When we started this blog, we imagined updating at least once a month. Well, life certainly gets in the way of things.
We have visited St. John about every six weeks since the island opened back up last June. There were just 12 on that early June plane from Miami. The island was eerily quiet, especially at night. No cabs, no music, no shopping, no tourists. Even after the hurricane it was busier with recovery activity and everything trying to reopen. We were concerned about the survival of the businesses and tried to use those that were open. We had takeout (always good), or microwave frozen meals the first few trips and then enjoyed our first Covid era dinners out in St. John. The restaurants were incredibly careful, and all the food seemed to be better than ever. Over the last year, things have gotten busier and as you might have read on some forums, St. John now has many visitors. We are always so busy on these trips with construction activities that we rarely have time to go to the beach, but we always try to go at least twice for an hour or so. We have been the only ones on Trunk or have sat on Maho and counted 34 boats moored in the bay. It does not matter to us. Each time reminds us of why we chose to rebuild and how grateful we are to have St. John.
La Jolla Caribe has had its share of visitors as well. We mentioned before the cat that comes and checks the progress every evening, and now it seems he has a friend. My husband wants to keep them but alas, I have a no pet policy on my new furniture. Some of our visitors are virtual. We have family and friends who have followed the progress on our security cameras. Their feedback has been so encouraging and positive, and we look forward to hosting them in person again soon.
We have had our share of what we call the looky-loos. It is always breezy at LJC making them hard to hear, but I am guessing most visitors did not realize those cameras have microphones. Generally, like us, everyone is awestruck by the view from our sun deck. We do appreciate that - but some comments have been more…”constructive.” “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” advised one armchair architect. Well, I guess we could have just left the remains of our old house but I’m not sure the HOA would have preferred that. It’s true, we did not build another 45-year-old house, but we figured we’d go with a modern home with this forced-opportunity to rebuild our island home. Good thing because another comment heard was “this place used to be a dump”. Okay, that one hurt. One visitor came late at night telling his companion it's best to come when there are no workers. Okay, but you can’t see anything in the dark either. Please don’t step off the x-foot high deck that still hasn’t had railing installed.
Most people appreciate the construction, take selfies with the view, or mention they might want to rent in the future. A few have been curious about the staircase behind the house that goes nowhere. In fact, we have always found that curious as well, but chalk it up to island quirk and charm. But the most interesting visitors were the middle-aged couple that thought that our covered deck might be a good place for, ahem, romance. Obviously, they had just come from the beach as they were just in swimsuits. Side note: It is customary to wear cover ups in St. John please. They took the obligatory view pictures, then mischievously looked around and began “adjusting” their swimsuits. I almost shielded my eyes. However, for a special location he made the poor choice of sitting in an old plastic patio chair the workers had salvaged post-Irma somewhere. As he was not particularly petite, it buckled sending him backwards completely to the floor, his legs flying above him. Ouch! It was easy for the microphones to catch her laughing so hysterically she lost her hold. Sadly, we had to warn the workers to hose off that part of the deck the next day. He finally was able to stand and as they left they noticed the cameras. He told her he was sure they were fake. Wrong, and they record. And several of our friends and family members may have seen this, too. My brother begged me to post the video on Reddit but honestly, what subreddit would it fall under?
As you can see, LJC is still being rebuilt, and it’s safer to wait for an invitation to visit. Meanwhile, the view is always available on our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and search La Jolla Caribe Live. We now have a West facing camera as well as the East. Feel free to subscribe, or you can like La Jolla Caribe on Facebook. Hope to see you there soon!
