On the heels of Irma and Maria

When I first started my research Irma hadn't struck yet. By the time I figured out I wanted to move to a Carabbian island, Irma had struck the Virgin islands and Florida as well as many other islands and main lands. My oldest boy is in Florida attending college. For those few days my focus  was on all of Florida.  I set my phone's weather app to my son's location and kept checking it day and night until the storm had passed and I knew he would be okay.  By the time Maria came along I had my heart set on St. Croix.. St.  Croix had been fortunate with Irma but was about to be hit by Maria and tremendously impacted. I don't know anyone (other than the man I spoke to on the phone) in St.  Croix but I felt connected to them. I felt like my someday home was in danger and there was nothing I could do to help the people that I will hopefully call my friends one day. My heart went out to all of them.
 A lot of people around here say things like " I would rather have my face Freeze when I step outside than go through a hurricane!" or "I would take a blizzard over a tropical storm in a heartbeat?" but I don't feel that way. I know that hurricanes are devastating and until I actually go through one I won't know how scary they can be but to me it's worth it to live in a place of paradise. They call me crazy and tell me that if I snowboarded I would enjoy winter more but I'm cold all the time. I don't see how going out into the white stuff could make me less cold. I start getting goosebumps at about 70 degrees. I rarely swim in our smaller lakes because the water is usually to cold and I never go into Lake Michigan. It's like taking an ice bath even in the middle of July.  Now you will see plenty of people out there in the summer enjoying the great lakes, splashing around on the beaches and tubing behind boats, but not me. When my family goes tubing down the Plate river I don't use a traditional tube, I look for loungers that keep me up out of the water. I am honestly miserable about 320 days a year. I'm ready to brave a hurricane to hopefully have 320 good
days a year.


Here is a link to the Red Cross donation site. If your able to help please do. Even a dollar makes a difference.
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation

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Gofundmy what?

I had a slight freak out the other day after getting off the phone with the kindest gentle man. The piece of property I had found even though it was no longer available had a large price tag on it and was the only one I could find in all of the Virgin islands that would work for my idea. I started thinking that we won't be able to do this. We will be stuck here in Michigan enduring the harsh cold winter year after year for the rest of our lives. That we will grow old and die here and our bones will be buried for all of eternity into the frozen ground. I might be exaggerating a little, our summers are beautiful here and it's not a frozen wasteland all year round but I just can't stand the thought that I might never be able to leave. So I started a gofund me page. I was desperate and didn't know how else to make my dream come true. I didn't really expect a bunch of strangers to pour their money into my campaign and I certainly didn't expect what did happen. Our friends and family started calling Justin and I to see what was going on. They thought we were in trouble or that we had a fight. That we needed to run away from something. I may have poorly worded the campaign.  When I wrote it, it made sense in my head but to an outsider looking in I can see how it might have been confusing. I am back on track now, no more freaking out and have decided to search all of the Caribbean for affordable land. Who knows what I will find out there.
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Perhaps I should have read this first. Lol

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Fairytale weddings

I have talked about my "someday husband" in an earlier post and how we've been engaged for several years now with no date set. The mention of us getting married came up in our conversation at home the other day as it often does. I have been married before and although a big fancy wedding would be wonderful I'm not against the idea of a small wedding. My "someday husband" Justin on the other hand has never been married and wants it to be big and beautiful with lots of family and friends around. He wants to get married at Disney world. I'm a dreamer and a princess wedding would be magical but he's a MEGA dreamer and a Disney wedding, now that's just about pushing the limits of dreaming. Don't get me wrong I would kill to ride up in Cinderella's carriage to a ceremony in front of the castle with music playing and huge bouquets of flowers everywhere.  Wearing the most beautiful princess inspired dress. Side note, what the hell Alfred Angelo?  Let's just close up out of the blue. Now how am I supposed to wear a princess inspired dress? Okay,  sorry just had to get that out there. Back to topic. Where was I?  Oh yes, Disney fairytale weddings. I've planned countless ones on their wedding site. Small ones that only include 4 people and cost as little as 4k to big ones with all the fancy trimming priced upwards of $25,000 dollars. Just the other day I planned one for around 15k and that's when it hit me.

