Semi O.T.: Hey, Floridians -- Got Tips for a Newbie?

[tomcat]

Interesting you should mention Siesta Key. We did a West Coast Florida trip a couple of years ago, just to see if it might be where we wanted to be. So we visited sites in the Tampa and St. Pete areas -- two very different places, as we came to realize. We had already been to the Fort Myers area., so we didn't feel the need to repeat. Then we went down to Sarasota, which is an easy city to like. And we had heard about Siesta Key and how nice the sand is, and so forth. So we drove down there, past street after street filled with condos and motels and condos and restaurants and did I mention condos. And when we got to all that beautiful sand -- which was pretty nice, buy the way -- there were condos right on the edge of the beach. That pretty much did it for us.

We have neighbors who did a New Years Eve at Ormond Beach on the East Coast a couple of years ago. They visited one of the beaches nearby and saw everyone packing up and leaving at noon. They asked why and were told that in the afternoon, the sun goes behind the condos that abut the beach, leaving the whole beach in shade. I had never heard of such a thing, but I figure if there is any chance of the local buildings blocking the sum, no matter what time if day, that is not my idea of Beach Heaven.

I do want to try Honeymoon Key some day. We;'v drive by, but never had time to experience it. Our favorite beach? Bahia Honda, 2/3rds of the way to Key West. There are so few decent beaches in the keys that this one stands out, but it would, anyway because of its size, clear water, lack of crowds and island ambiance. A great experience.

 

[OviedoFLHusky]

Hi - I'm a little familiar with St. Lucie County, in that my parents have lived in St. Lucie West (PGA Village) for the past 10 years; and for the 10 years before that, they were CT snowbirds that "migrated" to a condo complex on Hutchinson Island in Stuart every winter.

They ended up choosing St. Lucie West over Stuart when they finally made the move, and they really love living where they do. Martin County was just a bit too expensive for them, compared to St. Lucie County (although Martin County seems to have better schools, lower unemployment, and better management than St. Lucie). This was their first-ever house with a pool, so it was, and still is, fun and exciting for them to be able to swim every day. They have good neighbors around their age (mid-80s). They have good, brand-new places to shop in nearby Tradition, as well as a fine hospital network in Martin Memorial. Being 30 minutes away from the beach still provides them with the beach breeze that keeps temperatures about 10 degrees lower than inland Florida temps. And my mom no longer gets depressed in the "winter": she's always happy, all the time.

That all being said -- there's not a heck of a lot to do there except shop, play golf, and go to the beach. If that's all you need, then it's fantastic.

 

[OviedoFLHusky]

Hi - I'm a little familiar with St. Lucie County, in that my parents have lived in St. Lucie West (PGA Village) for the past 10 years; and for the 10 years before that, they were CT snowbirds that "migrated" to a condo complex on Hutchinson Island in Stuart every winter.

They ended up choosing St. Lucie West over Stuart when they finally made the move, and they really love living where they do. Martin County was just a bit too expensive for them, compared to St. Lucie County (although Martin County seems to have better schools, lower unemployment, and better management than St. Lucie). This was their first-ever house with a pool, so it was, and still is, fun and exciting for them to be able to swim every day. They have good neighbors around their age (mid-80s). They have good, brand-new places to shop in nearby Tradition, as well as a fine hospital network in Martin Memorial. Being 30 minutes away from the beach still provides them with the beach breeze that keeps temperatures about 10 degrees lower than inland Florida temps. And my mom no longer gets depressed in the "winter": she's always happy, all the time.

That all being said -- there's not a heck of a lot to do there except shop, play golf, and go to the beach. If that's all you need, then it's fantastic.

 

[tomcat]

Thank you for the comments about St. Lucie County. My experience also has been that outside of golf and Florida tourist stuff, there's not a lot to do. We liked Stuart a lot. Fopr one thing, it's the only town in the area with a funky downtown. But you got less house for the buck there, and the houses that were not too expensive were old, small and rundown. Where we will be living, one town up in Fort Pierce, it's St. Lucie County but really looks more toward Vero Beach, which has its own scene going on, but still is pretty sleepy. I hope to find some sort of work to do -- it would be nice to have something to occupy some of my time. And then there's the beach......

 

[SCGamecock]

All of this talk about Florida and South Carolina makes me miss home (Charleston, SC) in the worst way.

