[Jammie]

http://www.city-data.com/album/album...-Oklahoma.html

Since I am still having problems with taking pics from the internet and putting them in my photobucket, I just wanted to share this link. We don't have any pics of OKC and the CD site does have several pics so those of us who have never been there can get an idea of some of the areas.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

Pensacola is a nice place. One of our sons was stationed there at the Air Station and we visited there. We stayed out on Santa Rosa Island. I found the most shells ever there. Pensacola has a downtown area that is unique and very historical. We went out to an old fort at the end of the island.

You don't have long to go as far as storms go. Isn't November the last month of hurricane season?

Hi, Peggyd. Yes, things start to improve as we move into October and some possible cold fronts from the North push away the storms. But we had a monster some years ago called Opal that hit the second week in October.
By November the water in the Gulf is cooling off and that robs the storms of their energy.

Well, Santa Rosa Island is another world from downtown Pensacola. There are a few historic rennovations going on here, but Pensacola is rather rundown. We have a sewage plant right on the waterfront and a big cement plant at the port that fouls the air. I have a real love/hate relationship with this place. We have lots of poor people on welfare in the "inner city" area. Crime is high and our city and county officials have been in and out of prison or hot water too many times to mention.

The barrier island and the beach is another world. Pensacola is controlled by a few old families who dictate everything. We have some good medical here
--that is a saving grace.

To our East is Fort Walton, Navarre and Destin--very progressive and upscale. To our West is Gulf Shores, Perdido Key, and Fair Hope--ditto. Pensacola is really an island of old core urbanism between two pearls. I have heard it referred to as a "turd" on a string of beachfront pearls. We are not really on the Gulf at all. There is a barrier Island and Santa Rosa Sound and then another land mass--Gulf Breeze--before you get to a rather polluted bay that the city is on.

But I have met some wonderful people here. Still, am looking forward to leaving.

[Synopsis]

I've heard that the Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach area is the best part of Florida, and the most beautiful. I do know that it's not generally as humid as South Florida, and the beaches are supposed to be superb. It also has seasons, at least somewhat.

[ectanner]

Kurt, my prayers are with you during storm season. You have certainly had your share of beatings in that area. I still have a home in Destin and quite frankly am tired of boarding up, cleaning up and building up...only to have my insurance leave. I have been in Louisville (my birth home) for a year now and must say I am enjoying the break from the storm stress.
I'm looking forward to trying Oklahoma for a change of pace and some nice people.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by ectanner

Kurt, my prayers are with you during storm season. You have certainly had your share of beatings in that area. I still have a home in Destin and quite frankly am tired of boarding up, cleaning up and building up...only to have my insurance leave. I have been in Louisville (my birth home) for a year now and must say I am enjoying the break from the storm stress.
I'm looking forward to trying Oklahoma for a change of pace and some nice people.

Well, I feel sorta bad calling Pensacola proper a horse apple! Really, I meant to say that the beaches are a far cry from the city itself--which is very old and trying desparately to revive itself by moving its sewer plant away from the water. And we have had a rash of political corruption lately. But there is hope for the city. It will just be a long time acoming. I am not speaking for the suburban areas, which are really very nice. It is just sad to see an old town with so much potential move along so slowly. It is not a bad place to live, but don't expect to be feeling ocean breezes or digging your tootsies in surgar white sand unless you live out on the beach--and that is about 10 miles out from the city itself.

And every other city on the Gulf from Fair Hope, Alabama, and eastwards to Panama City is really a paradise of sun and surf compared to old Pensacola--which does have its charms--but they need some progressive leadership and a tax base here. We have really lost our port business for the most part to Mobile. Large areas of the inner city are blighted housing, but there is some rennovation going on in East Hill and North Hill. Bayou Texar has nice homes on it but it is too polluted to swim in.

Well, this is not supposed to be a thread on Pensacola, but I just wanted to say that Pensacola needs help. Sometimes people think that everything on the coast is hunky dory and all beach and sun. There are lots of poor folks here despite the nice beaches--they live in an old port town and commute to jobs in the resort areas--they can't afford to live there.

The naval base is really a world on to itself--it is not Pensacola proper.

