February 2026: A Solo South Florida Trip: Day 2

Day 2: Monday February 23, 2026

I was awake pretty early. It is vacation after all. I checked in with home, found out that the bulk of the blizzard was thankfully going to be staying south of home and then started getting ready for the day, which included eating that donut I’d bought in MHT the day before. Unfortunately, it had gotten kinda warm in the trunk of the car, so the glaze had melted off and piled up in one spot, but it was still a very good donut. I also took some pictures of the balcony now that it was daylight.

 
Then I got dressed for Florida cold. The highs were going to be in the 50s today. But it’s sunny, so it’s basically dream weather after the winter we’ve had!

I headed out to the car and on to my first stop of the day, the ever glamorous, Publix. I picked up a 12 pack of bottled water and some snack food, and then headed for my next stop.

Despite the wind and the cool air, it really was a beautiful morning. It was about a 15 minute drive to the first vacation stop of the day: Coral Cove Park in Jupiter, but it was a very easy drive, and it was very obvious this would be a beach region that I enjoyed.

Once I had parked and rolled up my pants legs into makeshift capris, I headed for the ocean. My goal here was to see some of the limestone formations, but of course I also just took in the sounds of the water and the sunshine. There weren’t a ton of limestone formations, but it was still a pretty interesting place.

About 9:00 I hopped back in my car and drove about a mile up the road to the place that inspired this whole trip: Blowing Rocks Preserve. When I got there, I was very glad I’d gotten there just about opening. People aren’t kidding; the parking lot is miniscule. I parked and started exploring. Blowing Rocks preserve has a tree lined entrance to the ocean, and just down the beach a bit is a larger area of limestone. A) The formations are cool and B) as the tide is coming in, these rocks turn into blowholes. I had chosen today, because high tide was the earliest it would be this week, so I’d get to experience it coming in. This was a great choice, although I’d happily go here at low tide to see the formations from below.

I was here for a couple of hours. The power of water is just amazing, and watching it interact with the rock was incredible. I’d go here again in a heartbeat. I can only assume every visit would be unique.

When I was done on the beach side of life I crossed the street to the visitor center and a brief boardwalk along the intercoastal. This was boring in comparison to what I’d just seen, but always good to check it out.

Back in the car, I headed a few miles down the road to lunch to the Square Grouper Tiki Bar. This was an excellent choice. Super casual place: order at the bar, grab a seat at any of the tables either under cover or outside in the sand under palm trees, with a view of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, then pick up your food when it’s ready. I had a coconut mojito and a mahi sandwich and obviously chose to eat outside. The food and drink were excellent and so were the views. I would totally go back here.

 
After lunch, I headed to my last tourist stop of the day, the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. Here they take in an average of 5000 or more sick or injured wild animals from around Florida a year and rehabilitate all that can be. They have animal exhibits open to the public of animals that are not able to be rehabilitated enough to return to the wild. I had the wrong timing for any of the presentations, but still enjoyed walking around watching some of the animals in the sunshine.

 
Animals observed and cell phone battery dying, I headed back to the hotel to recharge for a bit before dinner.

Dinner tonight was at the Thirsty Turtle, which I was able to easily walk to from my hotel. I had a margarita with pomegranate schnapps that was pretty good and a grouper sandwich that was decent. Would this place be on my list of restaurants to repeat? Probably not. Did it do the job for tonight well enough? Yes.

Dinner consumed, I headed back to the hotel where I caught up on life at home (where, thankfully they had only gotten a few inches of snow) and crashed fairly early. It had been a good first day of vacation!

February 2026: A Solo South Florida Trip: Day 1

Day 1: Sunday February 22, 2026

Today did not start like my vacations usually do. I was not up before dawn for a sunrise flight. Instead I let a very clingy Gizmo have a little extra snuggle time, then got up, got ready for the day, watched the US vs Canada men's Olympic hockey game, and wrote an IEP. At some point I also discovered that Trump’s crony had shut down the TSA precheck lines, in light of the partial government shut down, so I had to research what standard security looks like too, since it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve done that in the States.

About the time that I finished the IEP, and that it appeared there was no way the US was winning this hockey game, I got the text from JetBlue that my flight was delayed about 20 minutes. Ok, I can deal with that. Gizmo clearly knew and parked himself near my suitcase so he could go on the trip too.

 
Shortly after a missed shot on goal in early overtime, we headed out the door, fully thinking the US was losing this hockey game. But, by the time we hit the main road, facebook was lighting up that the US men had won the hockey game in overtime. Clearly they just needed me to stop watching the game!

It was an uneventful drive down to Manchester, albeit with heavier traffic than normal. It was the end of February vacation week for Massachusetts plus they were about to take the brunt of this incoming blizzard, so they were all heading south from the NH mountains. But we got to MHT about half an hour after leaving the house, as expected.

