Hey Bugs.....
We first came to the area in 1970 and needless to say a lot has changed in all the years since.
That said, it's still a great place to live compared to many other beach towns. But not nearly as nice as before the real estate people went bonkers and developed so much of it. Here's just one example...in the photo below....which two POS structures stick out like a sore thumb compared to the existing native architecture. That's right...the POS Hampton Inn that was allowed to be built right on our island's main street and that other huge POS at the top of the photo 1 block away from the main ramp to the beach for that main street. The 7-11 is right across the road and gets enough traffic as it is. This place gets gridlocked traffic-wise with the least little event they have and let me tell you the past 5 years it seems like we have events every other week. Every Tom Dick and Harry is trying to get in on the action.....sheesh....you have to really know your back roads around here to navigate during those times.
They've also gone crazy with traffic lights and cross walks...most of which have those lights that light up and it's illegal to go through them while the lights are on even though the pedestrian has already reached the other side.
We're on a barrier island with only 2 bridges across the Intercoastal waterway and one of those is a draw bridge so that gets a little tricky.
All that said.....I live 2 blocks from the ocean so screw the traffic if I want to go surfing I just go. It's a 15 minute walk to our Inlet where we usually have the most consistent surf.
There's a ton of places you could live in Florida other than here that are nice. Savannah is also a cool place. It just depends on what you want in a lifestyle.
This is the Ponce De Leon Inlet, where the surf is the most consistent. We're on the south side, where you see all the cars parked. The one good thing the county did was turn the whole area into a park. You can see the boardwalks in the second pic. It backs right up to our Coast Guard station too.
