francis Bank, and the only thing that has kept me from switching before this is all the automatic payments that I'll now have to change.

I didn't set out to switch our accounts, but I think he secretly set a plan in place where I would come up with the idea, and then because it's my idea, do it.

Here's what happened: He and our daughter have been saving all their change in this huge piggy bank we bought in Cape Cod when we first got married. They 'feed the pig' and every once in a while they'll weigh the pig and see how much it's gained since the last weigh-in. It's like the opposite of Weight Watchers, the heavier the pig, the better. About a month ago they took the pig up to Landmark Credit Union and opened a savings account. We are saving for a vacation, and coin by coin, we'll get there. It's realistic. I once sold items on ebay for three months and had enough for a 10 day trip to the Disney World ... including the meal plan, which by the way, is a good deal.

I digress..... In order to put my name on the savings account he needed to escort me to the credit union where I'd then have to sit in front of a very pleasant banker who had account literature on her desk. I think he called ahead and asked her to take her time in preparing the signature card: Fake like you are working on the paperwork until she takes a brochure. After she opens the Current Rates brochure then you can ask her to sign the signature card. So I waited, and chatted, and waited, and chatted, and waited, and then reached for the brochure.

I think witnessed a fist pump and a victorious 'yes!' from my husband as I noticed the interest rate on the Premium Checking account.

After verfiying that the numbers were not a misprint, I looked over at my grinning husband who said, "Clark Howard always says to go to a Credit Union".

"What about customer service? Is there an 800 number that I have to call where I'll get some worldwide call center where I'm just a number and no one cares?" I asked.

"Unfortunately," the banker told me with a note of sarcasm, "You'll get our New Berlin office."

"We'll be back on Thursday."

 What about you? What would motivate you to change banks?

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