orlando - city of sun? or crime?

we’ve been in orlando since wednesday evening and we’re finally back with a few stories to tell!
we spent all of thursday apartment hunting, solo in the morning, and then joined by a realtor on thursday afternoon. turns out most the area has gone ‘condo,’ converting once affordable rentals into overpriced shoeboxes for sale! so we were confronted with an unbelievable rental shortage. it was a ‘rent now or don’t rent at all’ situation. our last stop on thursday evening proved promising, we were all set to rent a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment.
back on friday morning it turned out the prices had increased considerably since the day before. we were disappointed, but we still put down a deposit to hold the apartment and the newly quoted price and then headed back out on our search.
turns out, we found a great alternative, also 2/2 that we absolutely loved (and less than one block from our original location choice!). we spent the rest of the day double checking our choice around orlando, but didn’t find anything we liked more. so we placed a deposit on our new discovery and headed back to the original choice to retract our money.
long story, i know – but it gets longer! when we told the first choice of our new locale we were met with “oh no.” curiosity killed the cat, and we said: “what?” after much prompting, the guy told us to check the crime reports, and then elaborated for me to “carry my keys as a weapon and park in well lit areas.” well, needless to say we were sufficiently scared into questioning our decision, so we headed BACK to choice #2 to see what was so wrong with it – and we couldn’t see anything. gated community – beautiful landscaping, screened in balcony, lake with center fountain, pool, jacuzzi complete with waterfall – what’s not to love? we circled around the community and passed a cop car. oh great i thought… it IS crime ridden. on our second lap, we noted that there was no uniformed cop, just a guy who appeared to actually live there. while i was on the phone panicking with my mother, nate hopped out to talk to the off duty cop.
turns out, the cop said the community we chose is certainly no worse than any others nearby (and was actually preferable to our original choice).
point is.. we’re not in blacksburg anymore. no more leaving visible valuables in the car, leaving my door unlocked while i’m home, in general casually disregarding common sense safety precautions.
i guess it comes with living in the city. it’s part of access to great museums, restaurants, attractions, and the shining sun. and although there are places that more than meet the compromise, we’re still excited about our move. it was a bit of a reality check, but we’ve recovered! we spent saturday looking for aspects of the city to be excited about- and we found them. after a quick starbuck’s breakfast, we headed out for some grove fresh orange juice, a fantastic lunch in the heart of the city, wandered around an eclectic downtown bookstore, mused around a central market, explored a lakeside park, mini-golfed in the sun, and then headed to an out of the way mexican dinner with a live mariachi band followed by a trip to pleasure island, a short shuttle trip from our hotel. said in a few words, we found some redeeming qualities in the city that reminded us of our excitement in moving there :)