The US ambassador to Oman might live just up the road on the Old Mission Peninsula. Other foreign service retirees have traded Moscow, Kabul or Karachi for Benzie, Grand Traverse or Leelanau.
There are even a handful of former or current CIA operatives in the region, though those folks are especially shy about details -- and interviews for stories like this.
Not only are the foreign service alumni fascinating in their own right, the burgeoning group is also delivering more international opportunities for Northwestern Michigan College students, as well as an impressive lineup of speakers at Traverse City’s International Affairs Forum.
MUSCAT TO OLD MISSION
President Obama nominated Greta C. Holtz to be US ambassador to Oman in 2012.
Now the career diplomat splits time between Muscat and a vacation home on Old Mission.
Holtz didn’t grow up in Traverse City but she’s been visiting all her life.
Her great grandparents lived in Springfield, Ill. when they decided to find a place to escape the summer heat in 1898. They and 18 or so neighbors built cottages near Old Mission Harbor.
“All these families have been going up there for over a hundred years,” she told Express in an interview from Oman. Holtz said she’s only missed a couple of her 55 summers.
Now, Old Mission is a cool break from the heat of the Middle East “I love them both,” she said. “Here, I’m at work and I’m at a big job, very busy. There, I’m on vacation.”
Holtz said her northern Michigan neighbors don’t flinch when they learn her occupation.
“I don’t think [they are] surprised — they always ask a lot of good questions,” she said. “They’re worried about terrorism; instability.”
Holtz would retire full-time to Old Mission one day but she said her Mexican husband does not like the winter.
“I love it up there,” she said. “I think it’s the most beautiful place on earth.”
READ MORE: http://www.northernexpress.com/michigan/article-6648-the-diplomat-next-door.html
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