Weekend Trip to Florida

by admin

I had some events to attend in Florida over the third weekend of September 2022. This is a post about my flights back and forth, and the places that I visited along the sidelines.

Alligator

There were some events that I wanted to attend over the weekend of September 17-18, in the Bradenton-Sarasota region. At the beginning of August, JetBlue was running a promotion of $25 off $50 per one-way direct flight, and they happened to operate flights between Washington DC and Orlando at just above $50 before taxes. Compared with skyrocketing air fares a few months ago, this was a bargain even without the promotion. Of the possible airports to fly into (Sarasota/Tampa/Fort Myers/Orlando), Orlando was the farthest from where I needed to be, about 2 hours’ drive. But the roundtrip flight with JetBlue, after taxes and promotions, came out just above 100 dollars, a perfect way to use the voucher from my not-so-pleasant delay experience with them earlier this year, and they had a schedule that worked with me, so I decided to give them another try this time.

JetBlue Flight 2423 from Washington Reagan to Orlando

To make it on time to Bradenton at noon, I needed to take the first flight to Orlando on the morning of September 17, departing Reagan National Airport at 7am. This was too early for public transport, so I called a rideshare to the airport.
I joined the line for security at 5:45am and it was sort of long. After clearing security at 6am, I figured I had enough time to head to “American Tap Room”, the PPS restaurant for a breakfast, which was sort of full but certainly not busy as the waiters appeared relaxed.

Breakfast

From “American Tap Room”, a restaurant that participated in PPS. Last time I ordered fried chicken, which I didn’t quite like. This time I switched to toast and eggs, and it’s a lot better.
Boarding Flight to Orlando
Delta Airlines A320s at Reagan Airport
Distant horizons glowed under the rising sun.

Officially, boarding started at 6:25am. After the detour for breakfast, I only reached the boarding gate at 6:31am, and there was nobody waiting in line.

JetBlue Airlines 2423
Embraer 190 (N353JB)
Seat 6D
Scheduled Departure – 7:00am
Actual Departure – 7:01am
Scheduled Arrival – 9:19am
Actual Arrival – 8:52am
1 hour and 51 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

While the security checkpoint seemed busy this Saturday morning, there was no line for takeoff on the ramp, so we were off to a ontime departure. Here’s a video of the takeoff:

It was undercast most of the way, so I spent most of the flight in naps since I wasn’t used to getting up before 4am.
Meanwhile, for drink services, I picked cranberry juice for it sounding exotic, which ended up containing only 15% juice with lots of sugar, which certainly helped with my naps ~~(if I wasn’t overwhelmed with guilt)~~.

Orlando Sanford Airport
A base for Allegiant Airlines.
Seminole Expressway over Lake Jesup
North Orlando Suburb
Overlooking Orlando Airport
Lakes in South Orlando Suburb

Fast forward to Orlando, where the pilots welcomed me with the softest touchdown that I remembered in years. Here’s a video of the landing:

After that, I grabbed a rental car at the airport and headed for Bradenton. Unfortunately, I took the wrong route heading out of the airport, which set me back by quite some time. To make me feel better, I attributed that to the poor internet connection in the rental car garage and my navigation app~~, not me misreading some road signs~~.

Adding that to my Walmart shopping trip for supplies, I arrived in Bradenton slightly late.😑

The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature

September 17 was Smithsonian’s Museum Day, so the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in downtown Bradenton offered free tickets (and parking was free on weekends at the municipal parking lot across the street). After my event, I decided to pay it a visit.

The museum featured a small pool where three manatees were raised (the official term was “rescued”). I hadn’t heard of this species so that’s certainly refreshing. Apart from that, I was probably too old to be excited with animal specimens and giant skeletons.

Manatee
Manatee
Manatee
Manatee
Mastodon Skeleton

Exhibited in the lobby of the museum right after entrance. This set of skeleton was unearthed from Aucilla River. The excavation and reassembly was lengthy and meticulous work.

Since it’s free ticket day, the museum was sort of crowded, and I wasn’t that much into its exhibits. So I didn’t stay long in the museum before heading to the Airbnb house where I would spend the next two nights.

Myakka River State Park

The next day, in my spare time, I decided to visit Myakka River State Park, about 25 minutes’ drive from Sarasota. The park built on the first state-designated wild and scenic river, and featured a wide range of eco-systems and outdoor activities. In particular, I was rather fascinated with the idea of paddling a rental kayak along Myakka River, among swarms of alligators on its shores. Amazingly, I did some search and found it’s mostly considered safe as long as one doesn’t provoke the alligators.

So after I was done with the events for the day, I raced towards the park, hoping to beat the closing time of the kayak rental shop at Myakka Outpost.
Unfortunately, upon entering the park, I was informed that due to “seasonal flooding”, most of the park was closed, including hiking trails, boat rental, airboat tours, and its wildlife observation tower. The only part that’s open was the park roads.
Nonetheless, I still decided to give the park a quick tour, by going wildlife spotting along the park road. And it turned out to be a rather fruitful day.

