Month: May 2019

A Basket of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Two Turtle Doves – Thoughts and Pictures by UseppaGin – The night before Memorial Day two little Turtle Doves fell out of their nest under the Captains’ Office in the Useppa Marina. One landed on the dock. One fell into the water. Members Lori and Dave Alter staying on their boat went into action. Dave went in saving the drowning baby. Lori and Dave carried the two birds to the bushes by the Reception Office, gave them water and left them there overnight. When the Alters had to leave the next day, the Cookie Brigade volunteered. Mother Turtle Dove found her babies but couldn’t carry them home. Working with Deputy Fire Chief Chris, Fireman Ricky, and Useppa Manager Dakota Likewise; Maxwell, Annah, and Cameron found the birds hiding in the bushes, netted them, and carried them down the dock where Dakota put them back up in their nest. Then the Brigade joined by Meriel continued with its holiday mission: drawing pictures honoring the men and women who died for our country and baking cookies to say thank you to the men and women who can’t spend the holiday with their families because they are hard at work on Useppa.

Useppa Memorial Day Weekend – Photos and thoughts by UseppaGin – Friends old and new celebrating Memorial Day Weekend on Useppa. Pulsating music, lunch on the Collier patio, drinks by the pool, children and parents floating across the pool, sitting in deck chairs, walking the beach, a game of bocce, riding golf carts around the island… all part of the fun of a visit by boat to a magical place just a few miles from the Florida mainland.

Memorial Day, Kids, and the Fish are Biting – Thoughts and Pictures by UseppaGin – The 4th generation of one family and new families gathered together on the Marina docks to reel in their catches. Captain Ken administered the Fisherman’s Oath to kids raising their right hands, raising their left legs. They promised to help their fellow fishermen whenever needed and to catch and release their fish. For one hour nothing but fun on Useppa.

Decades of Useppa Mother Love – Thoughts and pictures by UseppaGin – Almost twenty years of family pictures, almost twenty years of mothers and grandmothers, and now one Useppa great grandmother smiling at my camera. Searching through archives I found pictures of Island children who are now the next generation of Island parents. Island girls who are now Island moms. I looked at photos of mothers and their families no longer on Useppa, but who will always be part of its heart. There are pictures of mothers no longer here in fact, but here in spirit. I only wish I had photographs of all the women, all the mothers who shaped this magical place, the mothers today who care for their own families and their Useppa family.