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If It’s Snowbird Season, Why Can’t We Shoot ‘Em?
Thoughts from a year-round Florida transplant
We played hooky yesterday and went over to have lunch in the small town where we first moved when we came to Florida from California in early 2020. Punta Gorda is located on Charlotte Harbor on SW Florida’s Gulf Coast, and has always reminded me of a similar Southern California town where I grew up, Redlands.
Punta Gorda was ground-zero for Hurricane Charley in 2004. This small, extremely powerful hurricane destroyed much of the town. The town responded by building parks all along the waterfront and by rebuilding to survive 150-mph/241-kph winds and storm surge. As a result, 18 years later, Punta Gorda did much better with Hurricane Ian — a stronger storm than even Charley, which covered much of the SW Florida coast (we survived, too).
We went to the Pier, a semi-hip restaurant we’d enjoyed before we moved. It’s located in a modest tourist attraction, Fisherman’s Village, which houses several restaurants and a lot of fancy small boutiques. Fisherman’s survived Hurricane Ian well, and is already decorated for the holiday season.
We hadn’t been back to Punta much except for couple’s social events (see our ‘age gap’ fun, including the ‘Monkcident’) since we’ve moved about 40 minutes away, and closer to the beach …
