While you need to make an effort to flee the party on South Bass, on Kelleys you need to make an effort to find it. Here it feels more as if you're joining something -- a community, a mind-set, an intersection of life and character that already was and will continue to be after you leave. South Bass is largely transients, a bunch of Ohio mainlanders who weren't there Wednesday and won't be there Monday.
Just after arriving on Kelleys, I got lost trying to find my B&B and came across a woman hanging laundry who offered instructions, then said with homespun warmth, "Welcome to the island." I realized that not only had I not heard those words at Put-in-Bay, I hadn't heard that tone. Not that people weren't friendly at Put-in-Bay. But everything was about business.
That night on Kelleys, at The Casino, a waterfront bar that is one of the island's most popular drinking spots, I ran into the laundry-hanging woman as she sipped a hulking Bloody Maria -- a Bloody Mary with tequila instead of vodka. Tonya Purcell, 59, has run a cleaning service on Kelleys for 11 years but also worked two of those years at a Put-in-Bay coffee shop. By ferry, the islands are 20 minutes apart.
"I hated it on Put-in-Bay," she said. "I thought the people were rude. But on this island those same people would be nice. I never figured it out. It's just that this is laid back and Put-in-Bay is hyped up."
Much of that might be attributable to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which owns or manages nearly a quarter of 2,800-acre Kelleys but just 2 percent of 1,600-acre South Bass. Undisturbed land is something of a Kelleys hallmark: Kelleys Island State Park at the north end of the island offers about 5 miles of easy, pretty hiking. What locals call the fire trails, in the middle of the island, loop around a water-filled former quarry so jagged that it looks more like the West than the Midwest. And the Scheele Preserve on the northeast side of the island has 24 acres of trees and grassland.
To be sure, there also was a party going on -- Bag the Moon is known for its $2 shots of strawberry liqueur in a hollowed-out strawberry and topped with whipped cream (yum), and The Village Pump is beloved for its icy brandy Alexander (eh). For higher-quality booze, there also is the Kelley's Island Wine Co. and the Kelleys Island Brewery, the latter of which offers decent beer and an outdoor patio beside the bobbing lake.
Just after arriving on Kelleys, I got lost trying to find my B&B and came across a woman hanging laundry who offered instructions, then said with homespun warmth, "Welcome to the island." I realized that not only had I not heard those words at Put-in-Bay, I hadn't heard that tone. Not that people weren't friendly at Put-in-Bay. But everything was about business.
That night on Kelleys, at The Casino, a waterfront bar that is one of the island's most popular drinking spots, I ran into the laundry-hanging woman as she sipped a hulking Bloody Maria -- a Bloody Mary with tequila instead of vodka. Tonya Purcell, 59, has run a cleaning service on Kelleys for 11 years but also worked two of those years at a Put-in-Bay coffee shop. By ferry, the islands are 20 minutes apart.
"I hated it on Put-in-Bay," she said. "I thought the people were rude. But on this island those same people would be nice. I never figured it out. It's just that this is laid back and Put-in-Bay is hyped up."
Much of that might be attributable to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which owns or manages nearly a quarter of 2,800-acre Kelleys but just 2 percent of 1,600-acre South Bass. Undisturbed land is something of a Kelleys hallmark: Kelleys Island State Park at the north end of the island offers about 5 miles of easy, pretty hiking. What locals call the fire trails, in the middle of the island, loop around a water-filled former quarry so jagged that it looks more like the West than the Midwest. And the Scheele Preserve on the northeast side of the island has 24 acres of trees and grassland.
To be sure, there also was a party going on -- Bag the Moon is known for its $2 shots of strawberry liqueur in a hollowed-out strawberry and topped with whipped cream (yum), and The Village Pump is beloved for its icy brandy Alexander (eh). For higher-quality booze, there also is the Kelley's Island Wine Co. and the Kelleys Island Brewery, the latter of which offers decent beer and an outdoor patio beside the bobbing lake.
