We’re about halfway through our Florida Snowbirding experiment and so far it has been wonderful.  It is quite a bit different than any other trip that we have taken for a few reasons, but most all of them have been pleasant surprises ….

STAYING PUT – Unlike most trips of a week or more, we aren’t packing up and moving at all.  We moved into our wonderfully equipped 2 bedroom villa as if it was our home.  No living out of a suitcase – there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.  We don’t have as much room as we have at home, but we have plenty of room nonetheless.

NO RUSHING AROUND – There’s no strict itinerary to this trip.  Some days we get out and do things and some days we hang out at the resort.  On most trips, time is a precious commodity, so we zip from place to place.  Now, we are set up like residents – we do something if we feel like it or stay home if we don’t.

LOTS OF FRIENDS – We’ve been surprised by how many people we’ve been able to meet up with on the trip.  We spent a day with one of my wife’s college roommates, went to the State Fair with my uncle & aunt, met another college buddy at his job at Universal Studios, and went to St Pete Beach for an overnight with our snowbirding friends from MN.

SOME VISITORS – Now we are hosting a 3 day visitor from MN down who came down to ‘Do Disney’.  We have plenty of room in our villa for 1-2 people to come down and join us for a few days.  Next weekend, our son is coming down from college before we all head back home.  So nice to see so many familiar faces!

We haven’t made any specific plans for next year at this point, but we have started to chat casually about it.  Based on this year’s experience, I would say we are both pretty sold on the idea of snowboarding again.  Perhaps for an even longer stay. 

It doesn’t hurt that it was 86-degrees today in Florida and -1-degree in Minnesota.  That’s quite a big difference!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Image Credit: (c) MrFireStation.com, Cocoa Beach Pier, Don Cesar Hotel on St. Pete Beach