Hi! I’m Hillary Bonner. I’ve been on St. John for 8 years and have worn A LOT of hats in my time on island. Most of us do tho…A lot of times island life calls for ingenuity, flexibility and resiliency. And those things are what I kind of LOVE about the people in our Love City Community.
Between boat days and day hikes and happy hours with so many happy faces, you may have seen me behind the bar at Asolare, Zozo’s, The Terrace or Drink (once upon a time, Motu) over the years. But after Hurricane Irma, I jumped from behind the bar into non-profit work. That desk job made me remember that, way back when, I DID go to college and I might have been letting some of those skill sets get a BIT rusty. My degree is in Journalism and Public Relations. When asked if I ever used it, my programmed response was, “Bar tending IS relating to the public.”
But, back to the desk job…I was doing everything. Which is, again, what you do in a small office on an island. Events, marketing, handling in-kind donations, unloading containers, attempting to figure out logistics I didn’t even know how to spell, community meetings, board meetings, FEMA meetings. All of the meetings.
One day, I decided that there were aspects I loved. And aspects…Well, not so much. So I started my own thing, supporting local small businesses and non-profits in the realm of design, marketing and events (specifically music related events…you’ll hear a lot about music from me). I have a bleeding heart for the small yet ambitious non-profits on St. John. And an overwhelming amount of respect for the small business owners who made their ideas take flight in a place where it’s very difficult to do so!
I love life here on St. John. The highs are the highest and the lows are not so low as they can be in other places. The accessibility to Mother Nature on this little slice of perfection is unparalleled. She’s all around us all of the time. You can watch the phases of the moon, the rotation of the planets, the shifting of the sunset and the tides. Every damn day. Mother Nature’s restless spirit reflects the transient nature of the people here as well. That was hard for me at first. The coming and the going. But now, I like the fact that I will rarely visit a place that I don’t have a place to stay and a friend to catch up with from St. John.
So, now, here I am (using my degree, Ma!). Contributing to a long standing super positive blog. Here I feel like I’m in a position to use my voice to entertain and inform you about the community and island that I love so much.
I’m grateful for this opportunity and am ALWAYS open to story ideas! Let me know what, where or who you want to hear about!
When we left off in Part One of this story, Sailing Vessel Kai and her crew were about to head south from North Carolina in order to sail home to the USVI and meet up with Kenny Chesney and Monica Knaggs for the filming of the famed musician’s “Knowing You” music video. In this second chapter, Monica and her boyfriend Connor leave St. John for St. Croix with some traveling woes while Kai struggles to make it in one piece to Puerto Rico and then St. Croix in time for production day.
Well, I’m happy to say that in just over 48 hours you guys helped them raise OVER $30K in support of green initiatives on St. John! And today, the raffle ticket sales total $46,855 putting them at one third of their goal of $150k. Nice work out there!
Between Kelly McKinney of Island Green and myself, we have received a lot of questions and I wanted to take a moment this morning to answer those and also start to highlight some of the businesses who so generously donated to the grand prize.
Good Morning! I have quite the gem for all of you house hunters out there today! Paradise on the Rocks is a three bedroom, three bathroom sturdily built masonry home perched high atop Ajax Peak between Cruz Bay and Coral Bay. This home is move in ready with a bit of income built into it. And it rings in at under a million dollars. To be honest…It’s kind of a unicorn. Let’s check it out!
This is NO April Fool’s joke! The Island Green Living Association is launching a raffle in celebration of Earth Month and in support of their mission to “Preserve St. John!” The winner of this particular raffle will take home a prize valued at over $10,000 that includes accommodations, boating adventures, car rental, airline tickets, dining vouchers and other activities that will ensure their next trip to St. John has a five star stamp on it!
A while back, I received a message from “the queen of the beach read” and best selling author Elin Hilderbrand. She reached out to me via Instagram to ensure that I had seen the story about ABC’s possible option on her Paradise Trilogy. I asked the famed novelist if she wouldn’t mind sitting down with me when she was next on island. She told me she would be on St. John this month for her annual five week “Winter in Paradise” and, with a green light from Captain Teddy, I invited her to join us for an afternoon of conversation and sailing on Asante.
