Weekend Getaway II

I am about to start the third of four 4-day weeks. Last weekend, I had a speaking engagement in Miami Beach on Saturday morning, so a colleague and I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale early Friday morning, where we got fleeced by a taxi driver who apparently took the long way to Miami Beach.

The Fort Lauderdale airport has a nice assortment of planes hanging from the ceiling. Gives a whole new meaning to "Hold my plane!"


I liked this sea plane too.

The weather was spectacular, and I was able to get in a small run (11 minutes of running, 22 minutes walking) on the boardwalk as well as a lovely swim in the ocean followed by a leisurely stay on the beach (despite the best efforts of an obnoxious person who claimed to be in charge of the beach chairs and beach umbrellas). The presentation went well -- the allegedly fearsome crowd turned out to be a bunch of teddy bears after all. They asked some good questions, but not in the aggressive style that had been described to us. So that all went well. Plus we enjoyed some Cuban food (ropa vieja and a mojito, in my case - yum!).

My secret plan, since I had Monday off, was to take the last flight out of JFK up to the great wintery north to see if I could glimpse the elusive Clareetah and Leeon in the wild suburban jungle. My plan was so secret that at the FLL airport, I was only given the oppotunity to check in for the first flight (to JFK) and not the second flight, which was booked several months later. I made the mistake of checking my bag, which meant that I had exactly 1 hour at JFK to collect my bag, check in for my next flight and re-check my bag, re-clear security, and get to the gate. (I spoke to 6 different employees of the airline to see if there was some way to handle it, but to no avail.) The process turned out to be rather stressful, because my flight was 15-20 minutes late leaving FLL and my bag was pretty much the last one off the plane. Thinking ahead, I checked in for the second flight before the luggage even started coming off the plane, but everything else involved waiting and then mad rushing. Then, after all the insanity, I actually got to the gate about 1 minute BEFORE they started boarding. Yawn.

Among the highlights of my visit to the suburban jungle was my introduction to broccolions and antelopetunias (courtesy of Bruthges; the book is "Scranimals" by Jack Prelutsky) and a very enjoyable concert.