My thoughts so far on living in Fort Myers area (Orlando: rental, car insurance) - Lee County - Page 4 - City-Data Forum

Shellsandwater · 05-26-2011, 10:20 PM

Congrats... I'm thrilled you love this area. I've lived here for 15 years and cannot imagine living anywhere else. I ride my bike 20 miles a week and its getting easier to add more miles. Just have to ride early morning or late afternoon. My AC is now set at 82 and no sweating at that temp anymore. Still open the house at night till around 10 or 11 a.m...then kick it on again. Love living close to the beach...that's why I moved here and take advantage of it every chance I get. I could go on and on but I will spare everyone..... Welcome to paradise !

TerraDown · 09-05-2012, 09:39 AM

I love it here too. Great weather, great friendships. Great gardens! I butterfly garden, and love strange plants. If you like going to nurseries around here, you sure can find some strange and rare plants. Riverland Nursery has some wonderful natives, and trumpetflowers has some fantastic flowering tree brugmansia.
Between a Sunday late morning spent at The Butterfly Estates for down-town brunch and lovely view, and the abundance of parks and recreation, and of course, the nurseries and gardens, I think I've found paradise!

Hemidancer · 09-05-2012, 10:07 AM

I have to agree with you on everything, Pinda, except the driving - I come from Boston, and most recently the greater Washington DC area, and the drivers up in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas are FAR worse than down here. As for the sun and the weather - yes, yes, YES! I also suffer from SAD and the winters up north, even in the Mid-Atlantic, just became too much for me. I was tired of being depressed for 5 months out of the year. For the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to winter, and it is such a nice feeling. There really isn't anything that I have found so far that I do not like about living in this area. Well, maybe one thing - it seems like there are a LOT of people who smoke down here. Up north, the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the last 10 years - I'm beginning to think they all left and moved to Florida.

rikoshaprl · 09-06-2012, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hemidancer

I have to agree with you on everything, Pinda, except the driving - I come from Boston, and most recently the greater Washington DC area, and the drivers up in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas are FAR worse than down here. As for the sun and the weather - yes, yes, YES! I also suffer from SAD and the winters up north, even in the Mid-Atlantic, just became too much for me. I was tired of being depressed for 5 months out of the year. For the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to winter, and it is such a nice feeling. There really isn't anything that I have found so far that I do not like about living in this area. Well, maybe one thing - it seems like there are a LOT of people who smoke down here. Up north, the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the last 10 years - I'm beginning to think they all left and moved to Florida.

Could be that it is cheaper to smoke down here. Also the Europeans here smoke more than Americans.

Samiamnh · 09-06-2012, 07:14 AM

Equal......where are you???.......These people are actually happy.I think they need you to set them straight.

Twobeach · 09-07-2012, 01:12 AM

good ta hear!

pinda · 09-11-2012, 07:27 PM

2 Year Anniversary, Yeah!

I am still loving Florida and appreciate the beautiful weather, the beauty of all the green and I am really loving my little wildlife friends in my backyard. When I go out to get my dose of sunshine, I love watching the birds, turtles, lizards and squirrels, even the black snakes.

I don't want to live anywhere else either. I am so happy to see people so happy here too as I almost didn't move here because of so many negative posts. Everyone should express what they think, positive and negative.

I do find you have to watch out for the other guy even more down here while driving more but I can deal with that. Long traffic lights, oh well.

We are making more friends and doing more fun things. The first year we spent so much time getting to know the area and looking for a home. We have been in our home for just over 1 year and I am soooooo happy with our area and home. I felt as though God saved this home just for us. When I walked in I even teared up a little bit because I knew it was our home.

I don't know if anyone remembers me saying how much I wanted to move to Texas. I think Texas is a wonderful place and I loved the people there but I really love it here and I get more sunshine here than where I was looking in Texas.

I think the people are very nice here too. According to many posts that I read prior to coming here, I thought people were going to be rude but I don't see that as a whole. Most people I meet love it here and are very, very nice.

I found a great church and my husband plays on 2 softball teams, one senior league with a bunch of snowbirds and the church team. He gets to play for most of the year here as opposed to Wisconsin's three or four months.

I am still so very grateful that I have the opportunity to live here.

Pinda

AnnieA · 09-13-2012, 11:36 AM

Nice to hear the positive things from people who appreciate the good things and don't dwell much on the not so good.....LOL. Everyplace has its pros and cons.

I am a native Floridian and a much senior citizen. Yes, sometimes I want to live somewhere else and it is a much different Florida from where I grew up but, Florida has many good things going for it. I appreciate that and don't sweat the other stuff.

I have family in Cape Coral, family in Lake Mary, family in panhandle Florida and family in St. Augustine/Jax and I currently live in Central Fl so, I have been there and am fairly knowledgeable of most of Fl. It's not a bad place, just not for everyone. My DH is from PA and suffers from SAD. He says they would have to drag him out of Fl, kicking and screaming......LOL. He is a fairskinned, redhead so he spends a lot of time indoors but, he's happy.

pinda · 09-13-2012, 06:50 PM

I now feel the same way. You would have to take me away kicking and screaming.

My doctor in Wisconsin did warned me that moving to Florida would not totally cure me but he felt it would help a lot, which as you can see from my posts, it has helped my Seasonal Affective Disorder SAD tremendously but I still struggle with some health issues.

A very caring person on this forum, lovingly pushed me into seeing a specialist because from some of the symptoms that I described to her in private messages sounded like I needed a certain specialist. Because of her, I was finally diagnosed and am now being treated. Ten long years of trying to figure out what was wrong with me and it really could have been a simple test.

The sunshine has given me a big part of my life back but I still need to deal with this other illness now, as many of us do.

This forum has been amazing for me. I appreciate that people care about each other so much. As I mentioned many times, I had to rely on forums to help decide where to move as I could only visit for short periods of time. That actually sounds a bit crazy to me but how else do you choose where to move. Chris helped in my decision to look into Estero. Nice little town.

hiknapster · 09-14-2012, 10:40 AM

Oh, hugs to you Pinda. It is true that there are a lot of very nice helpful folks on CD.

I think that even if you don't have SAD, good weather will brighten your move. I also think that the Midwest can be really gloomy, for sure.

Estero is a nice area. I use to work there and I really liked it. The location is nice, right between Naples and Fort Myers. It is a short ride to Bonita Beach or you can go over to Fort Myers Beach, even down to the Naples beaches if you like. I thought the people there were incredibly nice, too, and crime is very light, especially compared to Fort Myers and Lehigh!