I Love Michigan (with all my heart)

"Come back to me"

 -Elise McKenna in "Somewhere in Time"

Hello and good morning!  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the beautiful state of Michigan.  How on earth did my family end up here?  Well to make a long story as short as possible...it goes like this- after WWII my grandpa (born in Missouri) went from being in The Navy to The Coast Guard and was stationed in the city of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  While stationed in Sault Ste. Marie he was asked to stand up as the best man in a wedding for one of his shipmates and he ended up falling for the bride's maid of honor...my beautiful grandma.  He swears that he knew the moment he met her that he would marry her someday. However it wasn't easy for him to get a date with her. She was a spunky and independent women who refused to go out with a "sailor".  After much persistence she agreed to go out just one time with my grandpa under a single condition- that he leave her alone for the rest of his life.  That date lasted over 50 years.  His career as an officer in The Coast Guard would take them all over the world.  Before my mom was even 5 years old she had traveled through 47 of the 50 states.  When the time came to put down some roots for the family my grandparents choose to come back to Michigan.  With my grandpa's military career they were well traveled and had actually spent more time as a married couple living in Hawaii than anywhere else. What is most beautiful to me about all of this is the fact that they could have lived anywhere but they choose Michigan.  They could have taken their 3 little children anywhere and though I have not been all the places they were...I still get it.  I live in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan as I have for most of my life and I'm happy to be here.

"I have a question for you, sir. Is time travel possible?"

 -Richard Collier in "Somewhere in Time"

Grand Hotel Mackinac Island 1947 As Photographed by William Massengill, USCG