Day 1 (February 14, 2025): A Valentines weekend getaway

Back in August, Porter Airlines announced an impressive new schedule of services from Canada to Florida. The schedule worked perfectly for us and the price was right. So we decided to book a Valentine’s weekend getaway south. Back in December, Pam worked a lot of extra time at school and arranged with her principal to have Friday morning, February 14 off.  (She only works mornings on Fridays.) Having long wanted to explore the city of Jacksonville on Florida’s northeast coast, near the Georgia border, we decided to fly into Orlando and drive to Jacksonville. Unfortunately, the worst snow storm of the season hit Central Canada the night before our departure and that’s where things become interesting…

What a time we had trying to get here. 10:30PM Thursday night, Porter cancelled our 6:30AM flight to Ottawa for Friday morning. (we were to connect in Ottawa to Orlando). And with the big snowstorm in Central Canada, everything was a disaster: cancelled flights meant that people were trying to get a seat on anything they could, leaving, not a single unsold seat available on Friday to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, or New York from which we could try to make a connection to Florida. So we got up and left for the airport at 5 AM anyway (with the roads were a veritable skating rink), just in the event something might open up. 

Porter had a nonstop from Halifax to Orlando at 11:20AM, which was sold out.But wouldn’t you know: their early morning flight from St. John’s to Halifax kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed, and eventually got canceled! Terrible for the people on that flight, but lucky for us.Since there were a half-dozen connecting passengers on that flight for the nonstop Halifax-Orlando flight at 11:20AM, that opened up a few seats. So we eventually got on that flight! 

We pulled up to the gate at Orlando International Airport at 3 PM, and at 3:50 PM, we pulled away in our rental car. It meant getting away from Orlando airport three hours later than our original plan had been, had our original flights operated. As a result, we got stuck in Orlando rush-hour traffic. But all is well and ends well: we arrived at the hotel parking lot in Jacksonville at 7 PM.

I had prepared these breakfast plates to eat during our originally-planned early morning flight, which was supposed to have departed at 6:30 AM. These plates were gobbled down during our five hour wait, while we were hoping to get a seat on “any alternative flight to anywhere”!

Porter Airlines’ Embraer-195 aircraft for the flight from Halifax to Orlando.

With just two hours’ sleep behind us, and a very stressful experience to get these seats, it was a very exhausted couple that plopped into 19A and 19B on Porter’s nonstop service to Orlando, just after 11AM.

There were snow showers as we ascended after takeoff. Everything about the trip up to this point had been going either wrong or was very tenuous, so we were very anxious all-round. You can imagine what a relief it was when we finally got above the clouds and found this calm.

For $12.99, Porter sells some very healthy and delicious entrées. I chose the vegetarian “Buddha bowl”, and Pam had the fruit and cheese tray (above).

An hour into our flight, we saw Cape Cod out of the airplane window.

Cape Cod as shown by Google Maps. (The blue dot is the location of our aircraft.)

“SNOW IT’S NOT!” said the guy in the seat in front of us, as he saw Orlando’s greenery upon descent. And he was so right.

This is Orlando International Airport, as shown by Google Maps. Quite an amazing design, with four satellite terminals. 

This new terminal at Orlando International Airport has to be one of the most stunning airport terminals I’ve seen in a long time.

While driving through Orlando, we saw several beautiful trees in bloom, including this yellow variety. At first, we thought it might be a forsythia, but it wasn’t.

I-4 runs from Orlando, which is in the centre of Florida, northwest to Daytona Beach, where it intersects with I-95. Halfway up the I-4, is the city of Sanford - capital of Seminole County and population 60,000. Above Sanford, we saw this huge blimp. It really looked like a UFO!

The I-95 passed through Daytona Beach en route to Jacksonville. It’s unfortunate we didn’t have time to stop there, because Daytona Beach is famous for the Daytona International Speedway, featuring the Daytona 500 auto race each year, and is home to NASCAR. 

Daytona Beach took the bold step of renaming Eleventh Street to LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) Boulevard. This renaming gesture symbolized the city’s commitment to the sport and its desire to become a hub for professional women’s golf.

Arriving in Jacksonville on the I-95 just after dark.

As tired as we were when we arrived, we decided we had to go get some dinner. Years ago, we had tried an American chain called Cracker Barrel, which has home-style meals. So that’s where we ended up. Pam had a pot roast skillet and I had meatloaf. Both were excellent.