Impressions

So what's Clermont like? It's a fairly small town about 15-20 miles from the center of Orlando. It was a very small town until just a few years ago, when the real estate boom reached this far and developments sprang up.

Clermont and Minneola merge together quite a bit, with Clermont spreading east, west, and south, and Minneola to the north. There are two main arteries -- east/west 50 and north/south 27 (both four-lane roads, but not highways). The two intersect very close to downtown Clermont and divide the area into quadrants that I can generalize about.

The south-west quadrant is where the Lake Katherine house is located. It's very residential in general, mostly older and custom-built houses. This area was probably developed earlier than the other quadrants. The landscape is spotted with lakes big and small, and the roads are small and twisty. There's nearly no retail infrastructure, with the nearest grocery store being about 15 minutes from our house. I really like this area, but since the highway leading to Orlando is to the east of Clermont on 50, it's quite a commute for JJ.

The north-west quadrant is dominated by Lake Minneola. It also has older residential communities, but it's not upscale as the SW. There are more cookie-cutter developments than custom-built houses. I'd say this was mostly developed after the SW area. Downtown Clermont is here; it hasn't seen any kind of renaissance yet -- it's pretty empty.

The north-east was probably developed third. It's nearly all fairly recent, cookie-cutter neighborhoods.

And the south-east is still building out. It's very cookie-cutter, copycat houses piled one on top of another. There's more empty space here than other areas.

Retail is concentrated around the main roads, 50 and 27. It's almost exclusively chains -- Target and Walmart, Panera, Friendly's, Long John Silvers, etc. Pretty much everything you may need is here somewhere or will be soon.

My impressions so far are fairly positive. I really like all of the water around here -- it seems like every time you turn a corner, there's another lake. People are much friendlier to strangers than I experienced in California. It's wonderful to have family around, and it seems really great for A.

I think the big negative is the generic nature of many of the stores and subdivisions. Row after row of identical roofs going up a high is pretty depressing. But that's not everywhere, and there still are a few small stores to patronize.

I'm feeling fairly comfortable in the area. I'm really looking forward to getting our stuff (Monday!) and starting to live a normal day-to-day life. I reserve the right to change my opinions after that. :)