Florida Bound

Taxi arrived at 5:15, snow was falling on the Twin Cities so the ride to the AP took a little longer. I was pulled for additional screening 2x at MSP. Flight from DTW to FMY was delayed nearly an hour giving me time to grab a breakfast sandwich at the Coney Island Hot Dog place, hands down the best airport food I've ever tried. The same flight crew from MPS to DTW to DTW-FMY a first in all my travel experience. Weather in FL 44 degrees when we took off but a predicted high of 62 for FMY. My seat mates, a couple from Madison, Bill a retired landscape architect and Betsey a retired UW-Madison admissions person. Bill told me the greatest story about how he got to college. His high school principle pulled him aside one afternoon and told him that he had already paid his tuition for the 1st semester at Madison and would be really disappointed if he didn’t go. Bill’s dad had died when he was a little kid, mom worked all sorts of jobs, he had no intentions of going to college b/c no one in his family but he didn't want to disappoint his high school principle and decided to give college a try. The principle obviously saw something special in Bill who not only went to Madison but spent 40+ years there after earning his graduate degree in design/architecture at Harvard.. Tracy’s flight arrived at 11:00 but mine didn’t get in until 2:00; but no worries, Tracy located a Starbucks and free Wii Fi so she kept busy with work. When we got to the car rental place the clerk was really pushing convertibles so Tracy offered to pay the difference and we took off in a convertible bound for Sanibel about a 45 minute drive. However, after about 15 minutes of cruising down the Florida highway we pulled over and put the top up because we were freezing even with the windows rolled up and the heat cranked. We got to the hotel and Tracy did a little more work. We went down to the beach around sunset and despite the chilly temps it was really beautiful We went out for a nice dinner at Matzaluna The Italian Kitchen and then back to the hotel around 9:00.