Maureen Dunphy

Great Lakes Basin

When I was a kid, I collected rocks; now I plan to collect islands. In middle age, after having built two successful careers and raising two daughters to the point of finding myself an empty-nester, I hunger for a bit more adventure in this life of mine. As Louis Auchincloss wrote in one of his memoirs, “. . . a (person) can spend (her) whole existence never learning the simple lesson that (she) has only one life and that if (she) fails to do what (she) wants with it, nobody else really cares.”

I am a writer who has taught writing courses at local colleges and designed instructional programs for corporate, primarily automotive, clients. In between projects and classes, I've grown particularly fond of visiting and reading about other islands in the Great Lakes since getting to know Pelee Island, a Canadian island in Lake Erie, where my husband and I have owned a cottage since 1994.

Beginning the afternoon of July 7, 2011, I've started a project with the goal of visiting each of the islands in the Great Lakes Basin accessible by ferry or bridge. I plan to use this blog--GreatLakesIslandEscapes.com--as a way of documenting my adventures. Both of my daughters, Meagan Mna and Caitlin Skye, both very adventurous and terribly brave young women, have provided me with much inspiration for undertaking this project, while my husband, Craig Daly, as always, cheers me on and is agreeable to "batching" it with Baron, our beagle, while I'm on island time.

Since family vacations to Pentwater on Lake Michigan as a teenager, I've always felt very fortunate to live surrounded by the Great Lakes in "the mitten" that is Michigan. I want to figure some things out about what is around me and get to know, really know, a few small pieces of this amazing planet we call home. I'd like other people to know about these special places, too, so perhaps we'll all be more likely to treasure and take care of them, a modest legacy for future generations.