Once I realized that I needed to live in a place that was WARM….my search started in earnest for the perfect spot. Oh it was tough duty alright. I spent about four months traveling to various exotic places in search of “home.” A good deal of time was devoted to Florida….we started in St. Augustine (a very enchanting place), traveled all the way to the keys (another great spot), up and around thru Naples and Tampa (lovely), to my favorite pan-handle beaches (oh la la) before heading across the gulf to New Orleans. We found many places we liked, but none we LOVED and none that felt right.
So then it was off to various islands and exotic lands: Caymans, Bahamas (several of those islands), Costa Rica, Belize, Panama. Again, all nice, but none called my name. I’d been to St Thomas and didn’t care for it, had vacationed in St John many times and while I absolutely loved it, knew I couldn’t afford it, but I’d never even heard of St Croix. Then one day I stumbled upon this guy’s blog (this was before blogs, by the way) who talked about his journey to find the right spot, and he ended up in St Croix. I was intrigued, since he had been to many of the same places I had been, and had the same reaction as me. So I called him and we talked for a very long time, at which point I hung up the phone and booked yet a trip to St Croix. This was in late April 2005.
It was love at first sight. The rolling hills, turquoise water, friendly smiles and greetings, wonderful smells (the food here is spicy and fantastic!), and of course the PERFECT weather lured me in right away. I felt at home. I literally knew within hours of stepping off the plane that this was the place for me. Oh how I love navigating by intuition!
Stay tuned for Geography lesson #3 to learn about how I fine tuned this search to find my perfect SPOT on this island!
