Every summer has a story and I’m so lucky that this place became part of mine.
If you told me 19 years ago when I was visiting my brother’s frat house on family day and hanging with a few of my childhood friends who were also in his fraternity, that picking up a local paper that one of them had brought from home would bring so much joy, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. In perusing the paper, I saw an ad for a family that needed a summer babysitter. I liked kids and had a summer free why not apply. You might be thinking how can a summer job when you’re 19 continue to bring me so much joy. I mean how much joy can a summer job bring you? There was the summer I worked at the Everett MDC pool and while it was fun, it was definitely lacking in the joy factor. Then there were all those summers interning at the State House and desperately trying to get Mike Fleming in the mailroom to notice me. For those 5 minutes as I rode up in the elevator to go the mailroom, it was exciting, the rest was rather dull. But here was a family asking me to not only work for them in the summer but to also join them as they make their annual month-long trek to a little town in Northern Michigan. At this point in my life, I’d only been as far west as New York, so why not? It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Not only did I get to come to one of the most special places on earth for the last 19 summers, but I also gained a loving second family. They’ve seen me through every one of my awkward phases of growing up and through every summer crush and they still love me. When I hear the youngest’s voice or get a text from her my whole soul lights up. As I’ve grown older, the mom and I have a running joke that we are “Disters”, not quite old enough to be my mom and not quite young enough to be my sister. I can honestly say it’s one hell of a combination to have in
someone. I treasure my time spent with her. And my friends there are like stars. I might not see them, but I know they are there. When I reconnect with anyone from my summers in Michigan and while years may have passed, it feels as if no time has passed at all. Our lives have taken us in different directions, but we all have this one common agreement. Summer Up North is a time we treasure
If you notice, I haven’t really been specific in naming exactly where it is. As I kept returning each summer, different people back home would say, “Oh I’ve never heard of it,” and I thought that’s perfect. The less people that knew about my happy place the better. I figured if it was kept a secret, then it would just be all that more special. Well, folks, it would appear that the secret is out and I’m the one that squealed. One night on my trip this summer, I biked into town to get a cookie and sit by the docks to take in the sunset. As I went to retrieve my bike where I had parked it by a restaurant, I noticed a familiar face eating outside o their patio and then another and then four more familiar faces. While it’s not uncommon to see people you know in town, it was NOT common to see people I knew from San Francisco up here. After a double, triple and quadruple take, it was confirmed, my ex-boyfriend from San Francisco was here vacationing with his whole family. Apparently, the one thing he listened to from our two years together was me telling him just how amazing this place was. As I said it was my own fault. Years ago I brought him up here for a wedding that I was in and he too must have felt it, the magic. I didn’t speak to him or think it was fair to introduce myself to his wife and children, but if I did it would have gone a little something like this. “FIND YOUR OWN GOD DAMN PLACE. I HAD DIBS”. (Maybe a few more explicatives in there for good measure too)
Thank goodness that when you’re up here it feels as if you are in some parallel magical universe because it allowed me to get over that encounter with some degree of comportment and get on to embracing the joy. I
mean honestly so much in life is just better with a dash of Northern Michigan in it. For instance, back home I occasionally will drag myself to yoga, but up here when the class looks out onto the Bay; I was going twice in one week!
Another example is biking. My bike in SF has sat in my storage closet for maybe two years now, but here I don’t go anywhere without it. Maybe it’s because it’s easy terrain or because it’s a pretty rad old school cruiser or maybe it’s the fact that you can leave your bike and things in your bike basket anywhere without locking it and it will never get stolen.
This summer measured up right along with the rest of them. There were plenty of afternoons at the beach, rides into town on our bikes, runs capped off with cookies, kayak and boating excursions on Little Traverse Bay, nights out…on the porch and catching up with friends. We’d take trips down memory lane of summers where I’d blindly chase after the same silly boy or the nights we’d stay out til’ 4am only to have to get up in a few hours to work. Although we are older now for a few days, you feel like you’re still that innocent young girl. This summer we celebrated birthdays, homecomings and just the sheer excitement of being together once again.
It’s the only place that I am never ready to leave. I have vacationed in some really incredible places, but when my time is up, I’m typically ready. If you added up the amount of money I have spent on airline fees to extend my time in Michigan over the years, I might have just enough saved up to get a place of my own. I don’t play the lottery often, but when I do, I always say the first thing I would do would be to get my own place up there. It’s not that I don’t love the time I still get to spend with the family, I just think maybe one of these days I should grow up a little…but not too much because where would the fun in that be.
Harbor Springs you have my heart and my soul. Don’t go changing!
Love, Caitlin Summer Girl Shanley
