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January 24, 2005
Florida
Despite my stress about asking for time off from work to go, our timing for our trip to FL couldn't have been much better--we eluded the frigid temperatures and snowstorm that hit the Northeast this past weekend and got to enjoy the warm sunny weather of southern Florida. Adam's grandfather and his girlfriend live in a part of FL known for its significant elderly population and it's always odd going down there and seeing all the gated communities with their fountain festooned entrances and artificial lakes. Adam's grandfather and his girlfriend live in one of these gated communities on a house whose back faces an artificial lake and front faces a street where every house looks almost exactly the same and it always strikes me as weird that they turn on the alarm everytime they leave the house--I honestly don't know what they or any residents in this part of FL have to be afraid of but between the year-round warm weather and all the gated communities in FL, residents do seem to be living in something of a bubble whose logic may strike people like me as foreign.
This aside, we did enjoy our time there. We were, of course, pretty happy we missed all the snow and cold weather and while we didn't go to Miami as I had originally hoped, we did go to cool places like here and here. One thing I like about FL besides the warm weather are the variety of birds--there are a lot of wetlands and water bodies (both natural and artificial) which, along with the warm weather, attract a lot of waterfowl which you don't see in the Northeast. I love birds so it was a treat to see egrets, for example, nearly every time we left the house. All in all, a pretty good trip, though next time we return to FL I would like to see more of the state.
Posted by Jennifer at January 24, 2005 10:35 PM