A mystique hangs around an island like fog. The islands of my life have been escapes from normal. They have been super-charged romantic. They have been adventurous. They have been places to come to the end of yourself; to stretch, feel, learn. To confront life.
Islands in books feature the same stimulating setting. Treasure Island. Swiss Family Robinson. Lord of the Flies. Life of Pi.
Movie Islands: Castaway. Peter Pan. (Hook). Jurrasic Park. Pirates of the Caribbean. The Gallapagos in Master and Commander.
TV Shows: Gilligan's Island. Fantasy Island. The Prisoner.
Even media that don't have islands have islands: The planet Degoba in Empire Strikes Back. The Wilderness in The Gopel of Luke. The Emerald City. K-Pax.
Here are the islands I have visited:
- Catalina Island off the California Coast in the Pacific. When I was a young teen, my parents went for a four-day trip. We stayed in an inn before they were called Bed and Breakfasts. After the island tour (islands often have tours), my younger brother and I had the run of the place, without my parents dogging our steps. This was amazing to us.
- Lake Perris Island. For a while when we lived in S. Cal. we owned a little power boat. We'd head out to this tiny little island in this man-made reservoir and picnic, swim, be exotic.
- North Manitou Island. This is my favorite island. When the kids were younger, we'd go to North Manitou to backpack. Since it is wilderness, that's all you can do there; no restaurants, hotels, fudge shops. Just quiet and trails and water and mud and rain and mac and cheese with tuna and us and no one else except the racoons and chipmunks, which were enough company for anybody. The boat company drops you off on a dock and tells you they'll be back in two days. If they don't come back in two days, then they'll be back in four. If they don't get there in four, it will be six, and so on. That alone is adventure.
- South Manitou Island. Ship wrecks. Light house. Sand dunes. Long stretches of beach with not one other person within sight or sound.
- Three Island Lake Island (Lake Island Lake Isl...) Just a few two-track miles from Stuben, MI. in the heart of the Upper Pennisula, where our family spent two wonderful vacations. April and CA friend Alicia swam to the island, feeling grown up and independent. We took a row boat over to explore. The kids had a picnic there. It was a scrub island that will never know the importance it had in the formative years of our children.
- Mackinac Island. Ah! Romance and love and the accomplishment of riding the perimiter at 50 years old. Fudge. Carmel corn. Ice cream. Horse poop. The brunch at the Grand Hotel: seal-tight memories in a bottle of cherry juice.
When I want to get away, run from normal, sniff around for solace, I'm looking for an island. Get me to an island. Boat, jet ski, swim fins, jet spray catamaran - whatever. Just get me there.
Heaven is an island. Adventure, romance, story, growing and stretching, love, family. Until then I'll have to settle for the earthy simulations.
What's your island?
3 comments:
they never cry.
When refering to an island or a lake, people tend to skip given titles. We don't visit Mackinaw or Strawberry or Prince Edward, we visit The Island. As in, I swam to the Island or she camped out on The Island. We do the same thing with vacation homes on lakes.
Ape
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