One year ago...

It's hard to believe it's August already.

One year ago today we flew to Puerto Rico, starting the trip that ultimately brought us here, to Ola Lola's.

We'd been here several times before, staying right on the beach down the road at Villa Tropical. That's where we -well, I - fell in love with the northwest corner of Puerto Rico. (Elaine actually visited here a couple of years before with our daughter Amy and always wanted to come back.) In December, 2005, we decided we wanted to move here. We came back in August to begin to look at houses, property, jobs, and to try as best we could to see what living (as opposed to vacationing) here would be like. We also defined just what was really important to us - close to the beach, within walking distance of someplace to walk the dogs, etc.

When we got here in August, we found out Ola Lola's was for sale. Like so many others, we drove or walked by it many times, every time we left Shacks beach. It was usually closed when we went by. But we saw the "se vende" signs and one morning we walked down to take a look. A friendly voice called "hola!" from the garden and we met Katy, the former owner of Ola Lola's who is now living in Japan.

Over the next two weeks we spent a lot of time with Katy, learning about the garden, the house, the bar, and becoming friends. We told her we really really loved the place and wanted to buy it but it did not appear there was a way to make that happen that worked for all of us. So, we returned to Michigan still friends, still dreaming about moving here, but thinking it was not going to happen any time soon.

In October - surprise! - we got an e-mail from her reviving the discussion. Over the next couple of months we did some furious financial figuring and lots of discussion and negotiation. Some time in November we came to an agreement. On December 19, 2006, we flew back to Puerto Rico. On December 21 we closed on the property and in January 2007 with lots of help from Katy, we re-opened Ola Lola's.

The rest is not quite history because the history is still being written. In fact a new chapter opens tomorrow. But that's another story and another post.