07/23/2026
HERITAGE HOSPITALITY: Every once in a while, someone finds the words that perfectly capture what you've spent a lifetime trying to preserve.
Recently, one of our guests, Scott, wrote:
"This is one of the special places on earth. These cabins and this property is so full of soul. I'm so grateful I got to experience it. If you are looking for the charm and peace of days gone by, this is the place for you. The owner is on site, but the cabin has the utmost privacy. The owner is fully invested in his clients' happiness in the trip. Ten stars out of five!!!"
I've thought about Scott's words many times since reading them.
He didn't simply describe our cottages.
He described something that has quietly been growing here for generations.
Soul.
That isn't something you can build overnight.
It isn't something you buy.
It isn't something you create through clever marketing.
It is something that slowly develops through decades of welcoming families, preserving traditions, and genuinely caring about the people who choose to spend part of their lives here.
Since our parents purchased the cottages in 1968, we've had the privilege of welcoming generations of families to our little corner of Sturgeon Bay. What many people don't realize is that we still have the original handwritten guest books from those early years, along with several guest books from the previous owners dating back to around 1966.
As I turn those pages today, I'm not simply reading names.
I'm reading history.
Each page records the families who chose to spend part of their summer here—their signatures, the dates they stayed, the number of people in their family or group, and even the vehicles they arrived in.
One detail always makes me smile.
Page after page throughout the late 1960s, the 1970s, and much of the 1980s tells the same story.
Station wagons.
Before SUVs and minivans, there were station wagons. And before GPS guided families to their destinations, generations of guests found their way to our little corner of Sturgeon Bay with folded road maps, eager anticipation, and the simple hope of spending a week together.
I can still picture those summers.
A station wagon would slowly turn into the driveway. Doors would swing open. Children would tumble out before the engine was even turned off. Coolers would be unloaded. Fishing poles carried toward the cottages. Someone would ask, "Which cottage are we in this year?" And another week of family memories would begin.
Our own family was part of that story, too.
Over the years, we had our own station wagons parked in the driveway—a 1966 Ford Country Squire, a 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, and a magnificent 1973 Buick Estate Wagon, one of those iconic wood-paneled "land yachts" that seemed built for family adventures. Like so many of our guests, those cars carried luggage, fishing gear, coolers, beach towels, and the excitement of another Door County summer.
Some traditions have changed.
Reservations now arrive online.
Reviews are written digitally.
Most families arrive in SUVs instead of station wagons.
But remarkably, so much has stayed the same.
When my parents purchased the property in 1968, every reservation was carefully written by hand onto a large poster-board calendar hanging in our home.
Nearly six decades later, I still maintain that same tradition.
Today it serves as a dependable hard-copy backup should the power go out or an online reservation platform ever become unavailable. But more than that, it reminds me that some traditions are simply worth preserving.
Those handwritten guest books.
That handwritten reservation calendar.
They're more than records.
They're a living archive of nearly sixty years of family vacations.
Many of our guests tell us that staying here reminds them of the cottage vacations they took as children.
I think that's because places like this have become increasingly rare.
Family-owned cottage resorts once dotted shorelines throughout Wisconsin and across America.
Today, many have disappeared.
Those that remain have quietly become living time capsules of another era.
We're not simply preserving a collection of cottages.
We're preserving a slower pace.
Long conversations.
Children catching their first fish.
Grandparents sitting in Adirondack chairs watching the sunset.
Neighbors becoming lifelong friends.
The simple joy of being together.
Long before vacation memories were stored on smartphones, they were written by hand in our guest books and carried home in people's hearts.
Some places preserve history in museums.
We preserve it one family vacation at a time.
The buildings are part of the story.
The memories made here become the legacy.
People come for the sunsets, the fishing, and the waterfront...
..but they return for the feeling.
— Andre'
