Life Up North

I am a wife to Steve and a mom to three great kids, whom I lovingly call Little Man (5 years old), Little Miss Throwsafit (3 years old), and Littlest One (8 months old).

We don’t have the normal life that most families do. We live in a very small town in Northern Michigan where we own Gotts’ Landing Canoe Rental and Trophy Waters Fly Shop on the banks of the beautiful and historic AuSable River. It’s a great business to own because we get to meet so many people in the summer.  We rent canoes, kayaks, rafts, and tubes to our customers for a trip down the river. And we get the winters off. That certainly does not suck.

Our business is located on the same property as our home, so life is different from what it was when we lived in Toledo and my husband had a full time law practice. We don’t have a driveway; we have a parking lot. We don’t have a back door; we have the livery office and fly shop. We don’t have a garage; we have two barns.  And in the back of our property we have rows and rows of canoes, kayaks, rafts, and tubes, as well as several vans and buses for transporting customers.

It’s an interesting life, but it’s not for everyone. We don’t have a lot of privacy in the summer months, but the flip side to that is we get to meet a lot of different people with similar interests. When the shop is closed for the day and if it’s early enough, my husband and oldest son go fly fishing, canoeing, or golfing. And earlier this month, my husband took him on his very first over night canoe trip.

When I tell people about our life, one of the first things they ask us is how we came to own a canoe livery and fly shop. It’s a pretty simple story, actually.

About two and a half years ago while we were living in Toledo, my husband came home from his law office exhausted. He had a bear of a day working with clients who were dealing with some of the most depressing and stressful issues: bankruptcy, divorce, child custody, etc.

After we had dinner and put the kids to bed that night, we talked about our day.  He flat out told me that he just couldn’t continue doing what he was doing for another 30 years. All the negativity and stress was really getting to him. So we brainstormed on what our options were. When all was said and done, we decided that we would love to move North, to where our cabin was. He, all of us really, was happiest and most at ease when we were at the cabin.

From that day on Steve’s goal was to find a way for us to make money Up North so we could move there. A few months later while searching listings online, he found the listing for Gotts’ Landing Canoe Rental. Immediately, he contacted the Realtor.

And here we are today. We have a pretty sweet life.