  People love destination weddings and we want to move to one of those beautiful destinations. Good-bye snorkeling tours hello wedding venue.
  Every day we could make people's dreams come true on the happiest day of their life. I'm loving this idea. Justin he's still stuck on the snorkeling tours thing. That's so last week for me. Lol.
Idea forming.....Duh! We could combine both. We could offer out to sea weddings and sunset cruises. We could do snorkeling trips for the bride and groom or their guests. We could make it an all inclusive wedding venue with bungalows and gardens. We could offer wedding packages that include the ceremony,  reception, pictures, tours, flowers and lodging. I frantically searched St. Croix for a piece of property that was large enough to build my dream on. I found one! $475,000  for 4.6 acres. The best part is the property around it is empty, it's for sale and someday there could be something there but for now privacy.  I could work with that. It's a waterfront lot with a rising elevation up to '100. Ideas started forming in my head. I could put a ceremony platform near the top of the property. It would offer unlimited views of the crystal blue Caribbean for the guests while the bride and groom promise  each other forever. Moving down the hill a little ways I could plant gardens of tropical flowers and greenery.  The perfect place to do wedding photos of the newlyweds.  Moving farther down towards the water a reception area where the friends and family could give their toasts and wish the newlyweds  happiness in their new life. Music would fill the air long into the night as they take part in all the wedding  traditions. Then when their ready to retire for the night bungalows would be waiting for them on the beach.
I worked up the courage to call the owner of the property. The phone rang 'Hello' he says and then we got disconnected. I stood there phone in my hand trying to decide if I should call back again. I gave myself a pep talk and dialed again. This time it worked, we spent over a half an hour talking about the property and my ideas. Although there is currently an offer in on the piece of property I wanted as well as the surrounding properties he still took the time to try to help me by thinking of other properties he knew of on the island. In the end it worked out for the best because I honestly don't know where I would have come up with the money to do all of this. I did make a friend though and hope to someday meet them if we end up moving to the Virgin islands.


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Who knew? Amazon has bouquets! Is there anything you can't get on Amazon.com? I'm tempted to check if they have husbands or wives. Just kidding!

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Hawaii's calling

I haven't given Hawaii its fair shake.  I don't know what it is, but something turns me off about Hawaii.  Maybe its the long flight or that its way out there in the middle of the ocean.  Whatever it is, I haven't given Hawaii a chance.  Recently and even in years past I've looked at Hawaii and after only a few minutes of research I've given up.  I must have done that yesterday because just as I was walking into work my phone rang.  It was Hawaii calling.  I don't remember checking on real estate but I must have. A very pleasant woman from Honolulu called to go over real estate with me. I explained our situation and our plan and she happily exclaimed that Hawaii would be perfect for me. I would love to give you the realest companies name but like I said earlier I don't remember even requesting information and as it caught me off guard when she called I didn't catch it when she said where she was calling from. I hope she calls back someday.  I promise to give you a full work up on Hawaii soon but as for now I'm going to continue scouring the Caribbean islands to find what secrets they might offer.
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A few things to get you ready for Hawaii.



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How about a Boat?

Now that we have a plan on how to make money, we'll need a boat.  But what kind of boat?  I didn't realize just how many types of boats there are out there.  There are fishing boats and speed boats,  sailing boats and pontoon boats. Boats for sleeping in and boats for skiing behind.  There are catamarans, house boats, jet boats, row boats and yachts.  If you can dream it up there's a boat for it. Our dream boat needed to be big enough that we could comfortably carry multiple passengers at once plus we needed a platform on it where people would easily be able to get into the water.  After sifting though tons of images online I've narrowed it down to two. A yacht or a catamaran.

 A yacht has plenty of room for passengers and a lot of yachts have observation decks up top. That would give a nice spot for people to look out over the Caribbean and possibly see some fish during the ride to our snorkeling destination. Yachts also have sleeping quarters which will come in handy seeing as how we'll have to put all of the money we have into buying the boat and won't be able to actually purchase land. Instead of waking up each morning and walking down the beach to the water with my cup of coffee I guess I will be dipping my toes in the water from the back of the boat. It's a compromise but not a bad one. I do worry a little bit about not actually having land under my feet to call home. It would be temporary though and once the business starts making money we could hopefully be able to buy a piece of land.

