Throw Back Thursdays 1/25/17

In the last few weeks quite a few emails and comments have arrived from folks who have just discovered Bree’s Blog.  Several have written really sweet notes and talked about their love for Mackinac Island and how excited they are to find the blog and read what it’s like to live there in the summer months.  Most are going back and reading seven years worth of blogs – now THAT will keep you busy for the rest of the winter, for sure!

Anyway, it got me thinking about all the blogs I’ve posted over the last seven years.  The one you’re reading now is number 851!

And THAT got me going back myself and reading some of the “old stuff”, which turned into a trip down memory lane – complete with groans at some of the things I’ve said over the years, tears over sad events, and peals of laughter at some of the predicaments I’ve gotten myself into.  And then, of course, there were those Bear and Maddie blogs!

An idea formed.  Facebook has Throw Back Thursday – why can’t Bree’s Blog?  So, from now until we return to Mackinac in July there’ll be a post here from the past on Thursday. Going back and picking out what will hopefully be some of the “good stuff” I’ve written over the years will be fun for me, and I hope entertaining for you.  I’ll still be around on Sundays too for new updates from the island, Florida, and wherever else we may find ourselves.

Let’s start with one called “The Inn is Open” – way back in April, 2009.  This is even back before I figured out to caption each photo!

______________________________________________________________________

Ted and I are so excited.  We have put out an open invitation to friends and family to come up and visit this summer, and the “Horton Hilton” is filling up fast.

July is pretty much filled up with immediate family – some coming earlier, some later, some in the middle – but hopefully they will ALL be there together for a few days.  That’s the plan anyway.  Children are so hard to pin down on dates and times – I know our parents felt the same way with us.  With their busy work and social schedules, it is just about impossible to plan ahead.  But, bless ‘um, they try hard to make BeBe and G-Daddy happy by showing up in Michigan as a “clan”.  They love the fact they can truly relax (well, except for those iphones and blackberries they have glued to their ears all of the time) on the island.

I swear this year all electronic devices are going to mysteriously disappear five minutes after they arrive and miraculously be found five minutes before they leave.  BeBe has a plan on that.

We have family coming in from New Orleans the first week in June, and yesterday we found out that a couple of friends will be arriving mid-June and another couple the first week in August.  What fun it will be to share our island with people who have never been there.  I was trying to explain the feeling the island gives me to someone the other day.  I had talked about it with another island resident last summer and about how I couldn’t wait to have folks up this summer so they could experience it.  She said, “Well, some people will ‘get it’ and some won’t have a clue.”  I think it has to do with being able to let go of all you have known – the speed in which we live our lives, the constant hassle of getting here and going there, the noise – you have to be able to let go of all that and just immerse yourself in the island.  The first morning I woke up at the Chippewa Hotel (where we stayed for 8 summers before buying) and the first sound I heard was the clip-clop of horses hooves coming down Main Street, I thought “this is what relaxation is all about – this is what we have forgotten can exist, this is what we long for in the deep, deep corners of our heart – peace, nature at its purest, a step back in time to a more restful way of living.”  And maybe, like the island resident said, it’s not for everyone – but it sure is for Ted and I.

Personal Note:  Header – A snow owl on the ice.  Photographed by Clark Bloswick earlier this week.