First off, I spotted a few cranes next to Myakka Outpost.

Crane
Crane
Crane
Crane
Crane
Crane

Next there’s this gorgeously looking bird (red shouldered hawk) resting on a tree next to the park road. It’s such a great model for my camera, cooperatively making various poses.

Bird
Bird
Bird
Bird
Bird
Bird
Bird

Finally, the star of the day, the alligators. To begin, I found this one on the park road. Probably alerted by my car, it budged into the grass.

Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator

After that, I ran into a few of them. With seasonal flooding, water reached the edge of the park road in many places, making them easy to spot (from the safety of a car).

Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator
Alligator

Bird

Despite slightly out of focus, I captured the moment when this bird launched a worm out of the ground (red arrow) as its prey.

Weather was nice today, the interplay of colors between green marshes and blue skies was fascinating.

Marshes
Marshes
Marshes
Myakka River
Myakka River

Myakka River

While I did ran into a few alligators during my visit, that was a far cry from the swarms of alligators from some photos online. So after leaving the park, I decided to try my luck at a nearby place called “Alligator Bridge”. Unfortunately, that place didn’t live up to its name, as I found these serene scenes of Myakka River winding through south Florida marshes, but no alligator in sight.

South Lido Key Beach

After coming back from Myakka River State Park, there was still some daylight left, so I headed over to South Lido Key Beach.
While I’d love for some swimming, I arrived a bit late, so I only had time to watch the sunset.

Sunset over Sea
Sunset over Sea
Sunset over Sea
Sunset over Sea
Sunset Glow

It’s actually a nice experience watching the sunset, the croaking sound of flocks of returning birds certainly made the scene more impressive.

South Lido Key Beach
South Lido Key Beach
South Lido Key Beach
South Lido Key Beach

JetBlue Flight 2324 from Orlando to Washington Reagan

Fast forward to the morning of September 19, a Monday morning when I would be flying back to Washington DC from Orlando. Just like two days ago, I had to get up early, and checked out of the Airbnb room in Sarasota just before 6am to make the flight that was to depart at 10:20am.

I was almost certain that I hit some debris at I75, driving along the leftmost lane at full speed. While I reached Orlando unscathed, I certainly didn’t like such a dangerous encounter.

As Google predicted, I got into some traffic jam along I4 around Davenport. It’s only 7:30am in the morning, and it felt like phantom congestion.

Finally, I reached the airport about 1.5 hours before my flight, and I must say I quite liked the modern feelings of Orlando Airport.

Central Terminal Headhouse

I liked how the rooftop windows were letting in natural light, reflecting the status of the sunshine state.
APM Station
Past security. This futuristic design was sort of in line with the many theme parks in the region.
APM Station
At the northwest satellite concourse.
Northwest Satellite Concourse Headhouse
An spacious atrium with tropical resort-style chairs and indoor plants, giving it a relaxing feel.
JetBlue ERJ190 (N228JB)
My plane to Washington DC.
JetBlue ERJ190 (N306JB)

Parked next to us. During my visit JetBlue operated out of Orlando Airport’s gate 1-9, but had since moved to the new Terminal C.

Food Offering at The Club MCO

I had just over 30 minutes to spend before my flight’s boarding time, so I visited The Club MCO with my PPS membership, located just off the APM station. The lounge wasn’t very large and felt a bit crowded , but there’s no difficulty finding a seat (PPS website mentioned that it may restrict entry during the afternoon peak hours). The entire breakfast options were basically the few trays photo’d here, which were decent but lacked variety.

JetBlue Airlines 2324
Embraer 190 (N228JB)
Seat 6A
Scheduled Departure – 10:20am
Actual Departure – 10:24am
Scheduled Arrival – 12:27pm
Actual Arrival – 12:11pm
1 hour and 47 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

I found it interesting that the flight number to Orlando was “2423”, and now from Orlando it’s flipped to “2324”. It must be an interesting coincidence.

The flight back began with a very long taxi around Orlando Airport for takeoff from runway 17R.
Here’s a video of the takeoff, which, despite the airport tour, was only 4 minutes late.

Emirates Airlines B77W
One of the few foreign widebodies at Orlando.
Overlooking Orlando Airport
Overlooking Downtown Orlando
Raleigh, NC

After that, it’s broken clouds most of the way. After hours of driving, I was rather conscious despite waking up early this morning, so I spent most of the flight on my cell phone.
That’s when I found out, despite JetBlue’s promise of free, high-speed in-flight WiFi, its coverage on the east coast was, at best, spotty.

Fast forward to landing, it’s another river visual approach into Reagan National Airport, my second in two weeks.
Here’s a video: