John has lived in South Florida since 1972, and Jeannie since 1981. We know a little bit about the place. We think it’s one of the best places in the world to live. There are lots of variables including the ocean, easy airport access to anywhere, the Everglades, the Keys, proximity to the Caribbean and Mexico, Disney, Cape Kennedy, the Bahamas. Big league sports, major universities, no state income or estate taxes, decent theatre with three different venues for big production road shows, all flavored with a multi-ethnic seasoning. Knock-down, drag-out politics. Oh, we forgot – the weather.           

The ‘winter season’ is still a reality, from Halloween with Key West’s Fantasy Fest until May’s Air & Sea Show on Ft. Lauderdale beach.  Hurricane and Dolphin football, Heat basketball and Panther hockey, the Las Olas and Coconut Grove art festivals, the Orange Bowl festival (and the anti-Orange Bowl parade: The King Mango Strut)

Regional theatre from Key West to Jupiter and the Broadway series at Jackie Gleason, Broward Center and Kravtis Center, major rock & pop concerts at the National Car Rental Center, American Airlines Arena and Mars Amphitheatre, South Beach’s Club scene, Calle Ocho (the world’s largest block party, over a million strong), Renaissance Fayre at Vizcaya, the mangrove waterways of West Lake Park, the Oleta River and Loxahatchee. The glorious Florida Keys. 

Local attractions: Miami-Dade’s Metro-zoo (maybe the country’s best after San Diego), Butterfly World, Parrot Jungle, the old Spanish Mission in N. Miami Beach. Kids’ fun at Boomer’s and Dave & Buster’s. And of course the beach and the fishing piers and the whole sun-sea-sand lifestyle. 

The Everglades is right here, for overnight in Flamingo, a day trip to Fakahatchee Strand, or a week on a houseboat in Ten Thousand Islands.  

Skip the Marlins, we have spring training and great college ball at FIU and UM.

Bass-fishing in Lake Okeechobee, surf fishing at Pompano, deep sea fishing.

Dog tracks, horse tracks, jai-alai, off-shore casinos, lots of private poker games.Las Olas’s shopping, Palm Beach’s City Center, Hollywood’s pedestrianized downtown, Lincoln Road Mall. If you care about such things, two of the country’s largest malls: Sawgrass Mills and Aventura. Great food from burger joints and diners to ethnic and fine dining. 

Want the wild side? We have friends who frequent Club Kink’s private dungeons, the Plato’s Repeat and Club Trapeze swing clubs and the nude beach at Haulover. Raves pop up everywhere. There’s a whole demi-monde to explore. 

The Virginia Slims (oops, it’s Lipton, no, it’s Nokia, whatever it is, it’s the biggest this side of Wimbledon) tennis tournament. Honda and Doral golf tournaments. NASCAR and the Grand Prix racing at Homestead.

And when the summer comes, well, for us its diving season. We usually start diving sometime in April and keep it up through sometime in October, though some years we do more and some years less. 

The biggest negative about South Florida is the traffic and the absence of mass transit, but even that’s getting better, with Tri-Rail, water-buses and municipal trolley systems. And we have the Broward County Library, one of the nation’s best urban city libraries, to make up a little for not having transit. 

The best thing about South Florida is of course the people. They come here from everywhere … too many of them, but what can ya do?  Besides every Latin American and European culture, many people don’t realize that South Florida is the closest point in North America to Africa, and we have more trade with that continent than most other cities. And Fort Lauderdale and Key West are major gay-lesbian centers, bringing lots of DINKS and their diverse cultures to town. Our population is as exciting a mix as London or Marseilles or even Casablanca. 

What South Florida offers is the world’s best mix of urban lifestyle amenities with an accessible natural environment, the choice of suburban or beach area or downtown lifestyles, easy access to the rest of the world, a virtually unlimited range of activities and a relatively cheap cost of living. What’s not to like? (You can find almost all of the above on Google.)

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