P.S. I'm also a HUGE fan of Publix and didn't even realize how much I would miss it until I moved up north.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Not a lot of advice about Florida - but I found your comments about Siesta Key interesting, as my wife had a friend at church (where she worked) who owned a condo down in Siesta Key. They loved it, but sold it because finances were "tight" - all things being relative since it was a million dollar condo. - being "not rich", the wife and I would have loved to have seen the inside but we did drive by outside. Down where the spit of land was very, very narrow.

Although we considered Florida, we chose AZ because we don't care for the humidity and hurricane threats. Loving Tucson, but yes, missing the water. Unlike you, I don't so much want to do anything with it except look at it occasionally.

I moved 3 small dogs cross country when we came in 2011, not really a problem, although 2 of them were kept on very mild tranquilizers. It was winter, so the temperature was mild enough to grab a lunch / take a restroom stop and leave them in the rented van, and then had pet-friendly hotels nightly. Smooth, no problems.

Later moved my sister-in-law and her son cross country with their 3 cats. Again, winter time, cats actually stayed in cages in the van 24 / 7. I was only the driver on this one, I don't think this was the best way to do it, and I suffered due to a mild allergy. But they did arrive safe and are thriving (though elderly, now).

 

[uconnell]

We dove to Fla, with 2 Great Danes, in a Ford Diesel truck, a150 with a cap on the back. Got stuck for 2 days in a snowstorm in northern VA. Too cold to leave the dogs in the truck. If we had driven 45 minutes longer we would have driven out of the storm, it was really bad,about 18 inches. The hotels were running out of food. Thankfully a restaurant nearby we could walk to,barely.

 

[tomcat]

Not a lot of advice about Florida - but I found your comments about Siesta Key interesting, as my wife had a friend at church (where she worked) who owned a condo down in Siesta Key. They loved it, but sold it because finances were "tight" - all things being relative since it was a million dollar condo. - being "not rich", the wife and I would have loved to have seen the inside but we did drive by outside. Down where the spit of land was very, very narrow.

Although we considered Florida, we chose AZ because we don't care for the humidity and hurricane threats. Loving Tucson, but yes, missing the water. Unlike you, I don't so much want to do anything with it except look at it occasionally.

I moved 3 small dogs cross country when we came in 2011, not really a problem, although 2 of them were kept on very mild tranquilizers. It was winter, so the temperature was mild enough to grab a lunch / take a restroom stop and leave them in the rented van, and then had pet-friendly hotels nightly. Smooth, no problems.

Later moved my sister-in-law and her son cross country with their 3 cats. Again, winter time, cats actually stayed in cages in the van 24 / 7. I was only the driver on this one, I don't think this was the best way to do it, and I suffered due to a mild allergy. But they did arrive safe and are thriving (though elderly, now).

Yes, Amigo, but it is not the dogs I worry about at all. It is the four cats. My experience with cats goes waaaay beyond the threat of allergies. We did a round trip, PHX to San Antonio (yes, watching a UConn basketball game was involved). One of our cats was suffering from a serious eye disease and needed to be medicated every hour. So be brought her and her companion cat (do not even ask!). She was fine, but her companion meowed every 6 seconds (yes, I timed it) for the first five hours of the trip. Neither would eat, drink or excrete for the whole distance.

As a result, I believe that if someone has never driven with cats, they should drive at least five hours with at least two felines on the back seat. It will be good for you. The experience will smooth off whatever rough edges had been part of your life up til then. After that, you will be so willing to do anything else that you may even take up long-distance trucking as a hobby, because it will be calm and quiet compared to the cat experience. We may purchase a small RV (and try to figure out how to attach a generator so we can air-condition it -- just to get the cats across the country.

By the way, we are fans of your town, and will miss our occasional trips to Tucson, especially to the Museum of the Sonoran Desert, my favorite place in AZ.

 

[tomcat]

We dove to Fla, with 2 Great Danes, in a Ford Diesel truck, a150 with a cap on the back. Got stuck for 2 days in a snowstorm in northern VA. Too cold to leave the dogs in the truck. If we had driven 45 minutes longer we would have driven out of the storm, it was really bad,about 18 inches. The hotels were running out of food. Thankfully a restaurant nearby we could walk to,barely.

That's a great story. Fortunately, we will not hit snow and in addition, our largest dog is a 21 pound Dandie Dinmont Terrier (yes, there is such a breed).

