Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the lucrative snowbird season along coastal Northwest, Florida.
Rod Johnson and Vicki O’Brien of Rochester, New York prefer their winters along the 26 miles of South Walton County. In Upstate New York they say it's gray and cold, but here on Thanksgiving Day the mercury is in the seventies'. In fact, they'll enjoy swimming in the surf as late as December. The South Walton County Tourist Development Council has marketed heavily at trade shows in the upper Midwest and Canada.