I just love little stories that have “Mackinac Island” written all over them This is one of those.

So I’m sitting in my chair this afternoon, scrolling through Facebook (which is what I do when it’s pouring down rain on a Sunday afternoon, and I haven’t found my next book to read).

A post from Trista France, a Facebook friend on Mackinac Island, pops up about a fireplace (and other things) she has for sale. I click on the first picture and there, before my very eyes, is what I think is the electric fireplace Ted and I bought (along with other family room items) the year after we bought our condo at Surrey Ridge. The condo we bought was fully furnished, and we loved everything – except for the family room. At the end of our first summer we rode over to Linde Furniture in Cheboygan and purchased a couch, a couple of recliners, some end tables and lamps. Everything had to be ordered and wouldn’t come in for months, so we arranged for Linde’s to store it all until we returned to the island the next spring. Then we went and bought the fireplace and made the same arrangement. The day before it was scheduled to be delivered that spring we (with the help of friends) moved all the family room furniture down the stairs and out into the yard. A neighbor immediately said “I want it all”, and every piece was sitting in his house within an hour. The next day our new furniture AND the fireplace arrived on a horse-drawn dray. Two Linde employees rode up on the dray to help unload and move the furniture up to the second floor.

I showed the pic to Ted, and he agreed it HAD to be “our” fireplace! We sold the condo fully furnished also. We knew the new owners had redecorated the family room (funny how family rooms just HAVE to reflect your own personality, isn’t it) but had no idea where our things had ended up.

Well, I couldn’t stand it. I HAD to know if this was our fireplace – and its story since we last saw it. So I FaceTimed Trista.

“Yes! It’s yours!” she laughed. “We bought it from the folks who bought your condo, and we have loved it through two house moves. Our family grew this year, and now we’re moving again – and the new place already has a fireplace.”

It made me so happy to know that “river rock” fireplace had been warming this sweet family for all these years. We used it so much on the island. Arriving in early May, it was still cold, so it was on pretty much non-stop in the mornings and at night through May and sometimes part of June. Then again in the fall, September through October. Some of my best memories of our years as Mackinac residents are of sitting in that room with a book and a blanket. Maddie curled up in Ted’s lap while he read or napped. Bear sprawled in front of the fireplace. It was truly a magical time in our lives.

It’s been such fun to walk down memory lane a bit tonight. I’m hoping this special piece adds to the happy memories of its next owner, whoever that may be. After all, it’s our memories that make us smile and warm our hearts. And a good fireplace helps too.

God bless.

It’s so hard to believe this is our last night on the island for this trip. Our time has gone by incredibly fast and we’ve started the packing process, even though it feels as though we just arrived and UNpacked.

Ted and I have mixed emotions about leaving. The main “con” – back to extremely hot weather in Florida. The main “pro” – getting back to our sweet Bodie and Florida friends.

We’ve had a few rainy, cool days – and a few warm, blue sky days. The highest temp we’ve had is 76, and some days it barely got out of the low 60’s. I’m kind of afraid how it’s going to feel when we walk out of the Daytona Beach Airport Wednesday night. We’ve been told it’s been “brutal” the last two weeks – not a word you want to hear when it’s associated with the weather. especially when you know it’s going to last at least three more months.

These last 13 days have been such a treat for Ted and I – actually the first real “vacation” we’ve had in years and years. I know that sounds strange when we’ve spent our last 17 summers on Mackinac Island, voted the #1 Summer Travel Destination in the U.S. in 2023, 2024, and 2025. But when you spend several months somewhere, no matter how beautiful it is, you have the same routine you do at home – you buy groceries, you cook, you do laundry, you walk the dog several times a day, you dust and vacuum and mop, etc. But for the last two weeks, staying at the Chippewa, we’ve truly been pampered – we’ve eaten out, we haven’t dusted, vacuumed or mopped. We haven’t even made up our own bed. We did have to use a friend’s washer and dryer once, but only because we didn’t have room to pack enough clothes to go the full two weeks without washing!

So yes. We’ve enjoyed being “down the hill” because it’s so easy to walk out the door of the Chippewa and be close to tons of great restaurants, shops and fun things to do. We also have seen more friends more often because everyone comes to town for some reason every day. And if you’re outside you will see them somewhere – in the street, at the post office, at Doud’s, etc. But we’ve missed being “up the hill” with great friends in the condo and being able to walk out the door up there and be in the woods we love so much. It’s a conundrum for sure, and we will really have to think about all our options for next summer.

