After 30 hours of driving and 3.5 days of Tropical Storm Debby, I’m home. Our vacation is over, and it feels like we were cheated. We had 3 fantastic beach days and almost 5 days of driving and tropical storminess. The kids had a great time so I guess that is all that matters.
The weather finally broke Tuesday night presenting us with a perfect beach day on Wednesday. I made the video of the sunset that evening.
Once the weather broke, I didn’t even take one look at the market. I’ve now got all my data downloaded and see that we had a powerful bounce, just as my post last Friday was calling for. I’m off now to read and catch up on what the other iBC bloggers have been seeing and saying about this market.
Nice vacation. Did you see the green flash at sunset? Sounds like you had a better time down there than we did. How is that area doing economically?
We spent the past two weeks looking at vacation homes in South Carolina and the left and right sides of mid-Florida. It’s probably our sixth vacation in these areas, so we know them well. (Why go to Florida in June? To escape the heat in New Jersey.) We had always planned to move to FL but are having second thoughts now. The eastern side has become boarded up shops; pretty depressing. My wife has property on the Gulf side near a nice little town, with good shopping and restaurants, that we intended to build on this year. The area has declined a lot over the last few years. Our favorite steakhouse is gone, and the (previously upscale) mall now has tenants like the sheriff’s office. The people there are in a perpetual bad mood and decidedly unfriendly. Really sad. But despite the bad economy, people in SC were still very nice. HHI is now at the top of my list.
Sarasota seemed very well, economically speaking. I know this because my 11 year old got a really bad ear infection and had to be taken to the hospital. I saw nothing around Sarasota that was boarded up or seemed to be hurting. The nightlife was kicking ass.
As for the east or west coast of Florida, that is a hard call. The east coast always seemed more redneck, but growing up as a surfer, it was the side with waves, and therefore preferred. I have traversed the east coast numerous times.
The gulf side is very pretty, the water clear, and from what I’ve seen, Destin, Treasure Island, St. Pete, Sarasota, is less redneck, but I have not spend near as much time there as the east coast.
Hilton Head is nice. Ever considered Georgia beaches? Tybee Island? Have you checked out Folly Beach, just south of Charleston? Folly would get my vote, but I used to live there, so I’m a bit biased.
Wow, bad time to get sick, hope your child’s ear infection is better.
We’ve been to Sarasota a few times, but never thought about moving there – will need to consider it. Georgia is the only east coast state we haven’t spent any time in; it’s on our list. And thanks for the suggestion about Folly Beach. I haven’t heard about it before.