Some people feel obligated to comment on anything they see posted. Unfortunately the world is upside down right now and people are looking for hope. Sometimes they want to shed their negativity by passing it to others. I have found that looking for positive things to photograph and post seem to bring out the best in people. Rather than talking about the good Florida has to offer, I would post photos of it as a picture speaks a thousand words.

Of course you may get photo critics. Such as some who walk the hallways of UHH. But take the critical points and try and improve the photography.

Life is full of choices and some people just don't know how to make good choices let alone choose their words wisely.

A good friend of mine told me a long long time ago... "If you don't have something nice to say... don't say it at all." That has worked for me.

I grew up in the Philadelphia area. After serving in the USAF, I moved to Florida in 1969. In 1970, bought a house in Altamonte Springs off Balmy Beach Drive. That was before the Altamonte Mall was built, and before Disney opened. By the time you moved there the town had already more than tripled from 1970 mainly thanks to Disney. Disney totally changed central Florida. In 1980 I moved to the Bear Lake area to get away from the crowds in Altamonte. That area also built up.

Not only did the street traffic keep growing, so did the river and lake boat traffic. The St Johns River got so crowded I'd tow my boat to Deland and head north instead of launching at the boat ramp by the I-4 bridge.

In 1992 I moved to the Pacific NW in the foothills of Mt Rainier, best move I ever made. I shouldn't have said that, we don't need any more people moving here either.

I still visit family and friends in Florida every year, but only in the winter months. We stay in Astoria where it's still peaceful. We rent a pontoon boat to revisit Silver Glen Springs, my favorite place to go every chance I had when I lived there.

In the 1970s-'90s, I had a wealthy aunt who had lived in Chicago suburbs most of her life. She had a condo in Jupiter, FL, which she occupied mid-October through mid-April, and a condo in Hinsdale, Il, where she lived the rest of the year. But she couldn't resist flying back and forth all the time to see friends in both places.

At the Carolina beaches, we can always tell who the Canadian tourists are. They're swimming in the ocean without wet suits at Spring break in early April.

Wealthy Floridians have lots of summer homes in Western NC. Real estate prices have sky-rocketed there since the 1970s.