Florida. The 3rd most populated state in our country, with close to 100 million annual visitors, 50+ million headed to Disney World alone. This trend has been on the upswing ever since central air conditioning turned humidity into a tame house guest. With a climate that is gentle on the joints and boasts endless miles of open beaches, those with grand means and those with meager resources, fly like snowbirds to the Sunshine State. “In 2011, the first of the baby boomers reached what used to be known as retirement age. And for the next 18 years, boomers will be turning 65 at a rate of about 8,000 a day”(AARP). And you guessed it, most of these folks are headed right into this condo-complex playground. Many of my retired relatives and friends have sold off their northern homes, or at least shut the water off and lowered the heat for the winter months, donned their summery coral and teal wraps, and settled in any number of the coastal Florida havens.
Tag Archives: Travel
she’s gone where?
Sorry to desert you, my dear hard-working friends, but, I’m on VACATION, searching out some much needed sunshine.
Expect a full and glorious report on my return.
Until then,
xxoo
Escaping into Downton Abbey
2015: a futuristic year we never believed would ever come. We leap forward without a flying car but with plenty of techie gadgets to wow our past selves. So much so that one might ask, with our growing adoration for all things shiny and digital, what’s the global appeal of the 1920’s British period drama Downton Abbey? Perhaps paradoxically, as we steamroll further into FaceTime and shared Google Docs, we pine for handwritten letters carried into our drawing room on a footman’s silver tray and question if the future portends undesirable change. Downton’s loyal butler, Carson, likens the shifts in his era to the ground shaking under his feet and longs for an earlier stability. We too romanticize our past, including those Edwardians of Downton Abbey, and in the case of myself and several hundred ticket holders, this shared obsession is manifested at a wonderful gala, a night to live out our fantasy of days long past in costume.
Nine Cent Girl 