But for now we looking forward to being back at the Chippewa in late August for two more weeks. We leave the island late Tuesday afternoon, will spend the night in Pellston and catch an early morning flight out on Wednesday. If all goes well, we’ll land in Daytona around 11pm Wednesday night and pick up our sweet Bodie Thursday morning.

After dinner tonight I did one last walk-around and I’ve posted a few pics below.

We just listened to Taps being played from Fort Mackinac, which happens each night at 10 p.m. Being downtown makes that possible, and it’s a beautiful and special ending to each day.

Looking forward to being back in August!

God bless.

It was July, 2000 when I stepped foot off a ferry onto Mackinac Island for the first time. Ted had been promising to bring me to Michigan and show me where he spent his boyhood summers. His grandparents had a summer cottage in Les Cheneaux Islands outside Cedarville in the UP (upper peninsula) of Michigan.

“We’ll stay on Mackinac Island,” Ted said. “You’ll love it there, and it will be a good base spot for our trip.” He booked us at the Chippewa Hotel Waterfront (where his grandparents and parents – and little boy Ted – had stayed when they’d bring their boat from Cedarville to the island).

I remember leaving our home in south Georgia in July when it was nearly 100 degrees and stepping off the ferry into a crisp breeze and a temp around 75. I swore to Ted I would never go back to a Florida beach on a summer vacation. Of course now we live in Florida, but that’s another story.

We did travel to Cedarville during that first 10-day trip to Michigan. We explored the land where Ted’s grandparents’ home had stood and even found the daylily patch his mother had planted one summer. It was a sweet, nostalgic trip, and we returned there with Julie and our grandchildren years later.

As magical as that journey was, it was Mackinac Island that captured my heart to the point that I cried all the way across the Straits when we left that first year. We returned for the next seven summers on vacation, and we always stayed at the Chippewa – usually for 10 days. We became friends with the Benser family, who own the Chippewa, and with Brian Bailey, the general manager and his wife Jeri-Lynn. When we retired and were looking for a condo to purchase on the island it was Brian and Jeri-Lynn who went up the hill and checked out three condos for sale at Surrey Ridge for us. That night they called us in Georgia and shared the one they liked the best. The next morning we contacted the realtor and bought it – sight unseen.

After buying the condo we would come to the island on Mother’s Day weekend and leave the first weekend in November – six months on the island and six months in south Georgia. When we sold the condo 6 years later to build our home in Florida, we rented on the island for 3-4 months each summer for the next 11 years.

The one constant in those 25 years of visits has been the Chippewa Hotel Waterfront. Through all that time we’ve eaten at the Chippewa more than any other restaurant on the island – and (for sure) “everybody knows our name” at the Pink Pony bar. There was even a time when Ted had his very own seat reserved at the end of the bar during football season, with a TV dedicated to the University of Georgia. Many is the Saturday afternoon when Michigan and Michigan State fans questioned that particular setup, but it was what it was.

I’ve written all this so you might understand a little better why, when we decided to no longer come to the island long-term in the summer we immediately chose to return to the Chip for a couple of weeks now and another two weeks in late August.

Do we feel special when we stay here? We sure do. But I’m here to promise you that whether you’ve stayed (or eaten or partied here) for 25 years, or this is your very first visit and you’re only staying one night, you are going to be made to feel just as special as we are.

From the time you step off the ferry and a Chippewa dock porter whisks away your luggage (which will magically appear in your hotel room), to your greeting at the front desk, to your beautiful room either street-side or waterfront, to the wonderful housekeeping ladies, to the wait staff, to the bartenders, to the live entertainment (believe me, I could go on and on) – you will feel as though it’s all been planned just for you. This hotel and the Pink Pony have a long history on Mackinac, and it is one of the happiest and most fun places you can be on the island.

I know this seems like a blatant commercial for the Chippewa, but it’s actually just a love letter to what is for us a special spot that has brought Ted and I so much joy and happiness – and so many good times – over the years. It’s great to be back – where the door always swings open wide in welcome, and every day is a special, special treat.

God bless.

We’re here! We’re here! So excited, but the journey was . . . quite the journey!

Wednesday was “travel day”.