One reason I have a place on the water in Oklahoma is because I could never, ever afford one here. Anything on or near the beach has become a millionaire's playground--and you better be one several times over. There is absolutely nothing on or with canal access to the water between here and Grand Island, Louisiana, that the average person can afford. That is a fact of life. Anything south of the I-10 cooridor has been designated a high risk area by the insurance companies--hurricanes--and insurance rates have tripled and more. Many on fixed incomes are leaving for less expensive destinations. Also,the traffic down here is intense. Boomers are still moving in. You can get cheaper digs inland and away from the surf--but it is hot as blazes inland and row on row of scrub pine and little real scenery--but some like it that way. It is certainly warmer than up North.

Florida has not state income tax and that does appeal to some. But taxes and housing are very expensive. Real estate prices have been coming down some in the inland areas. But anything on or with easy access to the water is and will remain beyond most people's financial reach.

[peggydavis]

Florida is a great place to visit but I prefer to live in Oklahoma. We drove from the island to the base every day, and we did notice a lot of poorer looking areas. Further west, the devastation from hurricane Katrina was mind boggling. I love the ocean, but we can drive down for a vacation every once in a while. I really like Destin too, with the emerald water.

Oklahoma does have a lot of lakes, and some of them are very big. The good thing about Oklahoma is you can find just about any style of living here.

We do need some pictures of Oklahoma City here. Here are some that I took when I was learning how to use my camera.

This was taken from a speeding vehicle on I-35. This is one of the dome building we have around town. This building narrowly escaped the 1999 tornado. Behind it you can see some of the new houses that replaced the houses destroyed by the tornado.





This is a typical new neighborhood in Deer Creek. This is a about $300K area.





We have to tie our trees up to fence posts so they won't get away.




This neighborhood in Edmond is about 10 years old. Note the larger trees. This is about a $175K area.





Here is our state capital building. We just recently completed adding the dome. On the very top is the Sentinel.



I will try to take some other photos of OKC and metro area soon, getting some of the Heritage Hills and other great neighborhoods next time.

[Nameless]

Just an idea of what it looks like behind my house.







We used to have a fence back there but it got blown down in a storm a couple years ago and we decided to let it stay open. We've got a drop like 10 feet to a creek down there and you can see up the other side in this pic.








A few more fall colors on a bush, God knows how with these temps we've seen.


So, for the record I live in west OKC and contrary to popular belief we do have trees. Not as much as the east side I'll say, but take a drive around the Western Oaks area and you'll change your tune. I was driving to a friends house in the Stonebridge addition which is on the north shore of Lake Overholser, very nice and treed. Beautiful area.

[Jammie]

Flickr: Search

Peggy and Nameless, those pics are beautiful!!! (picture addict smiling again.) I already know that Tulsa and eastern OK are gorgeous, but I had always pictured the area further west as more barren and not very lush. Wrong again. It looks like there are beautiful areas in OKC, too.

The link above was an area that Happytown had mentioned that interested us. I wasn't able to find many pics of it, but Peggy guided me to them and I thought it'd be nice to share them.

Ectanner, I have the feeling you may enjoy OK.

[rugratref]

LOVE everyone's pictures! I'm in Heaven looking at them.

Kurt, FINALLY! Someone who knows EXACTLY how I feel! We lived in Pace, Florida for 4 yrs...and we liked it there. BUT, it wasn't Oklahoma. I grew up in Oklahoma and I will always LOVE Oklahoma. I've had people look at me like I'm nuts because I'd trade those Florida beaches for a lake home in OK any old day! And by the way, you totally nailed life in Pensacola...perfect discription. Now, we're living in South Carolina and I STILL miss Oklahoma...once you've lived there, no matter where you go, you'll always want to move back.

I need to dig out some of my Oklahoma pics...have a few we took at Hugo Lake while we were there.

[peggydavis]

Nice pics, Nameless. You are so right about the Overholser area. So many nice areas of OKC metro are overlooked, because everyone wants to live in Edmond. I just can't understand that. Parts of PC West and PC original are so nice with big trees. Maybe just not many homes are for sale there? If I were to live in the metro area again, I would live either near Lake Overholser (can have plants and animals) or right in downtown OKC (just so cool and vibrant).