At lunch yesterday, S commented on how boring the shopping, dining, and entertaining options are where we all live in southwestern Michigan. S and her husband, along with M, are snowbirds who live in the same condo complex up north as Earl and I when it gets too unbearably hot in Naples.
I hadn’t thought about it until that conversation, but S is right. Naples is filled with tons of restaurants, shopping venues, supermarkets, and entertainment from bingo to live music to you name it. The St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, MI area is home to Elks, FOP, and dive bar hangouts. Craft breweries too.
I checked the resident populations of each community to see if Naples qualified as a major city. It’s fulltime population hovers at around 19 thousand, while the St. Joe/BH population is around 17 thousand. Not that far off.
But there are extenuating circumstances. Naples, a tourist destination of long standing, is second home to some of the rich and famous. Seven billionaires live here. St. Joe/BH is working on being a tourist destination and second home to Chicago millionaires. There’s probably not a billionaire within miles.
Naples offers amazing supermarkets: Publix, Fresh Market, Seed to Table, Walmart. St. Joe/BH has Martin’s, Meijer, and Roger’s. I will say Roger’s has Boar’s Head deli meats, but that’s about as fancy as it gets.
The fast food chains – Arby’s, Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s – are considered acceptable food options up north; not here. Instead, there are seafood, Italian and German restaurants to consider. St. Joe/BH has a good Italian restaurant, but enjoying the others requires a trip to Chicago.
Still, From Mother’s Day to Halloween, St. Joe/BH has advantages. The weather is replete with rain, sun, warmth, clouds. Nothing too extreme for an extended period of time. Bugs are not that unbearable. Sunsets are magnificent. Fruit and vegetable stands offer produce that was picked this morning for you to eat tonight. It might not be Naples, but it’s not that bad.
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