We set the clock for a 2:00 wakeup alarm on Wednesday morning. Yes, I said 2:00 – as in A.M. We were being picked up by a shuttle service, and they were to arrive at 3:30 to get us to Daytona International Airport in plenty of time for a 6:00 am flight.

The shuttle service was on time, and we spent the first 15 minutes of the ride warning our driver about deer and wild hogs that might run out on the road in the dark. A few seconds after the last warning she suddenly swerved sharply, then righted the car.

“What was that”? we asked, having seen nothing.

“Gator crossing the road – about a 6-footer”, she replied calmly, “That’s a first for me!”

“Us too!” we exclaimed.

And that was the first of a few other “firsts” on travel day.

We arrived at the Daytona airport well ahead of schedule, checked two bags, and went through security like a breeze. One of the joys of being senior citizens is not having to take off our shoes or drag things out of luggage for the TSA officials. They asked us if we had laptops in our luggage. We said yes, They said ok (without checking). We asked if we needed to take out our carefully packed quart Ziplock bags with all our 3.4 oz tubes of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes. “No”, they replied, “You’re good.”

And off we went to our gate.

Our 6 am flight left 10 minutes early and we arrived in Atlanta with a three-hour layover before our flight to Detroit. We found a place to eat breakfast and then sat at our gate where all the signs read our flight was leaving on time. Until . . .

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to let you know that the pilot for your plane is running late. As soon as he arrives, we’ll get you on the plane and to your destination.”

My immediate thought was he was stuck in Atlanta traffic gridlock somewhere, and would be at the airport shortly. And he did arrive a few minutes later – we boarded only maybe 15 minutes behind schedule. It was a big plane and every seat was taken. We readied for takeoff, and that was when the pilot himself came out of the cockpit and announced, “I just wanted to let you know why I was late arriving this morning. I was taking off out of Savannah to Atlanta when we hit a flock of birds. We were able to land the plane safely, but then I had to catch another flight to Atlanta for this flight. So the day didn’t start off great. And now, just as I was readying to taxi out, we got an announcement due to severe storms in and approaching Detroit that they’ve issued a ground-stop for Detroit. Nothing can fly in or fly out. We’re supposed to get an update in 45 minutes so we’re asking that you remain on the plane.”

We settled back. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Detroit before our last leg to Pellston, so we weren’t too worried.

20 minutes later the pilot announced we were deplaning. No explanation.

We all gather our carry-ons and personal items and leave the plane, after being asked to stay in the gate area.

TEN minutes after we were all seated back at the gate it was announced that we were reboarding the plane. That took another 30 minutes. Now we were checking our watches. It was a two-hour flight and our window to reach Detroit and change planes on time (we had to change terminals between flights) was looking more and more impossible. We knew the Detroit airport and knew we had to go from the far end of terminal A through a long tunnel that connects to terminal B and C and then go all the way to the other end of terminal C. At a casual pace it took about 30 minutes, and we were catching the last flight of the day to Pellston. We knew we would not be walking casually.

We finally landed in Detroit, after changing routes several times and flying around storms. When we made it off the plane we had 20 minutes to catch our flight. A flight attendant told us a short cut that involved catching a tram and knocking off some steps, and we took her advice. Up an escalator, onto a tram, through the tunnel and out at terminal C. We were 10 minutes late for the flight, but they had held it for us and several others whose flights had been delayed because of weather.

In all we walked over 3 miles yesterday – all in airports – and I use the term “walk” very loosely.

We landed in Pellston only a little over 30 minutes behind schedule, boarded our shuttle to the ferry docks, and took Shepler’s over to the island. We had a wonderful dinner in the Chippewa Dining Room, and when we got back to the room at 9 pm I lay down and told Ted I was going to rest for a few minutes. I woke up at 1:30, put on my pj’s and woke again at 7:30 this morning.

And that was our travel day.

But it was all worth it. We love being at the Chippewa again. We arrived to find goodies from the hotel, flowers from island friends, and today a gift box arrived from a long-time friend and blog reader. A few friends stopped by to say “welcome home” to us at as we ate last night and a group of ladies sitting near us leaned over and asked “Are y’all local celebrities?” We laughed and said, “No. We’ve just been coming here a lot of years!”

No matter how long we stay away, coming back to the island is always a homecoming for us. We love this place and we love its people. It’s been my heart’s home for 26 years, and that will never change.

