Our Story

It all began 1992 when I took a semester off college to work at South Seas Plantation (now called South Seas Island Resort).  The beauty of the island, the conservation of nature, the habitat for wildlife, and the gorgeous beaches for families to share left a lifelong impression.  I found the holy grail, but also realized I needed to start doing things in my life to get me where I wanted, and needed, to be. I only worked on the island for a few months, but the experience was a turning point in my life.

I quickly learned I wanted to be the person coming back year after year visiting this tropical paradise on vacation and eventually living here.  One of my many jobs on the island was delivering pizzas. Night after night I would deliver pizzas to families on vacation. They would open the door smiling and happy to see me, the kids would be jumping around in the background so happy to get their pizza. Then the door would close. I realized that I wanted to be the one on the other side of the door, bringing my family here to the islands to make lifelong memories. I went back home to Michigan very motivated with a goal.  I worked incredibly hard in school, graduated from Michigan State University, and married the love of my life. We have brought our three boys to the islands year after year and they say they will do the same with their families.

  

Nicole should be an ambassador for the islands.  She absolutely loves it and has talked more people into coming and visiting than I can count. One of her highlights was finding the prized Junonia shell and getting her picture with it in the newspaper. Since then she has found another!  This was not by chance; it was not luck.  Every day Nicole is on the island, she wakes up at sunrise, puts on her shelling boots (yes, she has shelling boots), collects all her rakes and heads to the beach.  Rain or shine, Nicole is on the beach admiring all the wonderful sea life that rolls up on the sand.  Nicole does a great job of keeping our 3 sons (3 boys in three years) on their toes. She loves exercising and has run full and half marathons, reading and helping Leader Dogs for the Blind. Our family has raised two leader dogs. She loves animals and helps, rescues, or resuscitates any wild animal in distress that she finds. In her free time, she is a registered nurse.

  

Through all our travels across the United States and Europe, nothing compares to the beautiful and unique allure of Sanibel and Captiva Islands.