St. John 

We are Randy and Becky Koladis, husband and wife co-authors of St. John On Foot And By Car. People often ask us how we came to write a guidebook about St. John and are curious about what brought us to the USVI in the first place. So, for those readers who would like to know more about our love affair with St. John , we decided to share "our story."

I guess it all really begins with Randy and his first visit to the USVI back in 1965.  At the time, Randy was a Navy officer assigned to duty aboard the amphibious transport ship USS Wakiakum County (LST 1162). Having lived in Connecticut all of his life, he found New England summers all too short and longed for that "endless summer", which he soon discovered, much to his wonderment, as his tour of duty brought him to various tropical ports of call such as St. Croix, Vieques, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and St. Thomas. Needless to say, it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the tropics. He soaked up not just the sun, but the vibrant colors, the food, the music and culture. So, upon leaving the Navy, Randy returned to St. Thomas and was offered a position teaching school and also worked a part time job as a copy editor for the St. Thomas Daily News.  It proved to be a great place to escape the turmoil of the Vietnam Era 1960s and an environment that allowed him to sail, fish and dive for more than a few months out of the year. Randy began introducing his family and friends from up north to the islands and his sister and brother-in-law eventually moved to St. Thomas as well.

During  the 1970s, Randy returned to the states, taking a job at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. While employed at the library, he began poking around the library "stacks" and discovered their extensive collection of West Indian history books with their fascinating accounts of USVI life and culture. It occurred to him that the average visitor came to the Virgin Islands to enjoy the beautiful beaches and endless sunny days, but left without being introduced to their rich history, traditions and culture. So, in an effort to share a bit of this with the steady stream of tourists who found their way to the USVI, he began writing a series of easy to follow, self-guided tour books that would help enhance a visitor's island experience. Eventually he authored guidebooks for the islands of St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola and Virgin Gorda.

At the time Randy was publishing the guidebooks, he met Becky at the infamous "Watergate" complex in Washington, D.C. , where she was working in an art gallery. Their first date was to look at an old wooden boat built in the 1800s, which had sailed into Annapolis from the Caribbean and been put up for sale. We didn't buy the boat, which was called the Mimi". Instead, it was later purchased by maritime educator John Ballard, who used it for his educational series -  The Adventures of the Mimi. However, we did get married a few weeks later at the  Lutheran Church in Charlotte Amalie. We honeymooned on St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola and Virgin Gorda and purchased a lot on Bordeaux Mt. before heading home to the states.

Two children later, we left Washington, D.C. and headed back to the USVI where Randy took a job initially at the Inn at Mandel on St. Thomas and then later found his way to a position at Caneel Bay. We were fortunate to find a house to rent in the Calabash Boom section of St. John. The house was perched on a cliff overlooking a coral reef and gave us views of not only fish feeding on the reef, but of Norman and Peter Island.

Working for Caneel, afforded us weekly rides to St. Thomas on the Caneel ferry, which we  took advantage of for grocery shopping, since at this time there was only Gladys Smith's market on the island and occasionally a man selling produce brought in from Tortola. We consider ourselves fortunate to have experienced this time period on St. John - pre-carry ferry, pre-building boom, and pre-run off. People gave rides freely to strangers, got together regularly for fish fries, and the mongoose, goats, donkeys and chickens mingled freely with island residents. 

Eventually, we returned to the states, for work and family, but continued to visit, on a yearly basis, both St. Thomas and St. John. The books stopped being printed and were moth-balled until we decided to reprint St. John On Foot And By Car in 2000 as a family project. We updated and included photographs in our new edition. The Caneel Bay gift shop, The National Park Visitor's Center and the Maho Bay Commissary happily welcomed the return to print of our guidebook, which they had carried for so many years in the past. We also created this website and have enjoyed corresponding and speaking with the many visitors who have purchased ou book over the years.

In 2003, we made a decision to begin work on our USVI home since the book was providing us with a reason to visit St. John on a more regular basis. By this time, we had sold our Bordeaux Mt. lot and purchased a lot in Fish Bay. Randy and our son Josh, armed with machetes, cleared the land in January and by July, "Boopy" had done site excavation and our contractor, Samuel Harris ("Captain"), began erecting the forms in preparation for our first concrete "pour". Since then, there have been many successful "pours" and lots of visits to St. John.

The building process had its challenges since our primary residence is Connecticut, and we were over seeing the construction from Connecticut, but we learned  quite a bit in the process.

Our house is perched on a cliff, overlooking Fish Bay. It is a small, but mighty 700 sq. ft. hide-away with an expansive gallery across the front. We look forward to enjoying our new USVI home as well as reprinting another guidebook and , of course, look ahead to building yet another house for rental purposes on our site. 

If we can answer any questions about purchasing land on St. John, building while living in the states, or our experiences on St. John, feel free to send us an email. We are both experienced real estate agents and would welcome the opportunity to help you purchase or build your own tropical dream home on St. John.

Randy & Becky Koladis  

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