God bless.

Header: The Chippewa Hotel Waterfront, with Fort Hill and the Michigan Governor’s Summer Residence in the background. That’s the Victory II, a Great Lakes Cruise Ship, in the foreground.

This is the week I discovered it’s harder to pack for a two-week trip to Mackinac than it is to pack for the summer there. I’m only speaking of luggage packing, not truck packing (we are both incredibly happy not to be filling the bed of Ted’s pickup truck with plastic bins filled with “stuff” we thought we couldn’t live without for the summer). Oh no. I’m just talking about the normal things you would pack into one checked bag and one carry-on bag.

Here’s the problem. I am – and have always been – a terrible packer. When I’d pack for the summer, I’d fill two pieces of luggage – that’s all we allowed ourselves because so much OTHER STUFF went into the bed of the pickup truck. When my two suitcases were full, I’d start packing boxes, knowing I could just ship them up the day before we left, and they’d be there waiting for me when we arrived. Can’t do that this year. Staying at the Chippewa Hotel Waterfront. Don’t want to call up there and say, “Oh, by the way, UPS will be delivering some boxes to the front desk for me the day before we arrive. Could you possibly just throw them in the back room till we get there? And could you ship them back home for us when we leave? (I wrote that totally tongue in cheek because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt the Chippewa would gladly accommodate all of that if it was requested! I just need to learn to pack!)

So . . . . I’ve packed as best I can. One huge suitcase (that I pray will not weigh over 50 lbs) and my carry-on. Believe me when I say we won’t be buying anything that has to come back on the plane with us. I don’t think even a little box of fudge would fit! But hey – we can always get some shipped home!

We leave Wednesday on a 6:00 am flight out of Daytona and are scheduled to arrive at Pellston airport at 5:15 (Daytona to Atlanta to Detroit to Pellston). Then it’s a 20-minute shuttle from the airport to the ferry dock, and a short ferry ride to the island. Hope to be having dinner in the Chippewa dining room (as we always do our first night on the island) by 7:30 at the latest. Ok – maybe 8:00.

Long day in airports and in the air, but we are SO excited!

P.S. Bodie goes to Miss Lilly’s tomorrow afternoon for two weeks in the country. He’s still doing great and will enjoy being free to run around on her really big, fenced property with other doggie friends.

Safe travel prayers are always appreciated!

God bless.

We received word today of the death of one of the first island residents Ted and I met when we bought our condo on Mackinac. George Wellington, Sr. was one of the finest gentlemen I’ve ever met. He was a man of few words and one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known. This is one of the first blogs I ever wrote, first posted in May, 2009.

I repeat it today in his honor. Rest in Peace, George.

GEORGE

Today, I have a story to tell. 

It’s about George, the gentleman in the picture above.  You may even recognize him, if you happen to be a fan of “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel.  Two years ago Mike Rowe, the star of that show, came to Mackinac Island and filmed a segment on delivering the “slop” from island restaurants to the Solid Waste Handling Center.  His contact was George, who drives the slop wagon every day back and forth between town and that facility.

Ted and I met George last summer after we moved into our condo.  We watched him travel slowly by each day with those big containers on his horse-drawn dray (having no idea what was in them).  He would also drive drays filled with hay heading for the stables down the hill, only to come back up later with a dray filled with manure heading for composting.

George is a life-long resident of the island.  He and his family have lived here for generations.  They reap the benefits of the tourist season, then hunker down for winters that are incredibly brutal.  Being from Georgia, Ted and I tend to speak to everyone we pass on the street, or who passes us.  We spoke to George several times a day for several weeks before he acknowledged us, but he finally stopped one day (drawn by our dogs more than anything else, I think) and talked a minute.  After that, we never saw him that he didn’t pull up on the reins and say a few words – whether about the weather, or who was coming to see us, or whether we were staying for the winter – he loved to tease Ted about that.

In the summer, there are dozens of taxi drivers.  In the winter, there is only one – George.  He volunteers for it.  I mean he gets paid, but he is the one who WANTS to be the only taxi driver out in weather that would make eskimos run for cover.  Flying into the airport at 2 a.m. on the coldest night of the year?  You call George ahead of time.  He will get out of bed, bundle up, walk to the stables, hitch up two horses to the taxi, and drive them the two miles to the airport.   Partying on the island for Christmas or New Year’s?  One taxi – one George.  Get in line and wait your turn.  George is what you get, and you had better be nice about it, or the next time you call, you might be waiting in the blizzard for quite a while.

