background in hospitality management, proudly holds the inn’s title of Chief Experience Officer. He believes in the concept of “Intuitive Guest Services,” but he’s not a psychic, just a very good listener who’s tuned in to the type of experience each guest wishes to have. Whether it’s to have an adventure of a lifetime, to be left in complete peace, or to be pampered with a cadre of masseurs, valets and chefs, Hale and his “Experience Ambassadors” make it happen. The inn’s brainchild and resident owner, Misty Todd, is no newcomer to San Juan Island. “I first came here with my family when I was in the tenth grade,” Todd says. “We fell in love with it. When we were leaving, we had a one-hour wait for the ferry, and in that hour my parents found and bought a piece of property.” The prime real estate on which Todd built Island Inn—not to be confused with the site her parents purchased during their mad dash for the ferry—was once a fuel storage site in the waterfront core of the historic village. Todd’s husband is architect Don Mackay. With her innovative design concepts in mind, he drew up plans. After an arduous permit process and some extremely challenging clean-up, excavation and site preparation, the inn’s uber-modern structures emerged from the steep hillside. The architecture stands on its own merit: it won an AIA Honor Award and is a Silver LEED certified building. It’s a model of green architecture with sustainably built materials and a catchment system that collects 80 percent of the site’s water on an island where fresh water is precious. Todd and Mackay originally built the structures as luxury condos, but the unfortunate timing happened to be at the front end of the economic downturn. Shifting strategies, the couple later converted the structure to Island Inn and are committed to green operating practices inside and out of the guest rooms. The Kenmore Air Destination Magazine
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