We’ve done it for a few years. We take a trip to Florida to get out of the cold, damp, and mostly miserable weather in the northeast for a few weeks in January and February. The hope is we’ll enjoy warm, sunny weather to sit on the beach or by the pool, or play golf. But there are no guarantees when it comes to weather. There is really no other reason to go to Florida. Besides the beach and the ocean, there is no other interesting landscape or geographic feature. It is flat, with one strip mall after another. The multi laned streets seem more congested than not and red lights are too long. There are a lot an old people. So the obvious question is why do we go? Again, back to our original intent. A warm break from the cold weather. But the weather doesn’t always cooperate.
For our first week, we stayed in a studio apartment at a vacation club. It’s really a hotel room with a microwave, a small sink and small refrigerator. When the weather is the way it’s suppose to be in the Sunshine State, you’re out at the pool, or the beach, or the golf course and don’t spend much time in the room. We had a week of cool, cloudy, windy weather. We felt like hostages confined to a cell. No shorts and tee shirts, instead jeans and sweatshirts. Forget about a bathing suit. We kept checking the weather forecast every ten minutes to see when the smothering blanket of clouds would lift and let the light shine in.
The second two weeks we moved to an Airbnb. It did not live up to our expectations. First of all, it was on street that could best be described as unattractive. There was a dump at one end of the street where you could find old mattresses and a discarded dryer. There was industrial sized dumpster sticking out into the street on the other end of the block. We looked across the street at a parking lot and some vacant buildings. The pictures on line of the house were deceiving. We had to call the owner to come over the fix things like a broken hinge on a kitchen cabinet, a loose chair leg, try to lock and unlock a door to the backyard, supply a bath mat for the shower so we didn’t kill ourselves. There was a variety of other issues including an improperly installed dish washer. But the weather finally got better.
We had several days of sun, a little cool, but we did get some beach days. We were a five minute walk to the beach, but you had to walk past that dump I mentioned. We could also walk to bars and restaurants and watched the NFL playoff games. It wasn’t all bad, we did get to see my best friend and former college roommate. We played several rounds of golf and had some lunches and dinners with him and his wife.
What did we learn? Three weeks is too long especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate. No more studio apartments. Next year, two weeks in a much nicer Airbnb. But, of course, there is the great unknown. Will we find the sunshine we are seeking?
I hope next year is MUCH better.
I know exactly how you feel. FL not my favorite place…for a number of reasons. But there is the weather, so we make an exception. We go for 5 weeks and over the past 5 years we’ve fortunate. Awful weather days have been few and far between. It helps that you don’t need beach weather for golf, tennis or pickleball. Oh well, there’s always happy hour.