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10 Things We Love About Gainesville, Gainesville, FL 10. Gainesville’s great variety of live entertainment. If you're bored here, you're boring! Each week brings a landslide of music, dance, art, lectures, traveling shows and homegrown talent. Gainesville has many venues and fills them with fun.10 Things We Love About Gainesville
9. The beautiful weather, perfect for outdoor activity year-round. We arrived on a crisp night in October 1997 under what seemed like a million stars. Days brought invigorating sunshine. Hike, bike, whatever. It's all yours, all the time. Us? We swim and walk. June through November, tropical showers around 4 p.m. cool things off.
8. Close proximity to beaches, cities, interstates and airports while retaining a small-town feel. We can be at either coast, three large cities, the Disney complex, and four airports within 2 1/2 hours by car. And, living near I-75, we get lots of company which we love. We're connected. Still, Gainesville is a separate world: idyllic, cozy.
7. The excellent medical care. Whether you need routine maintenance or have an emergency, feel confident. Medicine is hallowed here and excellence abounds. Jonellen left her gall bladder at North Florida Regional Medical Center on short notice. They did a perfect job.
6. Great friends and great conversations. Have you noticed that everyone in Gainesville is engaged in something interesting? And they'll happily take time to tell you about it. We like the combo of new ideas and social graciousness that exists here.
5. Farms and farmers’ markets - what bounty! Gainesville is surrounded by farms, many of them organic. Several times a week, the crops roll in to outdoor markets around town. Once in a while, there's a farm tour. Don't miss it. Our favorite crop: blueberries in June.
4. The energy and hopefulness that students bring to the community. If you don't like young people, you're in the wrong place. Between UF's 50,000 students and Santa Fe's 16,000, the place fairly sings with promise and laughter. And it's a fine spot to raise a family.
3. The pristine springs and rivers nearby. Clear water bubbles up from underground at millions of gallons a day. Swimming in the springs, and tubing and canoeing on the rivers spark pure joy. The Ichetucknee tube ride ambles beneath the lacy arch of tree branches. Birds with wings spread to dry and turtles sunning on driftwood watch you float past.
2. Gator sports – especially our favorite: basketball! We first attended a BillyBall game in 1997. Realizing the Donovan era was going to be electric, we bought season tickets immediately and kept them. A thrill a minute.
1. The area’s magnificent trees and the community’s efforts to preserve them. We have heard it said that most communities have 33 percent tree cover. Gainesville has 66 percent tree cover. And much of it is live oak, green all year. You need a permit to cut a tree down. Lying outdoors in flickering patches of deep, leafy shade, you recognize the true meaning of peace.
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