A Writer, an Ambassador and an Emily Walk Into The Grand Hotel

It’s October 10, and I’m getting paid to have breakfast with a former German ambassador to Poland at the Grand Hotel.

How the heck did I get here?

Let’s start from the beginning. We arrived in Michigan in early April, about 10 days earlier than the previous year. We enjoyed a wonderful Easter week with family and friends before heading north again. We had a good reason to get to the island early – a few weeks prior, Northern Michigan was hit with a terrible ice storm. The storm took down thousands of trees across the island, closing every road in its immediate aftermath. Our friends had been working really hard to get the park ready for the season, opening every road. But there was still a lot of clean-up to do, in addition to all the normal start-of-season work. We both were permitted to start work at the park early; they needed all the help they could get. 

We moved into our room at Mission House with the help of Adrian, Liz and a state park truck. Yes, I know automobiles are banned on the island, but there are certain exceptions if you get there early enough in the season. Lucas started work the very next day while I unpacked. I started the day after. Working with our friends, we got the park opened on time and the season officially started. May was a slower month compared to previous years, in part due to the weather. It was so cold that we were wearing fleece-lined jeans until Memorial Day.

June started a little warmer and we got into our full-season groove. I was working my two jobs – parks full-time and Sip N’ Sail twice a week. Lucas was working his three jobs – parks full-time, arcade technician part-time and Sip N’ Sail maintenance part-time. A highlight for me was the lilac festival. Despite the ice storm, the island’s lilacs had an incredible bloom this year. Peak bloom happened just in time for the festival. It was magical!  

July rolled in with lots of tourists and a very busy holiday schedule. On July 1, we celebrated Canada Day with the state park crew. On July 3, we hosted my sister and her family for a day on the island. We had a great time showing the kids around the island; they were troopers! We celebrated the Fourth of July by watching the festivities at the fort and enjoying a beautiful fireworks show that evening. It was the single busiest day at Fort Mackinac all season. On July 6, we were back at work, helping thousands of tourists enjoy the island. Later that week, we hosted friends Margy and Rob to the island, where they tried out our tandem for the first time. Lastly, on July 27, we celebrated Mission House’s 200th birthday with a scavenger hunt (our team won!) and a birthday cake.

Things started to get weird for us in mid-July. As much as we loved Mission House and our friends there, we started dreaming of improved housing conditions. Sharing a kitchen with nine college-age boys was getting old. We had a few ideas on how to improve our housing; they all centered around Lucas’ career trajectory on the island. All of that changed when I got an unsolicited text from a new island acquaintance.

Would I be interested in talking with the tourism bureau about a full-time, year-round events manager job? Whoa. 

I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a full-time job again but we’ve learned to keep an open mind on the island. I went in for a discussion. After four meetings over the course of three weeks, I was offered a full-time job as the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau’s director of operations. Whoa again!

I’m really excited about this position. I’ll be managing many of the behind-the-scenes operations. It is a great fit for how my career was trending before I stepped away to go sailing. Even better, the job came with housing for Lucas and me on the island. Lastly, my new boss and co-workers know all about sailing and are supportive of me working from the boat in the winter. So scary and so cool!

The plan was to finish out my season at the state park and start training for my new job one day a week during my “weekend.” I would start full-time with the tourism bureau on October 8. This meant that I suddenly had three jobs. Given my changing circumstances, I gave notice to our friends at Sip N’ Sail. My last cruise as crew was on August 30. It was another bittersweet goodbye. I really enjoyed getting out on the water on nice days.

The tourism bureau was kind enough to let us move in before I started full-time. We scheduled the dray to move us on August 12. Let me tell you, now that I have done it, I highly recommend moving by horse. It was the easiest move we have ever done! The dray picked us and all of our belongings up from the Mission House front porch at 1:30 p.m. By 2 p.m., after a personal parade down Main Street, all of our stuff was unloaded in front of our new home.

It was certainly bittersweet to leave Mission House. She is an old house with lots of quirks, but she was a wonderful first home for us on the island. We will never forget the friends we made and the community that welcomed us with open arms. I do hope to forget some of the smells from the men’s quarters, though.

With all this work going on, we still made time to enjoy the island. My favorite activity of the season was a mini-golf league that we started with our friends. Eric, Maverick, Christian, Emily D and I played weekly rounds at Mission Point’s mini golf course. Our first round was on May 30 and we kept it up through mid-August. Each week, we got more “serious”, bringing our own putters, using ball markers and wearing golf clothes. Then Emily and I double-downed when we bought matching golf dresses from the famous Pink Pony. It was so fun. We ended the summer league with a banquet (aka dinner at the course’s restaurant) and a round of glow golf. The golf league continued in the fall but without Christian (who had to leave for his sophomore year of college) and with a new team format. We managed to squeeze in four weeks of league before the courses closed for the season.

My last day with the park was on October 6. It was another bittersweet day. When we first moved to Mackinac Island, working at the park’s visitor center was my dream job. Not only did I get to work my dream job for two seasons, I also got to work with some of the best people. They welcomed me onto the team with kindness and humor. We worked together through some wild challenges (no internet aka no credit card machines for 4 days in July of last year!). I’m really sad to leave but I’m so excited for the future. The best part is that Liz and Emily D are staying on the island working in new exciting jobs next year too! I’m so proud of all of us. Team purple polo forever!

I started my new job full-time on October 8. That very weekend, they needed help hosting one of our FAM visitors. FAM visitors are travel writers or influencers that the tourism bureau hosts on the island. That’s how I ended up having breakfast at the Grand Hotel with a German writer who was writing a story about Mackinac Island for a high-end German travel magazine and his friend, who was a former German ambassador to Poland. 

I can’t believe how much has changed since we arrived in April. Mackinac Island is now our permanent land-base (we updated our voter registration!). We live in a beautiful two-bedroom condo near the Grand Hotel. I have a full-time office job where I get to help the island that I love so much, while stretching my professional skills in new ways. Alaya is patiently waiting for us back in Virginia. We will be flying out to check on her soon (that’s a whole other story!).

I’m nervous for this new chapter of our lives, but I’m also so excited and very thankful.