Month: February 2025

Happy Hours on Useppa – Thoughts and Pictures by UseppaGin – Friendships, families, Friday night cocktails, lunch on the Collier Patio, Island walks, golf cart rides, Marina rebuilding continues…. Happy Hours Are Back. The Collier Inn is now open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. When there is room at the Marina’s main dock, Boating Members tie up and head up to the Collier Inn Patio for lunch and an afternoon at the pool. An award-winning chef and a new menu make every meal great. Useppa neighbors in fancy wigs welcomed a friend arriving on the launch. Gracie wore wigs like theirs when she was their elite hostess last year on a wine cruise in France. Captiva Cruises will be back two days a week. Sunday afternoon there will be a mini–Cotton Club showcasing Mattlee Crew playing the best of funk, blues, and classic rock at Rendezvous Cottages. The sun is shining. Islanders are smiling!

Healing Broken Hearts – Thoughts and Pictures by UseppaGin – It was a special night at the Barbara Sumwalt Museum. World-renowned heart surgeon and Island homeowner Dr. Michael Carmichael spoke about the 33 years he and his wife Becki have spent healing broken hearts in China. His Useppa family listened in rapt attention. Dr. Carmichael said, “In 1987 I was the co-director of an International CV Symposium and learned that coronary artery disease was the number one cause of death of the Chinese male, but bypass surgery was not done. I wanted to do medical missions, but it took five more years to find the appropriate avenue into China to perform open heart surgery and to teach. We have been doing that ever since, including living in China in 2017 and ’18, pre-COVID. Our most productive mission effort has been having over a hundred Chinese doctors and nurses come to the US to live and study with us. Thus, all our children grew up with Chinese friends and have been over a dozen times each.” Michael and Becki are a partnership. Pictures here show them over the years with their family in China and on Useppa, proof we are not just members of a Useppa family but members of a world family. By their examples, we were reminded to share our gifts.

Island Life and Island Fun – Thoughts and Pictures by UseppaGin – Another year of sailing, Bill’s Grille, a young couple almost engaged, yoga on the beach, families together, the return of longtime Useppa members and visitors, continuing hurricane recovery…. Island life and fun continue. There are still repairs to be done, and debris to be barged off, but piles are getting smaller, and smiles are getting bigger.

Winter on Useppa – Pictures and Thoughts by UseppaGin – Sailboats in the water, hamburgers and hotdogs at Bill’s Grille, reunions of old friends and memories of friends no longer with us, new plants everywhere thanks to Paradise Partnership, hurricane recovery and debris removal goes on…. life on Useppa continues. Thank you to everyone taking care of the island we love