 

[veryolddog]

Make sure you really want to live in Florida. My wife was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale. When we got together, I took her back to Santa Fe, and my ranch in NE NM. She will not return to Florida. After her folks passed and we inherited 3 properties 2 of which were on the water, we would not go back again. Horrible humidity and flat, flat, flat. Now, we summer in Montana, and winter in New Mexico and San Antonio, Texas. We spend most of our time outdoors, and, believe, me when I say this, she does not have to worry about her hair. Very big deal with the ladies. Get your self a RV and visit Montana in the summer and winter in Las Cruces, NM.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Yes, Amigo, but it is not the dogs I worry about at all. It is the four cats. My experience with cats goes waaaay beyond the threat of allergies. We did a round trip, PHX to San Antonio (yes, watching a UConn basketball game was involved). One of our cats was suffering from a serious eye disease and needed to be medicated every hour. So be brought her and her companion cat (do not even ask!). She was fine, but her companion meowed every 6 seconds (yes, I timed it) for the first five hours of the trip. Neither would eat, drink or excrete for the whole distance.

As a result, I believe that if someone has never driven with cats, they should drive at least five hours with at least two felines on the back seat. It will be good for you. The experience will smooth off whatever rough edges had been part of your life up til then. After that, you will be so willing to do anything else that you may even take up long-distance trucking as a hobby, because it will be calm and quiet compared to the cat experience. We may purchase a small RV (and try to figure out how to attach a generator so we can air-condition it -- just to get the cats across the country.

By the way, we are fans of your town, and will miss our occasional trips to Tucson, especially to the Museum of the Sonoran Desert, my favorite place in AZ.

My wife has two Siamese. For the first few months we had them we couldn't go anywhere. They squawked so much in the car that I refused to travel with them. Then my wife got a calming spray from the vet. It was expensive and my response was "un huh, bet it doesn't work." I was wrong. It works well and now we can have them in the car for hours with hardly a meow. A couple of days on Prozac works too. For the cats, not the humans.

 

[UcMiami]

Lived in Coconut Grove for 10 years and loved it - what I really liked about the area around Miami was that in the winter the temperature bands always showed a circle around Miami that was ten degrees warmer than the rest of the state and in the summer the same circle that was 10 degrees cooler. Summer is still HOT and the big difference is that it just doesn't cool off when the sun goes down - winter is great, but you may want to plan a few escapes north during July/August.

Property taxes are high and are based solely on purchase price, so people who have owned for 20 or 30 years pay significantly less than those who have just bought - taxes on identical homes on the same street can be different by 2x or even 3x because of when the house was bought. And homeowners insurance fluctuates based on how long since the last hurricane, and is much higher than most places not prone to significant natural disasters - my insurance doubled after a category one hurricane hit Miami with significant destruction (even though my house escaped any damaged.) After three years it came down significantly and companies that had cut and run starting coming back into the marketplace again.

The whole state of FL is in significant danger from rising sea levels - areas that were not prone to flooding even 20 years ago are seeing occasional high tide flooding and it isn't going to get better. Also, it is about ten years since the last hurricane hit the east coast so you are 'on borrowed time' on that score - ten years is a long time between storms. The aquifer that supplies most of the water for florida is great, but very fragile and at some point in the future if sea levels rise just a bit more may start to get tainted with salt water. While the governor has banned the use of the term climate change in official state documents, local officials are very aware of it as they are working to raise the height of roads and sea walls to deal with the flooding that has already started. Because there are so many little watercourses throughout most communities in florida, it is a good idea to be aware of where you are in relation to them - it is not just the beach communities that get affected by storm surge - every one of those little waterways will rise too - a ten foot surge in front of a big storm will mean that quaint little stream in the back yard has suddenly become a large lake lapping at your back door. (You saw that kind of thing in NJ and on Long Island a few years ago.) FYI - you should be able to get the actual height above sea level for any property in FL and it is a nice thing to know. I was on a few square mile part of the east coast that rose up above 15 ft - I believe it was the only area east of route 1 and south of Jacksonville that is not designated a flood area - I referred to my street as Mount Matilda! and I was able to look down over all the rest of Miami and Broward counties from my 'summit' (figuratively speaking!.)

 

[tomcat]

There is an interactive map available fom NOAA that projects what flood areas would e for Cat 1 through 5 storms anywhere on the East Coast.It is up to date as of last year, I think. No one -- and I mean no one -- should move anywhere in Florida without consulting it. Believe me, we did.

http://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/St...x.html?appid=b1a20ab5eec149058bafc059635a82ee