I took the picture above one day last fall when we had come back to the island in October to see the leaves.  I said, “George, do you mind if I take your picture?”, and he said, “Nope.”  We talked a few minutes about his being a TV celebrity, and he smiled.  I said, “George, is Mike Rowe as nice in person as he seems to be?”  George’s reply was, “Oh, he wanted to cut up and joke, and I just told him I had WORK to do.”  If you ever see that episode, you will laugh at Mike trying to get more than one-word answers to come out of George’s mouth.  “Yep” and “Nope” was about all he ever said.

When I got home and had a print made of the picture, I was pleased with how it had come out.  So I mailed a copy of it to him in a Christmas card. 

We take the St. Ignace newspaper in Georgia so we can keep up with what’s happening on the island during the winter.  There is a Mackinac Island column every week.  We were shocked to read in February that George’s son, George Jr., had died on the ice.  In the winter, the Straits of Mackinac freeze over completely, and the islanders enjoy the freedom of traveling back and forth to St. Ignace over the ice on snowmobiles.  The safest path is marked with Christmas trees.  Sometime on that Saturday night George Jr. started back home from St. Ignace to the island, across the ice in a snowstorm.  Having been born and raised on the island, he probably didn’t think twice about doing that.  But somehow he lost his way.  From what they have been able to put together, he must have veered off the path, and he and his snowmobile went through thin ice.  He was able to climb out of the water and started back toward St. Ignace on foot. He was found the next morning at the foot of the stairs going up to the Coast Guard station, only feet from rescue. 

Both George Sr. and George Jr. were Mackinac Island volunteer firemen.  Ten days after his death, George and 20 volunteer firemen crossed the ice on their snowmobiles to St. Ignace and brought George Jr. home, back over the ice.  They were met by the black draped Engine No. 1 fire truck, and the casket was carried by the fire truck to George’s home.  The next morning, on a beautiful, clear winter day on Mackinac, the fire engine came back to the house for the casket and carried it to St. Anne’s church for the services.  All the flags on the island were at half-staff that day.

We talked with George yesterday for the first time since we arrived back.  He remembered us (and asked about our dogs).  We told him how sorry we were.  He just nodded and said “Thank you.” 

George is the first real Mackinac Island “character” that I have gotten to know.  I’ve heard there are many more, and I know they will all have a story.  But I wanted to start with George, because to me he embodies the strength of the people of this island – his character, his integrity, his work ethic, his dedication, his loyalty, his love of family.  He is one of the backbones of this island – and I am honored that he knows my name.

Can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written, but May 9 will be six months exactly since Bree’s Mackinac Island Blog has been updated. Things tend to move a bit slower these days . . . and I’m pretty sure it’s because this blog writer is moving a bit slower also.

I just wanted to pop in and say hello to all of you who aren’t on Facebook and let you know Ted and I are still planning to be on the island for two weeks starting June 18, and for another two weeks starting August 27. We’ll be staying at the Chippewa Hotel Waterfront, just as we did beginning in 2000, until we bought our condo on the island several years later.

It’s going to be a very different “vibe” for us after all the years of being there for almost the whole summer, but we’re very excited we’ll still get to spend some time seeing friends, enjoying the much cooler weather than we will be leaving in Florida, and soaking up as much of the Mackinac Island peace and beauty as we can while we’re there.

It will be different to be downtown also, but even that will be fun as we didn’t really spend a lot of time down there for the last few years – unless we were eating out or catching a ferry. Can’t wait to explore the east end of the island again – and catch those sunsets on the west end boardwalk.

As for us, we’re enjoying doing some updates on the house we bought in February of 2024. Bodie is doing great, and Ted and I (except for the expected symptoms of our getting-older bodies) are doing great also. We’ll miss having Bodie on the island with us (we’re choosing to fly this time), but he will be hanging out here in the country with his favorite pet sitter.

I’ve missed hearing from those of you who aren’t on Facebook, and I pray everyone is doing well.

Once we’re on the island, I’ll be posting a few blogs and probably some daily Facebook pics. Hope to hear from you!

God bless.