So, on March 18, Elin and her boyfriend, Tim, joined Teddy, Chewy and myself on the boat to celebrate their ninth anniversary and chat about the madness of 2020, Love City of past and present and some interesting parallels between the author’s home of Nantucket and her beloved winter “paradise,” St. John.
Good Morning! I hope that you all had a great weekend and that your work week is off to a great start this morning! Earlier this month, Caribbean Journal reported on the crazy high (comparatively speaking) tourism numbers in the US Virgin Islands. With bargain basement flights available, our borders fully open to American visitors and many of our sister islands remaining “closed” or requiring mandatory quarantines, its no wonder. USVI is one of the very few “paradise” destinations currently accessible to American visitors who are anxious to get out and travel after being cooped up for nearly a year.
Good Morning and a Happy Fri-Yay to you all! I often say that “Paradise has its Price.” St. John is, in my heart, the most beautiful place on earth. The people, the food, the views, the community…It’s all just kind of perfect for me. But, it does come with its minor inconveniences. And yesterday was a solid example of that statement.
Ah, the BVI…Zipping around from one stunning island to another, Painkillers at Soggy Dollar Bar, lobster quesadillas from One Love, lobster from Sydney’s, honey rum and corn hole at the Bee Line, jumps off the Willie T, exploring The Baths and beautiful local characters with charisma and charm and the ability to make you laugh. I cannot believe it has been a year. And it’s looking like it’s going to be a bit longer for pleasure boats and day trippers.
The Baths- Virgin Gorda
Every week, I check the BVI government pages, scanning them for information about an eventual re-opening that makes sense for USVI residents and visitors. And for several weeks, there have been no updates. But, on Friday, and after several weeks without a chirp, there was a bit of movement with a press release from the BVI Ports Authority and a statement from Premier Fahie. Both releases were dated March 19.
This hidden gem is a perfect escape for a solo or duo looking to call St. John home or for a resident ready to take the plunge into home ownership! The lovely cottage I’m highlighting today is move in ready with a budget friendly price tag, convenience and tranquility. Let’s take a look at this quaint abode nestled in the hillside overlooking Coral Bay Harbor!
On Friday, March 12, Kenny Chesney released a new music video entitled “Knowing You” that was filmed partially in Gloucester, MA and partially on the Virgin Island of St. Croix and in her surrounding waters. The video is a bittersweet love story from the eyes of a sailor in which the Pop Country super star reflects from chilly New England back on the memories he created with a beautiful free spirit in a very different time with a very different backdrop.
Even though the video was filmed on St. Croix and not on St. John, the iconic artist never ceases with his love affair for Love City and selected his beautiful co-star from his circles here. Through these same circles, this young woman also found the boat, Sailing Vessel Kai, for him to use in this video. A vessel that was coincidentally making her way back to the USVI after spending the fall in a boatyard in the same New England mariner town where the first part of this video was filmed.
Last week, the lovely co-star from “Knowing You,” Monica Knaggs, Kai’s First Mate for the journey south, Sarah Ford, and myself hopped aboard Asante with my boyfriend, Captain Teddy, who also sailed south on Kai and was kind enough to play taxi for the three of us for the day. 🙂
We left Great Cruz Bay and headed out to Christmas Cove to meet up with the 70-foot sailboat, Kai, and her Captain/Owner, Justin Smith. Monica, Sarah, Justin and I sat down in the beautifully appointed salon of Kai so I could get the story from the three of them about how they became a part of “Knowing You,” their journeys to St. Croix and their experiences working with Kenny Chesney and his team.
Captain Justin Smith, First Mate Sarah Ford, Monica Knags and Sam the Boat Dog on the bow of Kai
This is a synchronistic, three-part story of how the boat, the girl and the musician came together to create this video that, in the end, reflects a calm after the storm.
