Posted on 03/10/2006 6:24:51 AM PST by Hatteras
Cracker!
When I hear "Seminole Wind", by John Anderson I get chills up my spine. I have several of his CDs and I play them often when traveling.
Two things I miss about FLA. My family and the weather!
I grew up and have lived on or near the coast of North Carolina for a large portion of my life. I am somewhat familiar with hurricanes. ;-)
It's a great area. But as others have mentioned the growth has outpaced the infrastructure. Depending on where you are going to be working, I suggest you pick a place to live where you don't have to commute far on any of the Interstates. One problem you'll see is that for the most part, there aren't good alternative routes if there are accidents.
Avoid Bruce B. Downs or Dale Mabry areas.
I know, I'm a Florida cracker, my kid's seventh generation and my niece has kids, so her kids are eighth generation.
We are "rare birds" here in the Sunshine State.
It's on my dad's side. He was raised in Taylor county and moved to this area as a boy. My mom was also born and raised here (Pinellas), but her parents were Canadian.
The "Lightning Capital of the World?"...Wus rong wit dat?..LOL
John is from Apopka. Used to go with a gal whose daddy worked with John before he made it big. Anyway, the Florida John sings about is slowly being developed away. Listen to any of the songs by Skynyrd, Tom Petty, Anderson, Blackfoot, Hatchet and you'll hear about old Florida.
I was at Pass-a-Grille beach yesterday and saw some folks playing shuffleboard, and I know they still have a shuffleboard club down near the Colliseum (and they still have old folks dancing events at the Colliseum and the Gulfport Casino.) But I don't see the old men downtown sitting around playing checkers.
Many of the elderly that lived downtown have had their buildings converted to either commercial use of high priced condo type buildings. There aren't any downtown residential hotels like there used to be.
We do have an influx of homeless in the winter, but the city does a pretty good job handling the situation.
I have an opportunity to relocate to Tampa which I've had to turn down, or at least put on hold, for family reasons. If it weren't for that I'd move there tomorrow.
This makes all the difference in the world if you want to receive some specific recommendations.
Leni
Ah yes, Pass-a-Grille, and the Don Cesar. I worked for the Tampa Bay Pilots for years out on Egmont. Caught the boat at Fort Desoto a many a day. Me, not into shuffleboard or checkers; just remembering the St. Pete that I can recollect. No more free newpapers after a cloudy day? Pinellas county, I believe, Hatteras, still holds a Guinness record for most sunny days in a row. And as many of the posters above relate; "DO I REMEMBER THAT LIGHTNING".
Where in NC? That would determine the relative housing costs. If you are in the G'boro/Winston area, Tampa will seem expensive in comparison. Even the outlying areas of Tampa are expensive. Living near your work is important, bec. the traffic in Tpa is horrendous during drive-times. But it is a beautiful city w/ lots of things to do and is near some of the most beautiful beaches and areas in FL. The two major newspapers are editorially split: St Pete Times,liberal; Tampa Trib,relatively conservative.
Yes the Don is quite the showplace now. It was in disrepair for years but was finally converted to a luxury hotel...a bright pink landmark is nice to have.
We live near the tip of the Peninsula, so the Bayway takes us right to Pass-a-Grille, about a 10-15 minute drive.
My son had some friends visiting for Spring Break, and my hubby ventured out with them and my son, and tried to make the trip to Egmont on Tuesday but the wind was 15-20 knots and they were getting bounced around (23 ft boat), so they stayed near the Skyway.
The Evening Independent (the free newspaper that you got if there was no sun) is no more.
The St. Pete Times was the parent company of the Independent and they did away with it. The Times isn't worth subscribing to...very liberal.
And the lightening...I love the lightening...our entire front room is windows and I love to sit and watch a lightning storm. Everybody in our family loves to watch lightening...except the Weimaraner, LOL.
and yes of course...Mons Venus and the old Tabu have to be mentioned...and Peter's smoked fish....mackeral baby!
I believe the office is downtown. (A few blocks north of the airport). However, I'm looking at about 50% of my time (or more) will be spent traveling.
The Canadians seem to have grouped on Treasure Island. Pass-a-Grille is pretty much residential still, and they are renovating many of the older homes into big fancy multi-storied ones (if you build now, the bottom floor can only be a garage with breakaway doors, so water will flow through if the tides breach the island during a storm.)
Hurricane is still on Pass-a-Grille and grouper sandwiches are still their specialty.
Skyway Jacks moved from down near the Skyway a little farther north, but it's still on 34th Street South.
Haven't been to the Frog Pond in ages...but their breakfast is superb.
Ted Peters died, but his grandson still runs the restaurant...smoked mullet and mackeral, good burgers, and great potato salad.
As to the Mons...no comment, but they're still in business.
Traveling in and out of the area, or around the area?
If you're traveling in the area, then you can plan your commute for hours that aren't as bad.
My husband has a couple of employees that either start early and leave early, or start late and leave late, in order to avoid the "bad times" on the bridges.
If it's traveling in and out of town, there's no better airport to use than Tampa Airport, IMHO.
And there's the Veteran's Parkway (maybe has a different name now) that connects the airport area with north Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando. You can get from Brooksville or Spring Hill to Tampa airport in under an hour with little or no traffic until you get near the airport (but it's a toll road.)
Smoked fish? Guess we need to get back across the Gandy, the Howard Franklin, or the causeway, since Hatteras started this thread in Tampa, but I suppose it is all Tampa Bay. Old "Mullet Inn" on the causeway, "The Fish you eat here today, Slept last night in Tampa Bay". Place long gone,smoked mullet, loved it, but I have to admit, it took awhile; and the Cuban sandwiches, along with a bowl of soap. Any one of several places that won the Annual Best Cuban Sandwich award. The award moved around. They were all good; and the deviled crab cakes at the Silver Ring in Ybor. Ole Lou P's (as in Pinella, along with many others) old hangout. And the homemade Sangria and Filete Salteado at Cafe Pepes. And as Dawn53 mentioned, just about anything from Alessi's. And I sure missed the Jai-Alai Fronton. You could find Mr. Rose or Mr. Bench there just about every night of spring ball.
The people of Mexico sure agree.
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