Some Tidbits

A few interesting details about our new town to give you all a real sense of the place.

Melbourne and Palm Bay are full of Mexican restaurants, medical offices and furniture stores. If you drive around, that is what you'll see. If you look closer, there are also a lot of churches of all different kinds. People here must be very religious, in poor health from enjoying too much rice and beans and they break furniture a lot.

Baking here is a little bit different because of the heat and humidity. Bread rises much faster. Coconut oil stays completely liquid in my cupboard. Brown sugar from the store has hard lumps in it before I even open the bag for the first time.

It rains almost every day. But, it rarely rains for more than 5 minutes. So, every single day is incredibly bright and sunny with random, brief rain a constant threat. The playground always has puddles. Always.

There's a lot of redneckery around, but the hicks here are a little different from the ones we're used to. They put monster wheels on their trucks and dress in camo and have pro-firearm bumper stickers, but they are also really into fishing and lounging at the beach.

Everyone here smokes. Left and right, any time I'm out in public or around our apartment complex, people are lighting cigarettes. Didn't see that so much in Atlanta.

Tons of folks out on bikes- not just by the beach, pretty much everywhere. Very bicycle-friendly place. Also, lots of people here have boats, motorcycles and RV's.

There are homeless people everywhere. Either that, or a lot of greasy-looking, skinny folks like to loiter while toting around backpacks and carts full of stuff. Especially around shopping strips, parks and the beach.

Lots of residential areas are very mixed- gated, recently developed neighborhoods are right across the road from old, crumbling, tiny houses. Lots of really old and really new homes, big and small, all thrown up against one another in most areas of town. I was worried about the road we're buying on because there are a few old, grungy, ill-kept homes on our street, but now I see that is pretty normal for here so I don't feel as nervous.