Prior to last year, I had not heard of the villages before. This is an enormous community north of Orlando that is a retirement community. Friends of my parents who we call uncle Alfred and aunt Janet, moved there in August 2022 rather quickly and unexpectedly they talked about moving to Florida before not loving the cold weather in Pennsylvania. But they made this decision rather quickly, bought a new house that was being built, and within a month had moved down.

Here are some fun facts about the villages

• Over 145,000 people live there, both full-time and snowbirds
• It has 119 outdoor pools not including ones that may be owned by individuals. This includes family pools, lap pools, recreational pools.
• There are thousands of clubs that you could join golfing, pickle ball, bridge, friends of West Chester, Pennsylvania, walkers, you name it. And if it doesn’t exist, and you wanted to create it, you can make your own club.
• Over 50 golf courses, both executive and championship courses. The executive, courses are free and the championship course courses cost like $15.

When we mentioned to John that Al and Janet moved into the villages, he referred to it as the STD capital of Florida. no chance of them getting pregnant.

Al and Janet clearly love it there. They golf three times a week, sometimes with couples, sometimes with girlfriends, they go on walking paths, p swim in the pools. Their first year was a little rough, because it was the hottest summer on record in a while, experienced hurricanes, and aweful storms. It’s wonderful to see them so happy.

We didn’t stay p terribly long, because I had another class that night . They treated us to lunch in a local restaurant. There’s so many restaurants and markets and shops and stores and everything you need is there. You never have to leave.