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You will notice them putting out cigarettes right before walking into stores and a lot of times you have to walk by them while they are standing right by the entrances....
A lot of times at stop lights, while waiting in my car for the light to change, the people in the other cars around me would all have their cigarettes hanging out their window...
In spite of all of the California regulations surrounding smoking, we still get this here. Most typical are the employees on break outside the grocery store, who sit outside just barely away from the entrance, but where customers have really no choice but to walk past.
My husband has teased me about having "x-ray smelling" because I can sense a cigarette hanging out of a car window within a 100-yard radius from us when we're driving...that's when I switch the A/C to Recirc with lightning-fast reflexes.
And finally, there's our next door neighbor. He was a heavy smoker until he lost part of a lung to cancer a few years back. When he quit, we were finally able to keep our windows open in the evenings to cool the house. Unfortunately (for us), his wife is vacationing out of town right now, so he and his medical caretaker (I'm not kidding) have been sitting outside in the evenings enjoying a few smokes...while we're scrambling to close-up before the stench wafts into our house.
Admittedly, I'm probably in the top 1% of most offended by cigarette smoke, so yeah, adding more certainly wouldn't be an improvement for me. Boo!
Dependability of many contractors does depend on surfing conditions! I don't find the stores, restaurants ect.. slow like other southern states though. Shopping is definitely limited unless you drive to Orlando. The people are great though. Super friendly, and generally easy going. I think you'll find the positives far out weigh the negatives. Good luck with your move
In spite of all of the California regulations surrounding smoking, we still get this here. Most typical are the employees on break outside the grocery store, who sit outside just barely away from the entrance, but where customers have really no choice but to walk past.
My husband has teased me about having "x-ray smelling" because I can sense a cigarette hanging out of a car window within a 100-yard radius from us when we're driving...that's when I switch the A/C to Recirc with lightning-fast reflexes.
And finally, there's our next door neighbor. He was a heavy smoker until he lost part of a lung to cancer a few years back. When he quit, we were finally able to keep our windows open in the evenings to cool the house. Unfortunately (for us), his wife is vacationing out of town right now, so he and his medical caretaker (I'm not kidding) have been sitting outside in the evenings enjoying a few smokes...while we're scrambling to close-up before the stench wafts into our house.
Admittedly, I'm probably in the top 1% of most offended by cigarette smoke, so yeah, adding more certainly wouldn't be an improvement for me. Boo!
Funny... I think I'm up there in the top 1% with you.
I just wanted to mention it because the smoking seems kind of excessive around the area...a lot more than anyplace I have seen. Of course, smoking is everywhere but it just seems there is a more "cavalier" attitude about it here.
I've worked at a couple of places and at both places I would be part of the very few in the break room because everybody was outside in the smoking area...smoking their cigarettes or their e-cigarettes.
Another thing, my daughter went to Merritt Island high school. She would ride her bike to school. After school, a very large amount of students would be standing off of campus (around the McDonalds mostly) and be smoking their cigarettes. She always had to walk her bike through the smoke, gagging the whole way because she wasn't able to pedal her bike through the crowd and didn't want to go on the busy road. School campuses don't allow smoking so I'm sure those kids were "hankering" for their fix and were desperate for the school day to end.
Other culture shocks may be that traffic isn't so bad and if you drive out by the St. John's river or out at the Kennedy Space Center area you will see alligators hanging out. Also there are these white birds with long beaks called white Ibis that hang out in groups and they like to walk around in people's yards eating bugs out of the grass. My kids got a kick out of seeing them when we first moved to the area.
My husband and I moved to NE Palm Bay (from San Diego) in June 2015. We love the greenery, the perfect weather in the winter, cheaper home prices, friendlier people. San Diego is not as hard as LA, but it's still more laid back and friendly here on average than anywhere near cities in California. One thing I noticed is that when you need to turn right onto a road from say a parking lot, and there's a line of traffic in the lane you need to turn into, 90% of people will let you in, as opposed to (hopefully) 5% of people letting you in in So Cal.
Also, here in FL, while you're going straight down a road and someone wants to turn left in front of you--I'm not talking about someone driving in the same direction as you and wants to turn left off the road, but someone who wants to turn left from the opposite side of the street as you to turn down a road, or to turn left in front of you from a side road to the opposite side of your street. It is like first come first serve. Keep your eyes open when driving.
Also, people don't honk here, ever. Although in the winter, you will hear some honks because the people up north come down, and I lived in NY for one summer and I came back home to California and was honking at everyone. But yeah, even when a light turns green people won't go because they're not paying attention or whatever, and no one will honk at them. I mean, really, don't you want to go when it turns green? I'm definitely too impatient to live here, but my patience is growing because what can I do? Not much, except I will be one of the few people honking if you don't go at a green light, lol.
Which reminds me, in the winter, the population grows, so parking lots, stores, roads are more crowded. But Brevard county is not too populated anyway, so it's not a huge deal, you'll just notice the difference.
There's still a bit of rush hour traffic here, but it is NOTHING compared to the 405! So driving will be a lot more relaxing, especially if you can grow some patience for others who are just not in a rush.
