Moving to Florida

[Amity 3]

I voted "Other". I moved to the Orlando area two years ago. I've never regretted it for a second.

I love the weather. Yes, it is hot and humid in the summer. It is hotter and humid in other parts of the country during the summer. It has never reached 100 degrees since I moved here. You can't say that about much of the country. And yes, it is humid in those area as well. I heard from a friend in Missouri the other day. She told me she wanted to come to Florida for a visit to escape the heat. They had a heat index of 115.

You certainly can't beat the winter weather. It gets just cold enough to make it feel like winter, but it is pleasant enough to take long walks and enjoy the beautiful scenery. By the way, Florida really does have seasonal changes, they are just not as dramatic as other areas. Certain types of trees actual turn colors in the fall and then lose their leaves. Next to them, you will see beautiful blooming flowers! I lived in the Midwest most of my life. I don't miss the snow and ice enough to want to move back. If I do start to miss it, I'll just visit friends briefly and then go home to my beautiful Florida!

The vast majority of people in Florida are very friendly. I've met so many nice people here.

There is so much to do in Florida year round. I could literally eat in a different restaurant for years and not repeat if I wanted. There are many places to view or participate in theatrical productions. Arts and nature are abundant, not to mention the theme parks and shopping available.

As for the wildlife, we do have it in abundance. I'm not a bug person, but even I find the odd varieties here amazing. I have no problem with bugs in my house. I had silver-fish in Missouri and had a terrible time keeping them out. I have no issues like that here. I have a contract with a company that treats my home inside twice a year and outside each quarter. No problems. Fire ants are kind of a pain, but you learn to deal with them.

I LOVE the birds! I can't say enough about how much I like them. I like the lizards, wild boars, deer, bobcats, etc. I do see an occasional snake, but nothing that is a problem. There are poisonous snakes here. If I am going to climb around in my flowerbeds, I look before I do so. I'm not afraid of them. I've only seen one alligator in the two years I've lived here. If you stay away from the edge of bodies of water, they really aren't a problem.

I know this is going to sound odd, but I actually enjoyed the hurricanes. Now, that would not be the case if I lived on the coast. By the time they reach the Orlando area, they are not that bad. Yes, Charlie caused a lot of damage in the Orlando area, but much of that was because people had not kept things under control prior. Many of the homes who lost roofs or had leaking were because their roofs needed to be replaced long ago. Believe me, people let their roofs go much longer than they should here. With the amount of moisture and sun here, roofs need to be repaired or replace more often. Many large trees should have been removed or trimmed before Charlie. Hurricanes that occur going forward will not be as big a problem for Orlando because many of the problems have been corrected. I found the hurricanes to be kind of relaxing.

Is there anything I don't like about living in Florida? Yes. People drive like idiots. Of course, that seems to be a trend moving across the country. I noticed the drivers in Missouri getting much worse the last few years I lived there. I am lucky in that I don't have to drive I-4 on a regular basis. You learn to deal.

Would I ever move from Florida? It would take something major to make me do so.

right on. the people I've met here are definately friendlier than those I came across in the midwest in my experiences. I don't think there's one state in the country everyone could decide on as a perfect place to live. we love it here.

 

[Bbgrizzle]

When I play MASH with my kids and we come to the part where they have to pick 2 good states to live in, and 2 bad states to live in, they always pick Florida as one of the BAD states.

 

[safetymom]

I moved here to FL and I love it. I travel for work so I get to see the changing of the seasons. I don't have to shovel snow, drive in it, rake and bag the leaves.

The heat doesn't bother me since I have a/c here that I didn't have in PA.

 

[gas station]

I recently moved to Florida, it will be 1 month on Friday. So far, I hate it here.

It's hot, it's sticky, it's humid, it's bug ridden, it rains out of the blue, I think I've encountered some of the worse drivers ever, the state hates homosexuals, I am terrified to hold my partners hand in the movie theatre, I feel I am treated differently because I am black, people say I talk weird (I'm from California, we don't have accents). It's super bright outside, even with sun glasses, the grocery stores don't carry half of the stuff I am used to purchasing, I have a list a mile long to be specially ordered at the grocery store.

Maybe it's just a California thing and I'm used to San Francisco tolls where you pay to cross the bridge in only 1 direction. But here, you have to pay both directions. Example, I went to tampa and spent 1.25 to cross the bridge, then it was 2.25 to come back. It's like a thousand tolls in this state.

I wanna go home, anyone wanna buy a 3 bed 2.5 bath townhouse, brand new stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors, located in a golf course community? Make me an offer!

where do you live?

i live in tampa and from experience the tampa/st pete area is one of the gay-friendliest areas i've been.

and there is plenty of racial diversity

and what bridge are you taking? sunshine skyway is $1 either way and the ones between tampa and st pete are free

 

[T1130]

I voted not sure. But it may become a reality for me. Dh might get transford there in Jan.. After reading peoples answers on this thread it is making me nervous. Dh and I need to start making descions soon. He will be transford to the Lake Mary area. I have been doing a lot of research. His company is going to fly us up 2x for four days to look at the area. All my family and friends are here. I don`t know what to do?

 

[pearlieq]

It's a lovely place to visit, but I don't think we'd ever move there. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'd snowbird, but that's it.

Between the weather, bugs, other wildlife, out-of-the-way location, politics, and lack of Portillo's, I just couldn't do it.

 

[Tink522]

I already live here. I don't think I could live anywhere else. My DH and I talk about moving all the time but in the end we would both miss it here (we've both lived here since childhood). I know other posters wouldn't like to live near Miami but we couldn't move any further than we are now (about 90 miles). South Florida has a feel all it's own. You either love it or you move back to where you came from!

