So where’s the don’t like button?
Its easy for me to create a board. But there are a few instances here with a new board, nobody post, people lose interest and go away. Or in other forums where its empty boards after empty boards. So I’d rather we do it right… I’d very much like FL to thrive.
BTW, do you have any active FL users that you have contacts for? Or users who may have contacts in their profile? We can try to grab some more folks and get this going.
They had to venture down first. There are many wonderful restaurants, seafood shacks and bars with great seafood before you get to Key West.
Edit: shoot, I wrote that before I read your post Sunshine.
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Okay, I have been trying to not comment on this topic. But here goes. My history of Florida is that my family was there before statehood the first time. Now lets get to the topic. The only reason to have a separate Key West board is for people who only get there by cruise ship. There is not enough of anything to support having a separate board for Key West. I have lived and worked in the keys 3 different times. If anything the place that needs a separate place to call its own is Disney World. Key West is not a dining destination on its own. There isn’t even a decent Cuban restaurant. And to limit it means you miss Little Palm Island. Most people go to Key West to get drunk.
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I agree. Key West is awful. We go to the keys during lobster season in July. Stay in different places depending…but never ever…go to Key West.
My family’s name is on the oldest house in St Augustine 
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Gonzales-Alvarez?
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Amen!! It’s amazing how many people spend two weeks in the Disney bubble and talk about how they’ve been to Florida.
Um, No.
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you beat me to it.
Possibly similar to those who visit London or Paris and say they’ve been to Great Britain or France.
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But, Harters, you live up North. 
Exactly. I’d be a supporter of any campaign for London to declare independence from the rest of the country.
Not by a long shot, I’m afraid, Harters.
The Disney bubble is modern buildings constructed to a single mindset of removing any illusion of reality whatsoever. You’re interacting with other tourists – because nobody lives there – and there are no shopkeepers or special little shops, or even the vaguest fragment of anything resembling real people or real life or real existence. All of the employees wear a name badge – and there isn’t a single shopkeeper or business person or mailman or anything there – they’re all simply paid to operate the giant entity that is Disney.
At least if someone is in London or Paris or Miami, they are (hopefully! if they leave the tourist attractions) speaking with at least a few people who’ve lived there for years, or even their entire lives, and who have a passion for operating the business where they work, even if they don’t own it. There are rich, and poor, and liberal and conservative, and are of an ethnic/cultural/age spectrum more of their own choosing, rather than one chosen by a faceless PR group in an office behind the scenes. There is a history and a culture to those places that is real and has evolved through history of its own accord, not carefully engineered within the last 50 years.
I’ll be the first to agree that Paris is not France, any more than London is Britain, or Miami is Florida, but they are inarguably a part of those places, with all of their good and bad.
(just in case nobody noticed, I’m not a fan of Disney…)
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Yes, Alvarez
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Fair points, sunshine. Our first trip to America was in 1980 and we did all the Orlando area stuff. Never felt the need to go back to FL, till this year when we didnt even see a theme park in the distance.
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I hope you enjoyed your time here this time – I saw you were south – Miami and the Keys – lots of your countrymen enjoy my side (west-central Gulf coast) because of the lovely beaches and laid-back lifestyle.
Can’t say I enjoy Miami myself – even when we go visit friends, Mr. Sun knows I have 3 days until I start to pace and foam at the mouth.
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Well, I guess we will have to show how prolific we are to get FL carved out, then! I am enjoying this thread, but I will start posting a few FL-specific things not the SE board in hopes we are soon legitimized . . . .
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I’d be into a Florida get together of some sort in the future. I’ve been contacted by a few people in the central west coast area from eGullet who might be into a meal together at a area resturant. Sunshine, you’re like east Tampa or Brandon I thought? It’s fun to meet the people you meet on line.
I enjoyed breaking bread with Veggo at my home and then with his friend Delucacheesemonger. Had a grand time eating and drinking. I’ll remember Veggo every time I make pastrami. Interesting and a good fella. Stefan and Veggo brought Belgian beer and good cheese. My wife was coming in from a trip out of town that day. She’s a trooper and rolled with these strangers in the house, although she had met Veggo before and was use to me inviting “strangers” from message boards (cigars, bourbon) to the house prior to that. Pastrami sandwiches, cheese and beer. All the major food groups.
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I did have a quick lunch with Deluca, and was discussing same with Veggo just before he received his final tab. I’d be.open to a chowdown in the Bay area!
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The family history is in Northwest Florida. The ancestors got kicked out of the Baldwin county Alabama group for being cattle rustlers and having children out of wedlock. They were there when Andrew Jackson took control of Florida from the Spanish in Plaza Ferdinand in Pensacola. I’m impressed your family dates back that far in St Augustine. Do you know why Tallahassee was chosen to be the state capital? It was half way between Pensacola and St Augustine, the two population centers of Florida at that time. Have a great holiday season.
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while we’re rounding up Florida folk, does anyone have contact information for ospreycove? Was another pretty solid Florida voice, especially in sourcing good things, but no info on the old profile, and no posts in the last 3 months.
IndianRiverFL (real name Dale Pierce, in Melbourne) also went AWOL about the same time. IIRC he’s a realtor in that area, so should be easy to find if nobody’s got his contact info.
Just summarizing (as much for my benefit as anyone’s)
So we’ve got Pinellas(Scubadoo), north and south Hillsborough (sandytoes and me), Orlando (Laura), Jax/St Augustine corridor (Robin), Panhandle (jolei – lol haven’t seen that big sign in a long time!), Smartie (sorry, don’t remember where you are!). If we add back Osprey, we add SW FL, and middle East Coast if Dale appears.
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