What We Are Thankful for this Thanksgiving

At SGI Beach Vacations we have so much to be thankful for. This year has been a difficult one for our family. We found a tumor in our son’s hip at the same time we found out that he has an autoimmune disease (thankfully the tumor was benign, and the autoimmune disease can be managed with medication). Jonathan’s business has also had an up-and-down year, but when it comes to our vacation rentals on St. George Island, we have much to be thankful for.

Safety from Hurricane Helene

On Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida. While Steinhatchee is nearly 85 miles east of St. George Island, as late as Wednesday night (the night before landfall), St. George Island was in the middle of the cone where landfall was expected. We went to bed on Wednesday night wondering if Sea Dunes and Serene Dream would suffer significant damage from the category four hurricane. Storm surge was expected to reach up to 20 feet and winds were expected to reach 140 mph

However, because of the last second move east by Helene, St. George Island was largely spared from significant damage. While storm surge was relatively mild and winds were relatively minor (sustained winds never exceeded 50 mph), there was a lot of rain (more than nine inches of rain). With the exception of some flooding, damage on the island was negligible.

Despite what could have been a difficult situation, we were still able to laugh through what could have been a scary time. Check out this video of some coverage during the hurricane (“The flooding is full of water.”).

Our cleaners and maintenance people

As all of our guests know, we manage our homes from afar and rely on our great service providers to take care of our homes. Whenever we have something come up with our homes, we can call one of our great maintenance people or cleaners to take care of it right away, often within just a couple of hours.

It all starts with our cleaners, Amy (Sea Dunes) and Julie (Serene Dream). They pay careful attention to the details, and we have been extremely happy with them. We hired Amy and Julie early in 2024, and we are so thankful that we found them!

We are also so thankful for Bret and Brea at Beachwater Pools for taking care of our pools and hot tubs. Like our cleaners, we hired new pool maintenance this year, and they have been incredible!

We also have a great list of maintenance people that we can call for jobs big and small. From painting the house to major work on our decks to plumbing, they all take great care of us. Whether it’s Shawn at L&C Enterprises, Big Ron’s Maintenance, Edward at Seaside Repair Restore or Charles at SGI Painting, we are so thankful for them! We are thankful for Ake’s Septic for taking care of our septic systems and Marion at Millender Plumbing for taking care of our plumbing at each of our houses too. We have a great appliance repair man at Kevin Brown Enterprises, great AC service at AirCon and elevator maintenance at Mowrey Elevator. Thank you to everyone for keeping our homes in tip-top shape!

Our guests

Most importantly, we are thankful for our amazing guests. During 2024, we have continued to welcome amazing guests that have taken care of our homes and been able to enjoy St. George Island at the same time. Since we purchased our first home on St. George Island, we have hosted 1,008 (yes, 1,008!) vacations for our guests. Many of our guests come back year after year after year. Some have even stayed with us as many as 10 times (I’m talking about you Vanessa!).

In 2024, only one-third of our guests at Sea Dunes and 17% of guests at Serene Dream booked on VRBO. That means more and more of our guests are booking directly with us and saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars! To learn more about booking direct, check out our blog from earlier this year.

Our guests continue to enjoy their stays at our homes, and we can’t do it without all of our maintenance people and cleaners that we mentioned above. We are so glad we can serve our guests and help them have a great vacation on St. George Island.