 Catamarans can be either sail powered or motor powered. We don't know how to sail so for us a motor powered one would be the best bet. They have very large decks and sleeping cabins. The draw back in a catamaran is getting the people into the water. Most of them I've looked at don't have swim platforms. I found some where people have put custom platforms on theirs and we could do the same with ours. I don't want people struggling when they try to get into the water, I want their experience to be an enjoyable one from the time they board the boat until the time they set foot back on land.
 Another thing to consider is where would we dock the boat? Our customers have to be able to board the boat somewhere! We would need a permanent location that was easy to find. Once we have our own property and dock it won't be a problem but until then we will have to look into renting a slip somewhere.  
  Did you know there are websites out there giving away free boats?  Most of the boats are from people who either don't have the time or don't have the money to restore them. They want them to go to a good home where someone will take good care of them. In most cases you need to be able to come pick them up  It's almost like a boat adoption.
If you can't find the boat your looking for on www.free-boat.com here's one that might interest you.

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Flippers and a Mask

After searching for property it became clear to me that we need to figure out what type of job we wanted to do. I think we're pretty set on island life. About 80% sure. I don't want to say 100% because I still have a lot more research to do but for now island life it is. So we asked ourselves "What would be the ultimate island-life job?" Our answer, buying a boat and doing guided snorkeling trips. What screams island-life more than sailing around on the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and diving into an under water world of exotic fish and coral? We figured if we're going to take untrained tourists out into the waters of the Caribbean we should probably get scuba diving certified. Better to be safe than sorry. We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt on our watch.
   We live in Michigan so we're already surrounded by water. To obtain a diving certificate won't be challenging at all. For 500 bucks a peice we can start our first class and learn to dive in the great lakes. A local dive shop offers world class diving certificate classes as well as advanced training and rescue training classes for an additional cost. Perfect, we can do all our training where we are now and be ready to open shop as soon as we move.

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The Great lakes have many sunken shipwrecks to explore. Here is a great book to find out the history of the ships that sailed the Great Lakes.


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The good old U.S.VI?

The United States Virginia islands. U.S. V.I.

The U.S. V.I. is made up of three main islands.
 St. Thomas the main island has more of a city life feel than the other two. It is known as the gateway to the Virginia islands.  The cost of living in St. Thomas is cheaper than the other two islands because its where all the ships and plains come into. It's capital Charlottesville Amalie is a busy cruise ship port. Places to see include Blackbeard's Castle, Fort Christian and Paradise Point.  You can spend your day out sight seeing or shopping at the Havensight mall and the many other duty free shops. There are guided snorkeling trips and plenty of beaches to relax on. Life here is a little more hustle and bustle than the other two islands which is why it's not the island for me. Just to the south of St. Thomas is a small island called Water island. I found a 1 acre lot for $225,000. This piece of land could work for me.
 St. John is the closet to St. Thomas. The cost of living is little higher here. St. John is the smallest of the three but makes up for it in natural beauty. With countless snorkeling spots and pristine beaches it's my personal favorite.  Beach front property under 300k is hard to find. In fact as of right now the cheapest I can find on St. John is 695k us dollars. There is a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath home on the 0.5 acre property for sale but man that's way out of my price range. For 895k you can get a 1 acre lot in an upscale neighborhood ready to be built on.  If I had the money it would be a breathtaking property.  If you don't mind having just a view and no waterfront there are 23 homes for sale under 290k us dollars. Unfortunately, my dream includes waking up and greeting the day with a cup of coffee in hand and my toes in the water. So that brings me to St.  Croix
 St. Croix is the largest of the three but the furthest away from St.  Thomas. Because everything has to be flown or ferried from St. Thomas it's cost of living is the highest. Things like groceries and gasoline will cost a little more. As far as life style, my opinion is that St. Croix is a mix between St. Thomas and St. John. There are two main cities on the island Christiansted, and Frederiksted. Kinghill is a settlement kind in the middle of the island and home to the University of the Virgin islands. There is also a lot of national park area and nature reserves. Unspoiled land in all its beauty. It's just what I've been looking for. I've been able to find some smaller beachfront properties for under 350k. The draw back is that most of them are in residential areas and in order for me to make my dream work I'm also looking for somewhere I can start a business. I'm going to have to have some sort of income. The money form the sale of my house in Michigan isn't going to last for long.  In fact with these prices it won't even make a dent in the purchasing of property.  I need to take a look at what types of things I could do for income.



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