Florida is the southern-most US state. The sun can cause skin damage quicker. Want to look older than you really are?
What You Need to Know about Moving to Florida for the Beach
Before I moved to Florida in the mid 1990’s, I lived in the northeastern US hours from the shore. I couldn’t wait until Memorial Day because it meant the start of summer and the the boardwalk businesses would finally open up. The places on the boardwalk sold the same stuff I could get back home, often at higher prices for lower quality, but somehow that was alright. In fact it was something I looked forward to, maybe because I could eat those greasy mediocre pizza slices in my swimsuit while watching the pretty girls walk by wearing their bikinis.
The shore and beach was something special, partly because I couldn’t just drive there any time I wanted to enjoy it. It was a seasonal thing that was only available three months out of the year. You couldn’t get as much of it as you wanted because after labor day, the place shut down and became a ghost town again for another nine months until next summer.
When I finally made the decision to move to Florida, living close to the beach was a must. I was determined that I would no longer be denied that relaxing feeling of laying on the beach and listening to waves roll in and out, whenever I wanted. I dreamed of soaking up the rays while watching the bikinis walk by anytime, year round. So I moved to Florida and bought a home just minutes from the beach. I could ride my bike there, and often did at first.
What I really liked in the beginning was that I didn’t have to take a vacation to go to the beach. I could work during the day and go to the beach right after work for a couple of hours. I went to the beach almost everyday I worked and on my days off too. I went to the beach almost everyday for months at a time. After a while, I found my desire to go to the beach started to diminish.
Eventually, I stopped going unless it was for a special gathering of friends or relatives visiting. I had sold homes for people moving out of Florida that said they moved there for the beach, but now they hated it and want to move back home. For the first year or so, I thought they were nuts. How could someone, anyone, not like the beach? Then it happened to me, I began to detest the beach. What happened?
When I was up north, access to the beach was limited, so it was special. It was only warm (hot?) enough to visit for 3 months during the summer. It’s kind of how one coin is more valuable than another because it’s rare, or how a restaurant can command a high price for it’s exceptional quality food and still be booked months in advance. It’s the reason that fast food joints that litter every corner with inferior quality food that’s available 24 hours a day, are forced to have a dollar menu. It’s not special.
How to Prevent Expensive Florida Relocation Mistakes Q&A
Why is it a Mistake to Move to Florida for the Beach?
Because moving too close to the beach will probably ruin it for you for good. Have a favorite food? Eat it every day for years and see if you don’t become tired or even sick of it. Go to the beach everyday and the things you used to love about it will become commonplace. Minor irritations that you barely noticed before become magnified. Things like having sand in places you don’t want it to be. After all, sand paper can be used to remove paint from the surface it’s attached to. Having skin burnt from the sun, greasy sunscreen with sand stuck to it or covering up with clothes that make the heat even more unbearable are what will replace the pleasant memories you used to have.
Want to look 20 years older than you really are?
Go to a Florida beach year round and soak up the UV rays.
Live at the beach in Florida long enough and you’re likely to see it littered with dead rotting fish in the hot sun from a fish kill (from red tide or some other event). You’ll see “beach closed” signs because of high bacteria counts from (you don’t want to know what), that got “flushed” into the water after a heavy Florida downpour. Worse yet, the water could be dangerous but there won’t be any signs to warn you because funding for testing has been cut back or just isn’t done for that beach. With 1350 miles of coastline in Florida, testing all of the areas that people use the water is almost impossible and would require a lot of resources, and cash.
