One of the most crucial mistakes an avid (or any for that fact) traveler can make when booking a vacation rental is ignoring the background story that lead to the creation of the space.  In this a guest can find out if there is a true passion for service and reputation or just another "investment corporation" looking to spend as little as they must to make as much as they can.  And every story in between.  You can get a sense of whether or not the host(s) have what it takes to be a team member for making your vacation unforgettable in a good way or a tragic waste of your precious time and money.   

  We at Offshore Breeze certainly have a passion for service and a pursuit of great experiences and want to make sure everything we can do to enable you to have the best possible time is obvious.  

Dezso's  Investment:  The Mitiwanga properties were Purchased by Dwight's parents. Janet and Dezso bought them in the 80's.  Janet, a Vermilion graduate who was the daughter of her Millwright father and accountant mother, pursued  a Computer science degree in the mid 60's and then a real estate license.) Dezso was a union carpenter who owned his own business until he took a job at Ford, but never stopped being a member.  They purchased other investment properties before buying in Mitiwanga and started renting them out as vacation homes until Janet was tragically afflicted with cancer.   She passed 5 years later and Dezso moved to permanent residents as it was too hard to keep them rented without a proper first mate. 

Dezo gets sick:

  Dezso would go on to marry again, and when apartment became available he would try to reinvigorate the vacation home endeavor, but, he didn't have what it takes, and the places were not in a condition to be consistently appealing to guests. As Dezso's second wife (Pictured) Myra was stricken with dementia he had no time.  Really he too was already suffering from his own when she finally passed.  Then came the day that Dezso had to start his long dementia journey himself.  Having one son pass a few years earlier and his daughter over an hour away, that responsibility fell on  Dwight. (That's me, the teller of this tale.) 

   Dad had not really lost his senses at the time the courts stepped in, but they felt the need to assign him a caretaker. I had been the closest to him in the previous years, visiting when he was in Florida and coming to help when he asked, but wasn't a "see you every day" type son. What I did know was two things.  My whole life we had been taught that kids take care of their elders.  Just as his mom did for her mother and as his sister did for his mom. Second, dad's greatest fear was losing his life's saving to the geriatric healthcare system.  I had a full time job and doing well working for the government.  But I knew when the courts got involved that one of us would have to step up.  I looked around and realized that was me.  

   Dad was inflicted with what we believe was FTD variety of the disease when leaves much of their memory and recognition in tact, but steals away their sense of civility and social graces.  Dad, an ex marine who grew up the only boy, a step son in the 50's, of 6 children and step to a man convicted of trying to sell the Vermilion Lagoons before they were built up.  To say  "he wasn't the most cultured and socially aware to begin with" would be an accurate statement.  However, his eccentric characteristics made him a notable and loved member of a large family.   So it wasn't easy to tell the disease from his normal crude and unrefined nature. So he took on this disease like a Marine.  That means he fought everybody and everything.  

  I am in Information Technology which allowed me the comfort of setting up camera and phone systems.  I set the goal of keeping him in the house he built with his own hands, for our family, after working all day building houses, in the 70's for as long as I could. BUT I had a new relationship, a daughter who came over on the weekends, and a life planted 20 miles away in Lorain.  I set up the cameras, and left him be.  At first he was fine to drive,  But once he wasn't, it meant that I had to start going over every day.  Through the difficulties of covid while the full effects of the disease would take hold.  With help from this strong family, I said "If he ever doesn't recognize his own home, I will either bring him to live with us or start our move out to Vermilion. 

More Than a Pension:

Taking care of dad in this unprepared fashion was a "sink or swim" induction into the business world WHILE trying to learn how to be a caregiver for the elderly.  Luckilly Kristy stepped up to be my logistics.  Because taking over for dad wasn't just taking over for some little old man in a trailer on a pension.  He had a fully functional rental business with 5 units, a house in Florida he had taken to renting out, and hos onw house which was 2000 sq/ ft on 2 acres of land.  And every one of them were in shambles after 5 years of dad's distraction and decline.  It was during one of the never ending onslaught of issues that we had an electrical problem in what would become know as "The Hibiscus House".  It was a duplex and in the very thin and inadaquate walls between the units, we found plumbing and electrical damage.  I had a friend, also in IT, but wanting to do something different.  And he said, "How about we turn this into an AirBnB and redo the whole unit, not just that wall.  Dad had the cash on hand to do it.  Again, not a little old man on  a pension.  I gave the green light. 

Finding our knack and Passion:

  Like any project it had it's setbacks and frustrations, but it got done,  Kristy and myself started out without really knowing what to expect.  We decided (because dad was still alive and this was all his) that we would stay with his original VRBO booking.  Even though it had many (deserved) bad reviews. So we knew we were working out of a hole and had to offer something so much better that the good reviews made it clear a change had come.   Unfortunately, we started that listing in 2020 with COVID in full swing.  So the "meeting of the guests" was not reasonable.  But we made up for it any way we could.  If we had a chance to interact, if a guest gave us any inkling as to why they were coming, we made sure their were amenities to facilitate a better stay. I started the mantra "we earn the 5 star before they ever show up at the house." It worked well with more than one guest saying things like "you have ruined all other vacation homes for us.  our expectations have been elevated."   With that we knew we wanted to reimagine the other house that would become the "shipwreck house" and immerse ourselves in this endeavor.  Being a sailor and like ducks to water, we wanted to develop that theme. 

   A bit of a Confession:

I am a sailor. I love sailing and want to at least cross the pond one day on my own boat.  I had a 30' Pearson when I took over for dad.  It was a "good old boat".  At that time Kristy and I hosted weekly "Monday night madness" sails where we would have friends meet us at the marina, eat a pot luck dinner, then go out and watch the sun go down.  The boat was a lot of work in the spring. I had wanted a bigger boat anyway, so I sold my beloved Pequod promising that "If we can get dad through this journey, I will have saved the money and I can buy that dream boat."  Spoiler alert, I still don't have that boat.  And in fact I have a hard time getting out on any of my little boats.  In the end I decided I would keep the houses, continue what dad had started, then turn that investment into a business. With that business I can justify buying a bigger boat to "take guests out for a sunset sail".  On the darkest days, with only 2 hours of sleep, changing another dirty adult diaper with much fight and no appreciation,  I would say "full keel cutter rig is at the end of this."   And one day it will be.  But for now,  I do have a little 25 that is available for cruises and proven sailors to rent or charter. 

 Eating the Elephant

   Dad passed in December of '22.  We had set up with a contractor before hand to "Get started" in March of '23. The two tenants that were left in the house were made aware they would have to move. We were going to make the house uninhabitable.  But I had no idea how much and to what extent the West Drive house was going to need.  So much so that the contractor stopped talking to me.  So did a half dozen other ones.  I found a friend of a friend, and we set to work.  What we discovered was that the entire structure needed reinforced. And I am not one to skimp.  I went from knowing only basic stuff about construction to being pretty useful.  Dad had all the tools.  Kristy kept me on schedule.  Other friends made it happen.  During one of the many inspections, the building inspector sid that "A lot of these houses were built out of the wood stripped from boats and ships that had wrecked upon the shallow parts of lake Erie. And with that, we came up with the name "The Shipwreck House". 

  We set out with the goal of being online by the time the Solar Eclipse booking window came into play.  It wsa close, and then we ran into drainage issues, but it happened.  We still have the upstairs "Crows nest" to finish.   How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."  And we are doing it. and I imagine that there is a universe where Dad is pretty proud. 

  so welcome aboard. Ask us about our sunset Sails.  😀