Nick found a spot along the curb and helped get my luggage for me. We said goodbye and I headed inside where…I found a line. I quickly discovered it was the line for JetBlue. Cool. After a few minutes, I figured out that it was actually the line to check bags, after tagging them at one of about 3 kiosks. This was sort of my fear. Manchester only has a few JetBlue flights, so I expected minimal resources. I was correct. I was just glad I was learning this now, rather than before my 6 am flight out of here on JetBlue in April.

There was no line at the bag tag kiosks, so I got my bag tagged and boarding pass printed, then stepped into the bag check line. This actually moved relatively quickly, despite only having a couple of staff working, because so many family groups were flying. So pretty soon my bag was checked and I was headed for security, where I was very happy to find that the pre-check line was still open (and SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than the standard line). Because who wants to pull all electronics out of the backpack?!

After I had cleared security, I scoped out the food situation and settled into a seat at the bar at the Local. I got a margarita because it’s National Margarita Day after all, and a cheese flatbread. The margarita was excellent (and the most expensive margarita I’ve ever had, and yes, I’ve celebrated this holiday in Disney) and so was the pizza. The bartenders were great too.

 
Lunch and margarita consumed, I worked my way toward my gate, stopping to buy a Holy Donut because they sell them from vending machines here!! Holy Donut is a Maine based donut company. They make donuts from potatoes and they’re excellent. This was the most expensive donut I’ve ever bought, but I suspected it’d make for a better breakfast than whatever the hotel would be serving the next morning.

Then I settled into my gate to wait for my delayed flight, happy that it was just delayed, knowing if I’d been flying out of Boston instead I probably wouldn’t have made it out. Eventually the delayed inbound plane arrived, and even more eventually, boarding for my flight began.

Boarding was efficient enough, minus a father-son duo who couldn’t seem to find their assigned seat at the end of boarding and we pushed back from the gate about 2:00. We taxied most of the way to the runway and then stopped. And then after a couple minutes, where another plane left ahead of us, the captain came over the PA and told us that we had missed our departure window by approximately 5 minutes and so now we would have to wait about half an hour until the next departure window opened up for us.

5 minutes later, the captain came back over the PA and said that ATC had canceled the delays out of Manchester and so we would be powering the second engine back up and headed for the runway shortly. And that’s exactly what we did.

It was an uneventful but long flight down to Fort Lauderdale. And the magnitude of the incoming blizzard was really recognized when I realized the plane was over the Carolinas before I could see something other than clouds, although it had certainly gotten brighter once we reached cruising altitude. Landing in Fort Lauderdale also seemed to involve dodging thunderstorms, but I had some great views of the last of the cruise ships of the day leaving port and south FL water is just stunning even in less than perfect weather.

 
Once on the ground, deplaning was unremarkable. What was not unremarkable, however, were the masses of humanity and the amount of red on the flight boards throughout the airport. I got so lucky making it out of New England.

I made my way to baggage claim, where I probably waited 10 minutes or so before my suitcase emerged. Then it was full speed ahead to the shuttle to the rental car center. This ended up being a 15 or 20 minute wait. Something about needing to clear people out of the center before they could bus more people in.

When a bus rolled in, it was somewhat controlled chaos getting on board. Another solo woman and I snagged seats at the front, which was kinda nice, away from the rest of the chaos. The ride to the rental car center was a glimpse at my very near future. Traffic around FLL is something else!

Once at the rental car center, I headed straight down the escalator to Alamo and then right out into the garage (do the skip the line online paperwork people!), where I was directed to a Nissan Versa by an employee that was clearly sweating what to give the girl who booked a compact car, in light of all the travel disruptions.

I got settled in my car, dealt with checkout and hit the road. It was chaotic trying to get off airport property and the first several northbound miles were…an experience, but eventually people’s driving calmed down, and I reached my hotel about 8 pm.

Check in was very quick, and after being called back to the desk for my complimentary bottles of water, it was full speed ahead to room 234.

 

I inspected the room and balcony, locked up, showered, caught up with people at home, and then crashed. It had been a long day.

February 2026: A Solo South Florida Trip: Pre-trip

Pre-trip:

It’s solo trip time! But it’s not a Disney solo trip!

We are trying to conserve Nick’s vacation time for a couple of big vacations in 2027, so I knew February vacation would be a solo trip.

The last couple of school years have involved a LOT of sick days, which means a lot of time on social media. Through social media, I learned about Blowing Rocks Preserve in Jupiter, FL. And then I learned about Jupiter and Juno Beach in general, and liked the looks of the area. I did a little more digging and decided I could easily fill a few days of vacation, so I decided to head to the Jupiter/Juno Beach area for this February vacation.

