Pokémon GO

[Wonderful Monds]

Also, alligators. Who wants to deal with that.

(Unless they're a Pokemon.)

[BernieCarbo]

I don't know how you can say bad things about a state that's made up of tourists and old people. Or maybe I can; I don't know.

Nothing against old people at all. The problem with Florida is the blandness and lack of culture. It is so fake. It's like going to Vegas and seeing the half-size Eiffel Tower.

This tends to happen when an area is saturated with a single demographic. How fun would a state be if it was composed of 90% software engineers? Government workers? Librarians? Roofers? Dump truck drivers? Sooner or later, you'll run out of things to talk about. The same applies to Arizona- a nice state, beautiful, but very few people are actually from Arizona (I mean, having a true cultural identity with the state).

Any day of the week, I'd rather see Mobile, Chicago, the Smokey Mountains, Savannah, Montana, Biloxi, Austin, Asheville, or a thousand other places that have something original going for them. Heck, if I was going to retire to some place warm, I'd get a little place near Mobile and eat oysters and listen to blues on the sidewalk til the day I die.

[Boston Red]

I'm personally looking forward to a very boring existence in retirement. I want to sit on the beach, play golf, read and drink beer (and...play Pokeman Go to make sure it's on topic). Florida checks all the boxes.

I'll travel when I want interesting. Interesting in everyday life is overrated IMHO.

[BernieCarbo]

Really? I hope I never get to that point. When I get up, I want every day to be an adventure, and when I stop wanting that, it's time for me to go.

My 78 year old dad just bought a junk bulldozer to rebuild so he has something to do this winter in the garage. Maybe my disdain for shuffling around in Florida comes from him.

[Boston Red]

Different strokes. Maybe I can get tired of sitting on the beach with a beer watching the Reds (or Xavier) or whoever after my daily 18 and workout, but I think it will take a long time.

I also love that fake Eifel Tower in Vegas, though. I had a pitcher of Franziskaner in that bad boy not two months ago.

[marcshoe]

Eh, you can get a fake Eifel Tower in Mason. Slightly different atmosphere, though.

[IslandRed]

I allowed my kid to download the app... while she's in Canada with her phone data turned off (evil dad laugh).

As for Florida, there are several different sub-states within it and the mix of people depends on where you are. Pretty much anything south of Ocala/Daytona is going to have a heavier retiree/snowbird component, but only some areas are dominated by them. Where I live, the "old people" demographic* is definitely larger than anywhere else I've lived, but it functions like a normal place.

* Which I am closer to joining than I'd like to admit, but whatever.

[Boston Red]

Eh, you can get a fake Eifel Tower in Mason. Slightly different atmosphere, though.

My kids are big fans of that one.

[oneupper]

I've been living in Florida for 13 years now. I do like it, but then again I was coming from a place that was slow destroying itself (Venezuela) and which is currently unlivable.

Pros about living in Florida.

Weather for a about half a year.
Nice Springboard for travel to the Caribbean and Latin America (not too bad for US travel either).
Nice mix of cultures, if you like that. I love turning on my Spanish to people who see me as an obvious "gringo".

Cons

Weather for about half a year
Hurricanes
Really bad drivers
Kind of expensive (compared to Middle America).

As far as people go, I've usually found that people are nice if you are polite and nice to them. That's pretty much universal.

[SunDeck]

I am not into it, but I think it's kind of cool, seeing all these people playing. In the Internet era with so much diversity and competition for eyeballs in popular culture, I'd sort of thought there weren't any of these quaint fads to tie people together anymore, but there it is. Pokemon is the pet rock of this era.

[Redsfaithful]

I am not into it, but I think it's kind of cool, seeing all these people playing. In the Internet era with so much diversity and competition for eyeballs in popular culture, I'd sort of thought there weren't any of these quaint fads to tie people together anymore, but there it is. Pokemon is the pet rock of this era.

I couldn't put it into words, but you hit on it.

[Bob Sheed]

Well that was fast.