Personal/Public

A place that I enjoy spending my time is Thousand Island Park, located in upstate New York on Wellsley Island. It is a small summer residential community where people come to vacation. For as long as I can remember, my family has spent the summer here at our cottage. Wellsley Island is in the Saint Lawerence River which is one of the cleanest fresh water lakes. This makes it the perfect place to do nothing except swim, lay on the dock in the sun, and go boating all day. Since most of the families who have summer residences there have had the cottage in their family for generations, you see the same people every year. Having this kind of closeness with people you only see once a year is something very unique. Everyone is extremely friendly and respectful. When passing people on the sidewalk, even if it is someone you may not know, they will acknowledge you and say hello. The community is so peaceful that there are no police on the island, only a few security gaurds who you rarely see. There has never been any violence or crime on the island and without a doubt, the safest place I have ever been. Now that I am older and have to work during the summer I cannot spend as much time as I would like to on the island. However, even getting away from the real world for a week out of the year is the best thing I could do for myself. My family is originally from New York so traveling to the cottage was very easy to do. After we moved to Wisconsin the drive there became much more of a task but completely worth the extra miles. I remember how excited my siblings and I would get when traveling to the island and how my stomach would turn with butterflies when we drove over the bridge, only minutes away from our final destination. I love that to this day, I still get those butterflies from the anticipation of my arrival.

The attached link is the route we take from Wisconsin to Wellsley Island.

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Milwaukee,+WI&daddr=41.44797,-83.259695+to:Thousand+Island+Park,+NY&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.059939,78.662109&geocode=Fba4kAIdVqfC-innR4tX1wIFiDGEe0G1IhlfRA%3BFSJyeAId0Y4J-ykHTEdpg5U7iDGVVJPyyhSakA%3BFQ_EowIdsuh3-yktyUfSB0jNTDFUW_a7OjVOgA&vpsrc=0&mra=ls&t=m&z=6&via=1