NEW FLORIDA RESIDENT BLOG

Welcome to Paradise. When I first came to Florida, I avoided lakes altogether.  I was freaked out about alligators, thought lakes were "buggy" and didn't own a pontoon boat :-D so, I focused on the ocean.  Fun.  But after our son was born EVERYTHING was back on the table, including lakes. It did take a minute to figure out that you really shouldn't compare Lakes and the Ocean, for us, one cannot replace the other.  But, both can compliment one another.  We swim or dive off docks at lakes, good times, and also wakeboard and wake skate.  Our son even took the wheels off his skateboard and has ridden that around several lakes in Florida and Georgia.  Plus we like to swim in Lagoons and Slough(s) when the mood strikes (my next post will probably be explaining what a slough is).  Also, on the way to open ocean we often wakeboard or wake surf behind our boat in the inter-coastal (I will not explain what the inter-coastal is because, I have tried and by the time I get to Bro

Welcome to Paradise. Our son, now in third grade loves a few action sports and art.  It's a cool combo and it all keeps him healthy and focused on academics.  He is even interested in art history and has made me tell him the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Heist more times than I can count.  (It's fun being a parent to an inquisitive kid.) But in all honesty, I don't know much at all about Rodin, the sculptor. Rocky asked me a few questions about this guy and I made a mental note to do some research this week.  But I didn't really need to, because yesterday, Rocky passed me going 20 miles an hour (sideways) with his hand on his chin and I immediately knew why we were talking about a Sculptor that lived a 100 years ago.      The Thinker.... So yes, I think the schools in Florida are pretty great! Home Search

Welcome to paradise. When I was a young man, I was terrifically injured while training with the Army at Ft. Rucker, Alabama.  During my medical assessment, my doctor wanted to know if I knew who the President of the United States was because, there was apparently concern about a brain injury.  I was a little panicked for a second because I could picture the guy but, his name escaped my grasp.  Eventually, I got the name and pretended I knew it all along. I was reminded of this episode when the last hurricane rolled through South West Florida.  Our family does not evacuate, in fact we are more likely to go to the beach during the storm but, this year my son wanted to surf.  We spent an afternoon getting tossed around in the Gulf of Mexico.  I took a few hard slams in fact, I think everyone there did.   I don't really have a memory of getting out of the water.  I remember finding my son (thrilling) and not being able to remember the Presidents' name (concerning).  I made sure tha