Both my brothers despise Florida. For them it is a land of the old and/or the misdirected. Materialism reigns supreme in this chain store filled strip mall hellhole. They want nothing to do with it, though both acknowledge the day will come when they have to board a plane to the sunshine state to introduce their tots to Mickey.

I don’t completely disagree. It seems there are three basic activities in Florida: beach time, shopping, and eating. Luckily, I enjoy all three, but I can’t imagine full time residency. Partly because of my fairest of them all complexion-I’d surely contract skin cancer in the first 12 months, but also because once you start taking the warm sunny days for granted, not much else is happening here. Even the topography is boring. After 3 months, I’d give my right arm for a hill to hike.

Still, I appreciate the value Florida affords me for a short term hiatus from northern winter. I’ll take 80 degrees and sunny on a January day over 8 degrees and blowing snow (reported by my weather app just for back home). Call me a snowbird if you must (I’ve been called worse) but remember Florida, I’m defending you in this post!

To all the haters out there (namely my 2 brothers). I say throw another log on the fire suckers because you are facing eight more weeks of winter, and I’m “working” outside and barefoot.

Update: in 2017 I bought a house and officially became a resident of the sunshine state. My new home has it’s issues and I do go through buckets of sunblock but still totally worth it.