ON BEING A SNOW BIRD

Snow birds have always interested me – you know the people who live in cold northern climates and escape to warmer southern climates in the dead of winter. I lived in Florida for six years in the 1960s . My mother was a permanent resident and I visited often, some times twice a year right up until 1984 when she died. Living there and having a home to go to while I visited made me feel more like a native than a snow bird. The snow birds were those very pale people who swam in the very cold ocean on days that Floridians wouldn't even venture to the beach.

This year I officially became a snow bird, travelling by car with my husband to Sarasota to visit a friend who had rented a condo for the winter. All of this was pretty new to me because I had never, in all my visits, been to Sarasota. When I lived there and during the time that I visited my mother she lived in southern Florida.

The drive down was fun as we watched the outside temperature begin to increase by a degree an hour and the snow gave way to bits of greenery, glorious sun and our first palm tree sighting. Boots and coats were relegated to the trunk as we donned shorts and sandals. Bliss.

Crossing into Florida from Georgia was, for me, a major shock. Suddenly there was traffic and lots of it. There were visitor information centres and lots of them. People at the visitor information centres wanted to help us get into Disney for practically nothing in exchange for a mere 2 hour tour of their Timeshare facility. They would even give us a reduced rate in their luxurious and well appointed resort. Ha! We thought, why not? We have no intention of buying anyway and if it saves us millions of dollars it can't hurt. We nearly did it....

Fortunately, we came to our senses. Disney, in my opinion, needs and deserves more time and attention than we could give it. I love Disney and to show it to my husband properly wouldn't be possible on our tight schedule. Better we leave it to our next Florida visit.

Instead we drove to St. Augustine, the oldest continuously settled city in the United States. It was during the drive from the border to St. Augustine that I started to wonder....what has happened to Florida. When did it become this awful urban sprawl? The traffic going along the freeway was bumper to bumper and moving at lightning speed. Going south on I95 through Jacksonville mid-morning on a Sunday seemed busier than rush hour traffic in Toronto. And it didn't let up until we pulled off the freeway to St. Augustine.

If you have been to Florida but not St. Augustine I would highly recommend that you do go there. It's a charming little city with preserved buildings, Victorian and older, that have been maintained in their original state. Owners of downtown houses and businesses can change the inside in any way they wish but must keep the outside historical. There are many ways to see St. Augustine; walking is a great option since it's a compact town or you can hop onto one of the tour 'trains', open air motorized vehicles that stop at about 20 or more locations allowing you to get on and off at will. The buildings and the colour of the downtown are lovely to look at and the pace is slow and easy. After a restful two day stop over in St. Augustine we continued our way through the unbelievable traffic to the Gulf Coast of Florida and Sarasota.

Sarasota, unlike St. Augustine, is an urban sprawl with four lane highways going through it and over it and under it. Sarasota beaches are wonderful, very fine white sand that is almost like talcum powder to the touch. For some reason it doesn't get too hot to walk on barefoot even at the height of the day's heat. There's an abundance of great restaurants, golfing, tennis, fishing, shopping pretty much anything that a snow bird, or a resident, could want. The problem for me, once again, was the weaving in and out through traffic that had to be done in order to get to the beach, the restaurant or the shopping. For this small town Brockvillian, while enjoying immensely the sunshine and the break from our every day lives, it didn't feel restful. St. Augustine, on the other hand, with its old world charm and quieter atmosphere will definitely be my destination of choice, should we decide to go back some winter.

Since coming back home the weather has been a mixed bag of snow, rain, sleet, spring-like temperatures followed by more snow and wind and rain and sleet and cold weather. I have found myself surfing the net for rental deals in the St. Augustine area of Florida, particularly for the month of March and more particularly for accommodation that is pet friendly so we can all go, us and the dogs. The pictures of palm trees, blue skies, bluer ocean, and the memory of walking shoeless on the beach is becoming more and more enticing. Winter is fine. Cross country skiing is fun, we love it and the dogs run along with us but March is something else. March with its sporadic weather patterns has, quite frankly, been getting on my nerves. I think next year, come the first of March, we will be packing up the car, doggies in back, and heading for Florida.

No matter your preference, busy city or quiet seaside town, there's nothing like sitting in a beach hut restaurant, sun on your face, eating shrimp and conch fritters, a glass of cold Pinot Grigio in your hand while looking at the ocean on a very warm and breezy afternoon. It makes it all the better knowing people back home are battling snow, icy winds and shovelling driveways. I'm going to like being a snow bird.