5 years ago we moved from the middle west to Florida. Life here was filled with the expenses of surprises and unexpected air.

• My husband and I moved from mid -west to Florida five years ago, and it comes with surprises.

• Summers are more cruel than we expected, and we were surprised by the high cost of living.

• We were also surprised by the strong Panhandle southern culture and the wooded landscape.

I have always dreamed of moving to sunny, tropical florid, especially after I grew up in the cold winter.

Every year, my family would go south or visit my relatives in Orlando, and I quickly fell in love with the state. At one point, I even wondered the opportunity to go south to university.

But my dream did not become reality only after graduation when my Minnesota -born man was deployed at the military base Florida Panhandle;

Although we both had visited Central Floridos Tourist Hot PlacesNone of us knew much about the quieter, more rural Panhandle.

Sometimes it still seems surreal that we can visit the beach in December, but Blstrarting Hot is humbly translated.

After five years in Destine, we learned some surprising things about living in Florida as two mid -west players.

Florida is not hot all year long, especially Panhandle.

We moved to Florida in July, so the intense summer heat was not surprised by us. But the cool winters caught us from the guard.

Destin is about 300 miles north of Miami, so our seasonal changes are more drastic. Late autumn and early spring cooled, crunchy weather, and winters are the lowest in the 20s of the 20s.

Our Winter Panhandle is gentle compared to Midwest, but we still did not expect Florida to have noticeable changes every season.

In fact, our pipes frozen at the first Christmas at our home – and this January we even had some inches of snow. The hearts of our Central West were delighted to see that the neighborhood was covered with snow, and our puppies with their lives.

Worry about hurricanes is stressful than we expected.

Most longtime florides are used to hurricanes, often not worried about any storm, below category 3. However, my husband and I are still very worried about the storms after a few months after we moved.

We lost power for three days, and without the air conditioner or electricity, we felt that we were camping at our home. My parents visited, so we kept the generator running and spent time playing board games.

Tightening with a hurricane threat is only part of life in Florida – and especially stress, knowing that my husband can be required to evacuate military aircraft. It would be necessary for me to be bravely storm or evacuate without his help.

Living in Florida is usually more expensive than we thought.

One of the biggest shocks of moving to Florida was the high cost of living, and it seems that it is only getting worse. It is considered one of the most expensive countries in which they live.

As the Middle Western players, we have never encountered highway tolls. Imagine your shock when we found out we would pay $ 4 to visit Destin from our home in Nicville.

If we want to visit the beach, eat at our favorite restaurants or shop in national retail, we need to swallow this toll or drive an extra hour to avoid it.

We also couldn’t believe the cost of home and car insurance in Florida. Recently, we have tasted a new home insurance policy when our initial coverage will be more than doubled.

Our car insurance is also much more expensive than it was when we lived in the middlewks. Over the past five years, annual policy prices have risen constantly.

In fact, Florida is one of the most expensive states with automatic insurance … But I think it makes sense when you see how fast people are going here!

Florida’s summer is the cruel “Midwesterners” for us.

In the middle west, summer is the beginning of beautiful weather and long west field. After a few months of encouragement, the summer has always been a welcome change. In Florida, this is the opposite.

We are now afraid of miserable hot summers when temperatures can get into triple digits. By July and August. Moisture lies and unbearable, so we are constantly drawn to AC operation.

Ironically, being inside to escape the heat feels like we are used to the brutal winters of the Midwest Winters.

However, we learned to maximize the use of Florida in the summer. We love to cool in the pool or lie on the local white and sessions on the beaches. And, unlike snowy mid -west, we don’t have to worry about icy roads or a blizzard that directs our plans.

The state is larger and more diverse than we understood.

After moving from the middle west, we were surprised by the diversity. Florida Panhandle is located in the village with forests and wooded lands – a pronounced contrast to wetlands of Everglades and Central Florida Entertainment Parks.

The state itself is approximately 450 miles long, which means that driving to Key West will take 11 hours of Destin. If we go south of Orlando, we usually order a flight instead of driving.

Even culture is changing drastically. Panhandle is a strong influence on southern our closeness to Georgia and Alabama.

Compare this to the influence of the South Florida Cuba and the Caribbean, and it’s hard to believe we live in the same state.

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