BillVT’s St. John Trip Report: Preface
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 8:45 am
We have been traveling to St. John yearly since 1997. There may have been a year or two when our daughter was in college that we may have missed; college ain’t cheap. But mostly, it has been a yearly trip. And for the most part, we have traveled at the same time of year, except for the above-mentioned daughter who was married on Trunk Bay a week before Christmas, rather than us visiting in late March. There is a good reason for this and it involved our best friends. They are fellow New Englanders whom we have known since before our marriage. While we raised our two children, they traveled the Caribbean looking for the right place. They made an initial investment in a property on St. Kitts but after years of inactivity by the developers, they moved on. They landed on St. John and purchased a timeshare unit at Sunset Ridge Villas in Cruz Bay.
It was in 1997 that they were able to occupy their unit and they brought us along. Being the friends that they were, they gave us the master suite while they slept in the main building. After that year, they bought their second week and we started paying for college. When we returned we would rent a villa for ourselves, with or without our children and then stay a week with our friends to extend our time on STJ. We came to know Sunset Ridge and the people who occupied the surrounding units at the same time of year. There are only six, two building units to the complex, so it was not difficult to get acquainted. When a week became available at the same time of year, we bought it. And then we bought another, a week earlier. So now, we own two weeks and then move in with our friend for our third week. We think three weeks on island is perfect. In the ensuing years one of our friends passed on, but we still travel and visit with his widow and we welcome the spillage from each others guests when there are too many.
So we are timeshare people, a subdivision of the tourists that visit St. John that include villa people, campers, resort visitors, eco-resort visitors, hotel renters, cruise ship visitors, boaters and us. I may have missed a category or two. Since I retired, I was asked to join the board of directors of the homeowners association at Sunset Ridge. “Sure,” I said, how much work can it involve? As it turned out, plenty, the developers had given control of SRV to the HOA after they had extracted what they comfortably could. I doubt they made much money out of the project and the place had begun to fall into disrepair. It is not a full time job but on some days it can come close. Due to the dedication of the HOA board and the patience and willingness of the other owners to sink a few more dollars into the place, we were able to bring it back from the brink. It is a pleasure to return each year to see what more we were able to accomplish since our last visit. While not luxurious, it is comfortable, with lots of room to stretch out and views that are hard to beat.http://sunsetridgevillas.com/index.shtml
But this year is going to be a little different. We will still occupy our two weeks at SRV, but after making a huge error in booking our flight, we will be arriving a week earlier so that we will not be moving in with our friend at the end of our vacation. After discovering our error we checked prices on the correct flights and the cost of canceling our current flight, and it almost covered the cost of renting another week somewhere else. So we kept our current flight and are going to start our vacation at a place that we have always been curious about. Estate Zootenval. Yep, we’ll let you know.
It was in 1997 that they were able to occupy their unit and they brought us along. Being the friends that they were, they gave us the master suite while they slept in the main building. After that year, they bought their second week and we started paying for college. When we returned we would rent a villa for ourselves, with or without our children and then stay a week with our friends to extend our time on STJ. We came to know Sunset Ridge and the people who occupied the surrounding units at the same time of year. There are only six, two building units to the complex, so it was not difficult to get acquainted. When a week became available at the same time of year, we bought it. And then we bought another, a week earlier. So now, we own two weeks and then move in with our friend for our third week. We think three weeks on island is perfect. In the ensuing years one of our friends passed on, but we still travel and visit with his widow and we welcome the spillage from each others guests when there are too many.
So we are timeshare people, a subdivision of the tourists that visit St. John that include villa people, campers, resort visitors, eco-resort visitors, hotel renters, cruise ship visitors, boaters and us. I may have missed a category or two. Since I retired, I was asked to join the board of directors of the homeowners association at Sunset Ridge. “Sure,” I said, how much work can it involve? As it turned out, plenty, the developers had given control of SRV to the HOA after they had extracted what they comfortably could. I doubt they made much money out of the project and the place had begun to fall into disrepair. It is not a full time job but on some days it can come close. Due to the dedication of the HOA board and the patience and willingness of the other owners to sink a few more dollars into the place, we were able to bring it back from the brink. It is a pleasure to return each year to see what more we were able to accomplish since our last visit. While not luxurious, it is comfortable, with lots of room to stretch out and views that are hard to beat.http://sunsetridgevillas.com/index.shtml
But this year is going to be a little different. We will still occupy our two weeks at SRV, but after making a huge error in booking our flight, we will be arriving a week earlier so that we will not be moving in with our friend at the end of our vacation. After discovering our error we checked prices on the correct flights and the cost of canceling our current flight, and it almost covered the cost of renting another week somewhere else. So we kept our current flight and are going to start our vacation at a place that we have always been curious about. Estate Zootenval. Yep, we’ll let you know.