The sign on the porch wall of Dotti and Bill Thompson’s White Gull Inn says “Downers Grove There’s No Place Like Home.” That can be interpreted as both a bit of nostalgia and a message. It harkens back to 1993 when they left Downers Grove for good and made Glen Arbor their home. Bill’s roots around here go way back to 1925 when his relatives “took the boat up from Chicago to the big dock at Glen Haven and walked to their cottage on Sleeping Bear Bay.” So Bill’s dad was already coming here as a boy before it was Bill’s turn to visit “Aunt Madge”. Then Dotti chimes in, “I came first in 1959 when we were dating.” It was obviously just a matter of time before the Thompsons made Glen Arbor their “home,” and Downers Grove a place to visit.
