Reply #12: Are YOU serious?

[demwing]

the politics here currently are insane, and the racism in the North and central state is still pretty bad, but the heat isn't "murderous" - not like Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas. If you live near the beach, it isn't bad at all. And it's really only hot for the 3-4 months of summer - which happens to coincide with the rainy season.

There are bugs, and the ants are a nuisance, but nothing more.

St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Miami, the only cities I'm familiar with (I've been here two years) are hardly vacuous. St. Pete is a college town, and has nice museums (home of the largest Dali collection in the world) and a decent live music scene. There's a Book-A-Million across the street, a B&N a mile away, and the coolest, and biggest, indie bookstore in the state - "Haslams" (http://www.haslams.com/index.shtml) is only 5 minutes from downtown St Pete. The people here mostly very cool. Again, depends on where you hang out...

We haven't had a lick of oil wash up on shore, and every day at the beach is an adventure finding live whelk, sea horses, starfish, and of course, dolphins. My favorite beach is at Clearwater, just north of St Pete.

And holy crap, there's Key West!!! Just a day's drive away - amazing place, very liberal environment, and a non stop party. Hope you like lime :)

It isn't as bad as you make it sound - or maybe you just lived in the wrong city? I visited Kissimmee for a few months, and won't go back. Vomit.