You can take the girl out of the north, but you can't take the north out of the girl.

So the weather broke here finally ,and by broke I mean it's now low eighties instead of high nineties. So I was ready to break out the sweaters and jeans. I settled for a knit shall and flip flops. I've lived down here a year, full time now, and can't bare to rid myself of those cozy sweaters that stare down at me from my closet shelf waiting for the day, I do mean THE day, it is cold enough to actually wear one.
I finally got to take Oliver out in daylight hours without fear of extreme sun exposure or death by heat exhaustion. We strolled up and down the streets of down town St. Pete for about an hour. By the time I was half way through my grande, decaf ,skim ,extra hot, no whip Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (I always feel like such an ass when I order from that place) I was sweating so hard I had to strip down to my oh so cute wife beater, which I usually save for pj's. I've walked down town quite a bit to realize the beauty amongst the trash. A park along the water front is one of the nicest I've strolled through. A beautiful harbor view, palm trees,manicured grass and a homeless man bathing himself in one of the picnic pavilions. A bird of paradise in full bloom near the dumpiest part of town. It might cost you 10$ a stem at a florist up north. And there it was just a common sidewalk flower.
As I strolled I looked at my son, my god he's a Florida native, a very rare thing to be. I have a strong love/hate relationship with Florida,just as much as I do about the northeast. The memories I have of my New England childhood will be much different than those of my children if we continue to raise them down here. I get sad thinking of all the things that made growing up in New England so wonderful, and knowing that my kids might never experience that for themselves, at least not on a day to day basis. But Is that so bad? I mean they will get a taste of the best parts without having to endure the worst. Visits to the Ocean in the warm summer days, chilly summer nights spent at the cottage by the lake. Autumn in NH watching the leafs change color. Christmas, snow and all that goes along with the holidays, they really are just beautiful, more there than anywhere else I know. Down here Christmas decorations are more to see who can out class their neighbor by cramming the most amount of tacky shit in their yards.
Instead their childhoods will consist of swimming at the beach a good 9 months out of the year instead of 3. Great tans (not frost bite) and sun bleached hair, fresh bananas, oranges and veggies from our back yard anytime they want. They will never know how bad it is for your back to shovel snow, or how miserable it is to have to warm up your car and scrape ice off the windshield with a credit card because you've broken your last scraper.
It might not be so bad here. Catch up with me tomorrow I'll most likely will have a different opinion.