July 13, 2020
We are back from Florida. Quarantine Day 2 today.
Our trip was nice, a mix of research and vacation. We got to enjoy the beach and then we drove around to check different areas. The city hasn’t recovered from the class 5 hurricane that hit two years ago, so it is a bit hard to get an idea of if we would like to live there or not. The house is great, the neighborhood is so cute and we found some nice beach areas so I think I can picture us living there, but then, the downtown or whatever we wanna call it is still somewhat under construction, lots of buildings and houses looks like crap and we would have to drive for twenty minutes to grocery stores and stuff. But, on the other hand, this would be the case in most American cities I’d say, at least that’s how I’ve found it to be here in this country = nothing is close by, drive everywhere, strip mall here and strip mall there and in between there’s nothing going on.
I originally said no to Florida because of a few things; hurricanes, alligators plus it’s really hot and humid during summer. BUT, this house was built right before the hurricane 2018 and nothing happened to it (the fence was broken a little but the house was fine) and the neighborhood is not in a flood zone. It is possible to meet an alligator but you probably won’t, plus if it’s not an alligator it can be a bear (like here in CT) or dangerous snakes or coyotes or whatever other animals that lives in this country hahah, you can’t escape nature and wild life.
And about the heat… I have only been to Florida during colder months (except when we went to Disney World in September which was hot but that’s not by the ocean), so all I knew about the humidity and hot weather is from what others have told me,..and people hate it, even up here, people in New York complain about the humidity all the time (heck, even the Swedish people complain about warm weather and they have it for like ten days a year hahah). I happen to be ok with it and if it gets too hot, I’ll just go inside to enjoy the air conditioner. But, I didn’t know what to expect, how bad could it be? Well, it was not that bad. Yes, in the middle of the day when it was 33°c and very humid, I felt a little dizzy…because I was dehydrated, other than that, I loved it. Thor might have to be inside a lot during the summer months, but we did see plenty of dogs, even fluffy ones, and they seemed fine.
We have to take some time now to really think about it. Some things to think about; Is the house going to be too big for us, too much maintenance ? Do we like this city enough to see us live there? How could our lives look like if we live there? What is our priorities in life? etc etc… We will have to make a pros and cons list. We can’t buy the house this second anyway (it’s not for sale just yet, some this and that stuff which will take some time), so we have some time to think:)
And now, we are in quarantine for at least 14 days. Not that it will change much from before our trip, we have been isolating since March, but now we make sure to always wear our masks if we leave the apartment, and we only leave if Thor needs to potty. I would like to go for walks by myself sometimes to get some exercise but that has to be in the morning or maybe late at night then when there’s less/no people outside (plus it is very hot and humid here in Connecticut now in the middle of the day so it’s tough to walk anyway). But 14 days isn’t that long so I think we’ll be ok:)
We took a taxi to the south part of the river and got a coffee at Southern Grounds
The view of downtown, seen from south of the river
Beautiful sunset, very colorful
Full moon, called Snow Moon. It was so big that night, Feb 8th