Home Sweet Home

Sometimes, the best destination is home. After all, home is where the heart is.

But it helps if you live in a beautiful area which is taken for granted – simply because you live in it. In our case, the county we live in stretches along the Atlantic Coast in Central Florida for 72 miles (116km) and is about 26.5 miles in width – Effectively squeezed in between the Everglades and the ocean. Known for the Space Program in Cape Canaveral and reputed for Spring Breaks in Cocoa Beach, it also offers the Indian River Lagoon (Intracoastal Waterway). In our area there are 41 spoil islands as a result of dredging the channel for this national waterway by the Corps of Engineers.

Our area is not known as an urban center, but you will find an adequate mall, numerous strip malls and all the enterprise to keep life easy. You will also find charming little towns, historical places and unique eateries associated with orange groves, clamming, fishing and nature. Subtropical and hot, humid summers are par of the course with rain year-round. Temperatures do dip into the 30’s with an average around 70 F in the winter and 90 F in the summer.

Not to be left out of any excitement, we do experience hurricanes and storms. The back-to-back hurricanes (Jeanne & Francis) in 2004 caused widespread damage to the tune of $2.8 billion in claim payments. But the County also boasts 250 square miles of federally protected wildlife refuges. There are 4,000 species of animals making our area their home: from bottlenose dolphins to about 3,500 endangered gopher tortoises.

Activities such as kayaking, cycling and fishing is just part of our lives. We have come to appreciate the elegance of pelicans and the ferociousness of Ospreys. It is not uncommon to find a collection of snakes at any given time in the back yard with the occasional jackal or coyote. In most inland lakes, alligators are par of the course.

But often, just sitting on the dock and waiting for a manatee to rise or a dolphin to hunt, is worth a week at some distant shore. Or walking miles along the ‘Gold Coast’ chasing treasure or fossilized shark teeth reminds one that home is the place where we grumble the most but are treated the best.