Regarding island life: When I was a kid, our family would vacation in the Fla Keys for one or two weeks a year. For me, it was paradise. Fishing, diving, exploring in a jonboat, etc.
Then one summer between school semesters, I went down there for the whole summer. Paradise for the whole summer!!! For two or three weeks I fished, dove, explored. Awesome!!! Also worked a few days a week helping in construction or fixing boat engines. And ran a string of lobster traps.
Soon got bored. The last few weeks I could not stand it. I ended up leaving early to go back to school. To this day lobster has no more appeal to me than a cheeseburger.
I remember that bored island feeling well. Whenever I hear someone say they wish they could drop it all and go live on an island, I caution them.
Several isolated keys have abandoned or partially built homes on them. I'm too social to want to live that way. I think most are. Those island dreams can wear off fast in reality. Even if the island has a good number of people, it can get small fast.
Wifey B: Yes, yes, yes...to all you said. There are lots of islands in the keys and the Bahamas for sale. We love looking at them when we're around them. A lot of celebrities own islands in the Bahamas. My take: Islands are great as an escape, but I wouldn't want to live full time on a private island. Boring!
That's what happens when we imagine sometimes, we think of a great week or two. We think of all that's there, wherever there is, but we don't think of all we'd give up.
The whole "where would I live" thing is something we've seriously looked at. If we had no current entanglements, no family, no friends, no businesses, nothing to which we felt any attachment then there are so many wonderful places we'd consider. The South Pacific. The Caribbean. I love that in the Caribbean you can go from one island to another or just the other side of the same one and you're in a different nation, from British to American to Dutch to French. I'm sorry, I don't buy into the Nationalism of the US or any other country that says it is the single best and that it's perfect. It's not. But then neither is anywhere. You get somewhere and you slowly learn what the locals already knew, you see the issues. Yet, home is where the heart is. Ours is in FLL. We love boating. But we love having a home to come back to where our friends and family greet us and we have 20 or 30 for a little Sunday cookout. Also we're not free in the sense of no obligations. The moment we opened a business, we became obligated and committed to employees. Then of course the kids at the orphanage who we'd miss so.
Life is more than just a place. So many places I love visiting but they're not home and couldn't be. I don't want to chuck it all and leave it all behind. Maybe to me then it's if I was going to have a second home where would I choose? Well, we thought about that too. Silly me. We have that. It's mobile. It's a boat. That's where it would be. Here, there and everywhere. Today it would be the TN River. We looked at the houses as we passed and thought it would be nice to live there and there and then there. This was once our dream before FLL came into the picture.
It's great to dream and think of other places. We dream of that magical island beach in the movies with a group of servants, perhaps all naked native girls in the fantasies, catering to every whim. Sipping drinks with cute little umbrellas. Sounds wonderful, but not a forever wonderful. Might be if we were looking to escape a life or something but we're not. We consider our present home and life to be paradise. Others in other places think the same way.
You see all the websites, "Retire in .....". One thing they emphasize is cost. That is a factor for many and if cost was critical, then it most definitely wouldn't be where we are now, wouldn't be the US. Could certainly retire to Bocas Del Toro cheaper than FLL and have an incredible lifestyle in a beautiful idyllic place. Now, many countries also have far better retirement programs for their citizens than the US but you can't just move there and be in that program. I see the way the elderly are treated in the Netherlands, and I'm ashamed of how we do it in the US. And really no one here is among those I'm referring to in the US, struggling to just get by, living in poverty. We may not all be part of the 1%, but this forum is made up of those in the top 30% of their age. Many elderly can't afford to travel to the next town, much less on a boat.
Understand the expatriate programs and moving to other countries works great for some, but then others do find themselves missing their own home. Most can't come back though, can't afford to.
Then people. See, I think they're wonderful everywhere. I love them all. Haven't yet been anywhere that I didn't find them nice. In traveling I've see some beauty and some sadness though. Places that are great when you're a visitor who can afford it, but then you see the poor living there and they're conditions and you'd never want that and they're the majority. I think to how wonderfully we were treated in Nicaragua and the squalid conditions most there live in.
I love thinking about all the places of the world and all the people and the beauty. No place is perfect but a lot of them are pretty great. Well, for today, I choose to live on the TN river, but it's just temporary. Home is, and will be from this time forward, Fort Lauderdale.