need advice about West Palm Beach area (Jacksonville, Jupiter: private schools, tornado)

[westsidegirl]

We are thinking of making a move from the cold overcast city of Minneapolis to the West Palm Beach area. We have 4 children so we would naturally be interested in finding a family community with great schools. Do most people to public or private? I've read about Jupiter and Wellington? What do you think of those areas? My husband is an urgent care doc and would want to be in a busy clinic.

Could someone tell me about the rain. It seems like you get alot. Does it last all day? I'm needing to get in a sunnier environment so I would want to know how often it rains?

Also, what are the summers like? How do you cope with the heat? Is it really humid or dry? Do the kids play their sports inside or outside?

I would love any advice or info from someone who lives there with kids, good or bad. Thanks so much.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by westsidegirl

We are thinking of making a move from the cold overcast city of Minneapolis to the West Palm Beach area. We have 4 children so we would naturally be interested in finding a family community with great schools. Do most people to public or private? I've read about Jupiter and Wellington? What do you think of those areas? My husband is an urgent care doc and would want to be in a busy clinic.

Could someone tell me about the rain. It seems like you get alot. Does it last all day? I'm needing to get in a sunnier environment so I would want to know how often it rains?

Also, what are the summers like? How do you cope with the heat? Is it really humid or dry? Do the kids play their sports inside or outside?

I would love any advice or info from someone who lives there with kids, good or bad. Thanks so much.

You can't go wrong with either Wellington or Jupiter, Wellington has it's own hospital and a fairly large adjacent medical complex. The public school systems are noted for being good in both Wellington and Jupiter, private schools are all over Palm Beach County, some close to Wellington, The Kings Academy, Wellington Christian School and a few others.. If you have $15-25K/year per child to afford Private, you would want to go that route.

Wellington in my opinion is the best area for people with families, the amenities and lifestyle are well suited it for it.

Our wet season is summertime, no it doesn't rain all the time, we get afternoon downpours and thunderstorms, occasionally we might get a stationary front that just sits and churns out lot's of rain, this is very rare.

The summers here are not as bad as people perceive, yes it get's hot and humid. PB County has a good location for weather and even inland as far as Wellington, the ocean breeze is still evident, the Atlantic Gulf Stream gives us a big advantage.

Kids play sports, does not stop them. Just have to drink plenty of water and know when to take a break. It's never dry here, only time you see low humidity is during the winter months, when it will even rain less. It's probably the most desirable time of year to be living here.

Wellington is completely self-sufficient, wasn't that way years ago there was nothing here. Within the past 5 years or so, so much has been built here that you really don't need to drive anywhere to find things.

[westsidegirl]

Thanks alot. I appreciate the info. I was surprised to learn that West Palm Beach is one of the rainiest areas in the country. I don't know if I could deal with that. Any more feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[5FLgirls]

Hi Westsidegirl -- I responded to you on the OC forum and smiled when I saw your post. I moved from Jupiter to OC last year.

THX1138 has made some valid points. You can't go wrong between Wellington or Jupiter. I don't have much experience with Wellington because when I first moved to Florida - it was barely a town. But now lots of people are living there and loving it. There are tons of family activities, good schools and a great mall.

We loved the location of Jupiter for my husband's job, distance to WPB, and location to the ocean.

Does it rain a lot? Yep--during the summer but they're only short 1/2 hour showers most of the time and the rain is warm, not cold and you can usually continue to stay outside. My first comment on moving to CA was that the rain was cold! It is sunnier in CA than FL...FL has more clouds for some reason. But it's really nice when it's a balmy 79 in February and it goes down to high 60s at night and you don't need a jacket. You don't get that kind of warmth in CA in the winter.

I guess I have to mention hurricanes - which are an inconvenience (but, hey, we have earthquakes in CA!).

The heat is not as comfortable as stated but you get used to it. Kids spend short periods of time outside during the summer and drink lots of water. I think it's probably more unbearable for us adults than the kids.

If you want to continue your active lifestyle of running, etc. that you have in Minneapolis, I would recommend that you check out the Jacksonville forum. We also lived there and I found it to be much more family friendlier than Palm Beach County. The weather is cooler and you get an actual change of seasons that you don't get in south FL. Your husband should have no trouble finding a job. I loved it there. St. John's County has excellent schools (for FL) and I would have sent my kids to public there versus private in Palm Beach County.

For your son, you might be interested in Palm Beach IceZone -. My friend's son takes lessons here. In Jax, you could look at Untitled Document

Good luck with your search. Figuring out this stuff is stressful and overwhelming

[Amy S in PBC]

Hey Westsidegirl! I lived in Wellington for 2 years after moving down from Connecticut. It's a nice village with lots of polo fields and horse farms, good schools and a good hospital. But...

I'm wondering why you want to go so far south? It was a big culture shock to me - completely flat land, lots of traffic, crime/drugs, illegal immigrants, expensive, not very friendly, and it gets hottttttttttt during the summer - beastly and the stinky humidity... let's just say you can forget about styling your hair... the minute you walk out the door you look like Phyllis Diller. The rainy season starts in June - and it's not a sprinkle. At 3:00 p.m. the torrential downpours, scary lightening and tornado warnings start - every single day until October.

I'd take 5FLgirls advice and think about Jacksonville or the Gulf Coast. It's pretty weird down here! I can't wait to move - anywhere north!