Hopping down to Florida

About halfway through my stay in Ottawa, I headed down to the Tampa area for a couple of days to spend some time with family down there. The day started with an early flight down to New York. Now for me to be at the airport with the correct amount of time to go through American customs, I had to be at the airport no later than 4:30 am, which for me meant getting up at 3:30 am get quickly get ready. This was the first of 3 flights that day. I have hopping my way down the eastern seaboard.

On the flight to New York, I managed to get a window seat, which was amazing as that way I got to see the sunrise and see the sights of New York as I came into La Guardia Airport. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane to be able to see Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, but I did get to see Brooklyn and that area. Now I had some pretty tight connections both in New York and Atlanta, but I made it to the gates with enough time to get my boarding passes. 

Once I touched down in Atlanta, I hadn't picked up the boarding pass for my next flight, so once I located what gate I had to get to I walked quickly to the gate but after 5 minutes of walking I was getting closer to the gate but what I did not know is that the gate was in another terminal. So I stopped at an airline desk to get my boarding pass printed out and get inductions to get to my next gate.The main thing that I learned is that Atlanta airport is huge, easily one of the largest airports I have been in in my life. It even had a train to get between terminals.

Finally, I made it to my gate and by this time it was time for lunch, so I found a little Mexican place and had some tacos for lunch before boarding my last flight of the day down to Tampa. Once down in Tampa, there was a train that takes you from the building with the the gates across to the main entrance building. When I got out of the train into the general public area, I met up with my Aunt/cousin who I was going to be staying with while I was down there. 

After collecting my carry on bag from the luggage carousel as they had made me gate check my bag when I was getting on the plane in New York, we made our way out to the car and in my case the first time I got to experience the Florida weather, namely the Florida heat.  By the time that I made it to Tampa it was about 3 pm, so I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around with family and planning out what we were going to do while I was down there.