Smoking. Yes, it does seem that a higher percentage of people smoke here than in Southern California, but there are less people, so it seems to be about the same number of people smoking, so I don't think you'll notice a HUGE difference there. I am also part of the 1% of people most aggravated by cigarette smoke. It is literally one of my top 5 pet peeves. And yes, it does seem like more people smoke too close to entrances of stores/restaurants and such here. And when people litter their cigarettes while driving it makes my blood boil, but what can you do? I've thought of lots of ideas, like if I'm at a stop light and the person in front of me throws their cigarette on the ground, I can go run and pick it up and hand it to them and say "I think you dropped this." LOL! But I've never actually done that. One time I was at a stop light and the lady who was stopped next to me flung her cigarette over the front my car! Sometimes I think God is playing a big joke on me, or He's trying to help me learn patience with this.
Food. Yes, Mexican food. You will not find good Mexican food. I mean, you will find OK Mexican food, but not the kind you crave. I also miss a bunch of other restaurants that I would frequent in So Cal that are not here in FL. I just make sure I get it when I visit my family in California, which I'm about to go do in two weeks, yay! I mean, really, eating at the food places I miss is more exciting to me than visiting my family.
There is no Santana's, Alberto's, Roberto's joints or anything like that. There is a place in Melbourne where we have gotten something close. It is actually a mini market where they sell meat and mexican candy, etc, and they have a food truck outside. It is called La Preferida on the corner of Aurora Rd and Croton Rd.
A fun place we went to for Cinco De Mayo was Cantina Dos Amigos in Indialantic. The mexican food was pretty good there, restaurant style, not joint style.
But there is food here that you really don't find in California. Cuban and Jamaican. I'm not really into that but, at least it's something different if you like that. Sonny's BBQ is my favorite BBQ place and it is a chain so there are multiple locations. I love their pulled pork with sweet BBQ sauce! yum!
The other thing that is strange is no street parking almost anywhere. There are "right of ways" of grass on the sides of the street which sometimes you can park on, sometimes you can't, depending on where you are. Most people don't really park on the right of ways unless maybe visiting a friend's house or something. The roads are only as wide as the lanes, so there is no room to even stop for a minute. Delivery trucks just stop right in the driving lane to deliver packages, etc to people's houses. And you will always experience lawn maintenance vehicles parked in the lane too--since there is so much grass here, there are lawn maintenance people galore!
There are no hills or mountains here, and the ocean water is almost level with the ground, so there are no cliffs or ocean views or anything like that here. I miss that for sure. The A1A along the beach does not have the ocean views like the Pacific Coast Highway (1) in California. There are usually big bushes of sea grape plants all along between the sand and the street/buildings.
The heat and humidity is a bit much here (mostly the humidity). We get very overwhelmed and kind of experience cabin fever in the summer because you literally cannot do anything outside without breaking a sweat including walking from your front door to your car or vice versa. So I have just had to accept the idea that I'm going to sweat if I go outside between May-Oct. The rest of the months are actually pretty nice. Dec, Jan, and Feb are wonderful, the weather is kind of like the perfect days in So Cal. But we really hated the dry spells that California has (Santa Anas) and like the fact that there is more humidity here, but in the summer it's just so extreme. It also rains all summer and doesn't rain much at all in the winter. Christmas definitely does not feel like Christmas here, but ironically in my lifetime of 33 years I think I've only experienced one or two cold Christmas days in California too, so that should not be a huge shock or downer for you there.
We love the fact that the ocean water is warm here. You really could go in the water all year round. The coldest water day here is the warmest the water gets in So Cal. The water is almost too hot here in the summer that it's not very refreshing! It's like taking a warm bath on a hot and humid day, so spring and fall are my favorite times to go to the beach and get in the water. Winter is great for walks down the beach.
I guess that's it for now. I like to say I'm living the simple life in Florida now. Life does seems simpler since we've moved here. Just go with the flow.
i live in Orlando, but i love the space coast . Definitely more laid back, less traffic, quiet beaches.
salt air. rents are lower and ppl are less rushed. Ive been to south cal...yikes. its been ruined dont you think?
your mind body and soul will thank you for leaving . enjoy the space coast!
Hate to be negative but you will not find a decent place to eat around this area. One big downfall for this area. The food sucks!!!!!
Have you tried the Fat Snook in Cocoa Beach? (Pricey and crowded for a reason, bring $$$$)
Cocoa Village has several great places as mentioned.
Nippon Thai for great Sushi and authentic Thai food in Satallite beach (my absolute favorite for this type of food)
Florida Seafood in Cocoa beach for always fresh fish and great shrimp.
Sands Bar for great atmosphere and amazing tacos (my favorite are the shrimp tacos).
Simply Deicious for great breakfast (stuffed French toast with cream cheese and apples, yum)
Robertos in Cocoa Beach for good Cuban style food (love the madoros and eggs with cheese)
Blueberry Muffin in Indialantic Beach for nice breakfast, muffins and fresh tasty eggs.
I can go on but there are too many great places to eat in Brevard.
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