Another point about Merritt Island/Cocoa/Cocoa Beach - if you’re an early riser, the view of Merritt Island from the top of the Hubert Humphrey Bridge (Cocoa - Merritt Island) is absolutely stunning.
Loads of great stuff to add to the pile.
Thanks everyone!
Agreed.
It’s pretty relaxed here in our town of 11,000 on the northeast coast.
Real waves, too (though I do appreciate the way the tamer Gulf just seethes with marine life.) I like being sort of out of the way, yet close to an international airport. Like much of Florida, there is astounding natural beauty here, and it is a healthy mix of kitsch, good ol’ boy fishing and high-end resort golf, with progressive ideas sprouting among the old ways.
I hope our little spot (and all of Florida) can achieve a sustainable economy after our much-needed real estate shakeout.
CelticCowboy, I recommend you watch John Sayles’ movie Sunshine State. Much of it was filmed here, but that’s not why I suggest you see it. The film is a little long, but it is an interesting slice-of-life look at community, growth and greed in a small Florida beach town.
You son of a bitch. 
…except all the Dopers that live there.
To add to the others, in no specific order:
It’s hot. Really freaking hot. Last night, I was watching the 11pm news, and the little weatherbug in the left hand corner cheerfully said 87F. And it’s not just the heat – it’s the humidity that takes the most time to get used to. When you walk out in the depths of summer, the air feels like a tangible thing trying to smother you – day and night, sometimes. In many places (I’m told) it’s hot during the day, but the temperature drops significantly overnight. Not here. Today’s forecast: 94-80, humid, chance thunderstorms. This won’t change til about October.
People come from all over the world to live in and visit Florida, and this is a wonderful thing. I’ve grown up within 5 miles of where I currently live, and I’ve heard Spanish, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, Hindu, Polish, German, Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Korean, French, and other languages I can’t place spoken all my life. If you live in even a slightly urban area, you can find restaurants and grocery stores catering to pretty much any ethnicity you want.
Tourists are annoying and everywhere, but I like them. They keep us from needing an income tax. Through our sales taxes and various tourist taxes, we spread the load out onto everyone who spends money in Florida, not just onto the people who live here.
Snowbirds are worse than the tourists. Every “winter” my county’s (Pinellas) population increases by about 50%, from 920,000 to 1.4 million. This is the time of year that our traffic is unreal and everything is busier. People like me who work in service or retail all know that summer is the slow, sane season. Snowbird season is the time of year that we are told how backwards and stupid everything is in Florida, and how everything is better in Pennsylvania/Maryland/Ohio/Michigan/Ontario/wherever the hell.
Hurricanes: Largely a non-event. We had a bad year a little while back, but it’s not usually something that even occurs to a lot of us. Have canned food, bottled water, and a plan in place for your pets and home, and you’ll be fine. Even on my little peninsula of a county (average elevation <20 feet), we haven’t had a mandatory all-zones evacuation in a long, long time.
Environmental diversity: I’ve been all over the country, and I have never been anywhere else with such diversity of environments as Florida. Florida has a beauty to it that I think is largely underappreciated. Everyone knows about our beach towns and the Everglades, but there is so much more to the state than that.
Seasons: They still call them Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter officially. That’s a lie. Our seasons:
[ul][li]“Christ, it’s hot”, which is hot and humid – April - October or November, if we’re unlucky. [/li][li]“I can breathe again” is warm and dryish – November - February[/li][li]“Ugh, it’s coming back”, which is March – the temperatures are on their way back up and so’s the humidity.[/ul][/li]
I third / fourth the recommendation of taking extended visits. I know people who happily live in Daytona, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and even Orlando (shudder), but I wouldn’t want to live in any of those places. Florida’s cities are all very different, and you need to make sure you land in one that’s right for you. For me, that’s southern Pinellas County, Miami, and maybe Ft Myers. The other places in Florida, while they have their own merits, are just not right for me.
Also, even with all of that, this is home. I can picture myself living somewhere else for a while, but I’ve always known that even if I leave, I’ll be coming back.
Did we mention it’s hot?
And dry. We desperately need rain. I think Floridians are the only people who look forward to hurricane season…“Maybe we’ll get some good rain!”
Nothing.
Not that Jacksonville is all that great, either, but we don’t have all the tourists who don’t know where they are going!
Florida has a weird socio-geographic (is that a word?) layout. The farther North you go in the State, the more it feels like the South. In the panhandle, you’ll learn to say “y’all”. Down in South Florida, there’s a lot of transplanted northeasterners. In my experience, then, the most liberal part of the state is South Florida; I love the cultural diversity down here, too - Miami/Ft. Lauderdale is very much an international locale.
We also get more ocean breezes then the landlocked central part of the state, so it seems a little cooler. But the heat (especially during our brutal summers) is oppressive; you spend your day running from air conditioned place to air conditioned place (hopefully, you’ll find some time for the beach, too). Having said that, our winters are beautiful (cool 70 degree nights). Don’t let talk of the weather completely fool you, though; it does get cold in the winter in parts of Florida (in Gainesville, where I went to college, it would get into the 30’s during December nights!).
We do have nice beaches. The water is much warmer than in California, and boating/swimming, etc. are great pasttimes.
Financially, no state income tax is nice. We also have generous homestead protections (your home is constitutionally protected from creditors - that explains why OJ Simpson is now a resident). I don’t know how our sales tax compares to the rest of the country, but it’s (at least where I live) 6.5%.
We love the tourists. They pay our taxes.
Hell yes. I love the tourists; I hate the snowbirds. The tourists never tell us how much better everything is back home and they keep our overall tax burden low.