P.S. The hurricanes are not that bad. In the 17 years I've lived here we've only had 5 storms in S. Florida and 4 of them were in the last 2 years. Almost halfway thru hurricane season and no storms yet!

 

[Crankyshank]

I've got to say I lived in the Tampa area, have friends and DH's family in the Tampa area, and the absolute last thing I would say about that area is that there's a lack of ethnic diversity or the people are intolerant towards gays to the point where one would be afraid to be affectionate in public.

 

[Ludacris]

It's super bright outside, even with sun glasses

the sunshine state is bright?


special order food, cruises, new house? where you gettin all dat money? you gotta j-o-b?

 

[JustHolly]

I'm "other" because we already live here. We "dreamed" about living in Florida for about 4 years before we actually moved, though!

 

[Cool-Beans]

Yesterday wouldn't be soon enough. Few things in life I hate more than winter - snow, ice, slush, cold...YUCK!

One of the kids even wrote in his assignment to write about "Signs of Winter" that one was mom saying, "I hate winter!"

 

[Southern4sure]

I voted other - since I live north of Tampa now. I love it here and everyone talkes about how humid it is. It is drier than what Im use to.

Giving a shout out to all the Tampa are Disers....

 

[gas station]

Giving a shout out to all the Tampa are Disers....

 

[icebrat001]

I live in Riverview, maybe I haven't encountered a gay area yet?

The bridge/freeway/crossway whatever you call it from Brandon to Tampa.


Yes, we did our research, although dear partner wanted to move here to be near parents. I knew of the heat and the humidity and rain prior to moving here, just because I was aware doesn't mean that I have to accept.

Maybe a bit farfetched on the entire state hating homosexuals, I guess I should say I don't feel comfortable being a homosexual in the state because I've heard some nasty things people have said about homosexuals that they have seen and I felt bothered.

The problems that i've had in grocery stores is purchasing ethnic foods such as some mexican, chinese, korean, japanese and indian food products, the stores in California had these items, here it has to be special ordered (spoke to the manager, I'm find with ordering items, just wasn't expecting it)

I wasn't saying that it was bright because it was no smog, it's bright because i'm not used to the sun, I am used to dark gloomy days. The sun it out every single day, not something I am used to. It's a good thing I have sun glasses isn't it.

 

[Virgo10]

I would love to move to Florida, but all I know are the tourist areas. Like, where do people actually live??

Seriously, though, which cities and towns are best to raise families in? I don't know anything about schools, etc. I remember driving from the airport to WDW and thinking "Where do people live? Where do they shop?!"

I would have a hard time getting used to going by counties. We don't even use county names in Massachusetts. Most people don't even know what county they live in.

Formally from MA here. I lived there my whole life up there until 2 years ago. Well it will be 2 years in November. I live in a REAL town. As a matter of fact it was even named after Auburndale, Massachusetts. We even have a rotary!!
Auburndale, FL

You get use to the county thing. I do have a map on my wall with all the counties on it though as I'm still learning which one is where.

We shop in town for regular stuff like food. There's two grocery stores and a super Wal Mart and lots of other little stores. For malls we go to Winter Haven, about 20 minutes from here or Lakeland, about 30 minutes.

Honestly, you sound just like I did when I first started thinking about moving to FL. Not 20 minutes from Disney are areas that are wide open. There are nice housing communities and there are farms. Then there are areas where there is just woods. I think that was the thing that surprised me the most when I first moved here. I guess I thought the entire state was a theme park.

The heat of the summer is wildly overrated. If I can get use to it, I would think anyone could. We have probably less than 10 days a summer that you'd call it brutally hot. I don't miss the changing seasons. Good grief, Spring was usually a day and a half up there! Mostly it was winter, winter winter, a Spring hiccup then bam into heat and humidity. Autumn was another blink of an eye. Then back to winter you go. Umm, no thanks.

It gets cold down here in the winter too but not for long! Palm trees and Christmas lights were just fine by me.

Sorry for the rambling but as a life long Massachusetts gal, I love it down here. The beauty of this state continues to amaze me just about every day.

 

[ilovepcot]

Hey VIRGO...you mentioned shopping in Lakeland. Have you been to LAKESIDE VILLAGE yet? Finally, something on my side of town and I love it!

 

[chrissyk]

You should've had a choice for those of us who already live there.


We've been in Virginia (DC area) since Memorial day and I will be home in FIVE days!!!

I can't wait to see the ocean when we cross the bridge to come home.

And I can't wait for rush how to be only 20 cars waiting at a stop-light .

Driven on the mainland lately?! Just kidding!! Welcome home

 

[Crankyshank]

There's lots of excellent Korean markets in Tampa. DH was stationed in South Korea, loves the food, and shopped there all of the time. In fact the last time we were in the area this past October he went specifically to get Korean food. Same with Mexican food.

I will agree about the Chinese and Indian food in the Tampa area. I've heard it's gotten a lot better though.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't like living in the area at all for many reasons. I'm a New Englander through and through and if I moved again outside of New England it would probably be a place that is less humid but still has winters. However I do have to give FL credit where credit is due and anyplace with a plethora of Super Targets can't be completely bad.

 

[caitycaity]

There's lots of excellent Korean markets in Tampa. DH was stationed in South Korea, loves the food, and shopped there all of the time. In fact the last time we were in the area this past October he went specifically to get Korean food. Same with Mexican food.

i was going to suggest this too. around here we have a lot of kosher/asian/latino grocery stores where you can go to buy specialty ethnic stuff. actually, i like it better than the "international" aisle of my local grocery because there is much more variety and the brands offered tend to be more authentic. don't know what it is like in florida having never lived there, but i have to imagine they have ethnic grocery stores there too.

 

[minniecarousel]

No way could I live in that humidity & heat!