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Sunday, January 14, 2024

Going to the Dogs? Florida Bound on a Three-Day Weekend

We flew to Seattle from Bellingham Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight at the Doubletree across International Boulevard from the airport.

We both slept well and calculate that after a week at home our internal clocks have moved back about seven hours from the Cyprus time zone, using the one-day-per-time-zone rule of thumb.

With three hours still to go ((Cyprus is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time), the timing was perfect to fly from our currently frigid Pacific Northwest to Fort Myers, Florida, three hours ahead of us in the Eastern time zone.

It hadn’t dawned on us that this is a three-day weekend, Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow, until we saw how busy the airport seemed this morning.

For example, here’s the view as we held off and let everyone else from our train crowd up the N Gates escalator first. 



The terminal itself was even busier than the photo below indicates, and we had to work to find seats in the Alaska Lounge.



We were fortunate to be 1-2 on the upgrade list for this SEA-RSW flight of about 2600 miles, and even more fortunate when our upgrades cleared last night and we find ourselves seated in bulkhead Row 1 D-F in this Boeing non-MAX 737-900.



We’d seen a number of “emotional support dogs”
around the terminal, so weren’t too surprised to see one board our flight.



He or she was followed by two under-seat canines carried by their presumably husband and wife owners (not that we should presume anything in these modern times).





The dogs are already breaking the rules, as they’re supposed to remain completely inside their carriers at all times. 

It’s not for us to worry, as we enjoy our view of northern Wyoming.



Our meals are tasteless.



The cheesecake, decorated with a Hawaiian orchid, makes up for it. Delicious!



The time is flying by, so to speak, and we’re scheduled to arrive in a little over three hours.

Once landed at RSW (Southwest Florida International Airport), we’ll try to make a quick decision between a supposedly preset zone taxi rate and Uber or Lyft for the half-hour ride into Fort Myers and the Banyan Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton.

We akways do our best to research research such details in advance, but this time without success. We’ll just have to improvise.

In the meantime, we enjoy the sunset just north of Wichita, Kansas, and a smooth flight with great service from our flight attendant.



After we land, we check prices and can catch an Uber $5-6 cheaper than a cab. You can choose any arrival door, and within five minutes Sean is driving us to our hotel in a luxurious Honda Pilot.

It’s definitely a good start to our visit.


1 comment:

Kathy and Brian said...

Very wise to escape minus stupid weather U2…. Enjoy another get away. patty and I have to wait awhile yet for our little adventure,
Bonnie

It was sheer luck that Alaska’s Florida sale enabled us to escape the cold, but we’re liking it.