As I got serious about planning, I realized that while West Palm is the closest airport, and there are nonstop flights there from Boston on JetBlue, I could get nonstop flights between Manchester and Fort Lauderdale on JetBlue. While this would be a bit more driving in Florida, that sounded like a better option to me than having to get to Boston ever, but especially in February. So I stalked the JetBlue flights from MHT, and in May got myself booked.

Then the hotel debate began. And the changing of hotels when sales popped up. And of course the flight schedule changes from JetBlue popped up. Those didn’t necessarily change my hotel choices, but they sure made me play the stalk the rental car company for price drops game.

In the end, I was booked at the Hampton Inn Juno Beach/Jupiter from February 22-27. I’d be flying out of Manchester about 1:10 pm, landing in Fort Lauderdale around 4:45 pm. Return flight home at 6:25 pm, landing in Manchester about 9:45 pm.

The days leading up to vacation were a game of dodge the germ, and filled with lots of shoveling, in addition to lots of general school chaos. This winter has been a more “old fashioned NH winter”, with a LOT of snow and really cold days. I was VERY ready to go south for a few days!

As the last few days before break unfolded, the government semi shut down again, the weather forecast for departure day ranged from nothing exciting to “the Blizzard of 78”, which all these years later is still how New Englanders compare snow storms. Being used to pre-vacation drama, I was not surprised. So I started refreshing weather websites as frequently as possible.

We started vacation a day early with a surprise snow day, which gave me more time to pack, and to analyze forecasts. In the end, I was pretty sure I’d be able to get out, but knew it was still risky. I was very happy I had bought the trip insurance.

November 2025: A Magical Birthday Weekend: Day 4, The End

Day 4: Monday November 17, 2025

You’d think that with two late nights in a row, I’d sleep in a bit. I really didn’t. I was awake before 7. After a bit of social media time, I got up and started packing and getting ready for the day. Our getaway was nearly over.

About 9 we did the final check of the room and headed for the rental car. It didn’t take long to load the luggage and program the GPS, and then we were off to the Contemporary Resort for breakfast.

At the Contemporary we parked and headed inside, where I checked in at Steakhouse 71 from the app. Within a couple minutes, I got the text that our table was ready, so we headed inside and were seated a couple minutes later.

Breakfast here was excellent. Service was great and both of us really enjoyed our food. Nick got the prime rib hash and I got the pumpkin spice seasonal pancakes. We would absolutely do breakfast here again.

After we finished breakfast we headed upstairs. First stop? Checking out the gingerbread creation.

 
We then spent some time just killing time browsing the store and then taking in the views from the platform and the walkway to Bay Lake Tower. It was a beautiful day.

Eventually we got tired of some of the people hanging out along the walkway, so we headed down to the second floor and grabbed seats in this really quiet area to kill another 20 minutes or so.

Sooner than I would have liked, it was time to head out. We worked our way down to the ground floor, where we headed out to snag a picture of the big Christmas tree outside.

 
Then it was off to the parking lot where we found the rental car and headed for the airport. This Disney trip has come to an end.

Even with a stop for fuel, it was an uneventful drive back to the airport. It is SO different, though, driving in now with terminal C open. But we made it back to the terminal A/B garage and got the rental car returned. Then we headed up the series of escalators and found our way to the Southwest kiosks, where I printed paper boarding passes. We then headed for security, where we found almost no one in the Pre-Check line. Needless to say, we were through security and headed for the tram to the gate in minutes.

Once over at the gate area we grabbed lunch. I got a sub from Jersey Mike’s. I have no idea what Nick got. I think Nick ate then. I held onto my sub to eat a little closer to flight time. While sitting in the food court, I overheard a person behind me telling the person he was with that going to Boston is on his bucket list. That one definitely left me scratching my head.

We eventually made our way to the gate area. Boarding began eventually and…it was a cluster. First we had to delay boarding to wait for one last flight attendant. Then we had to pause boarding part way through while they swapped out the flight attendant that had arrived late with a different flight attendant. Nick and I were mid Bs, despite having Early Bird Check-in, but on this kid heavy flight, Nick somehow found exit row seats together, which made him happy. And most importantly to me, we found bin space over said seats.

We were a few minutes late leaving MCO because of the boarding chaos, but it was an uneventful flight up to BWI and we got in just a few minutes late.

In Baltimore, deplaning was fast, so we still had enough time to eat at Chick-fil-A on our way to our next gate. When we got to our next gate, all the way at the end of the terminal, we discovered it was an incredibly light flight…approximately 45 passengers for the entire plane.

Needless to say, the entire plane was boarded in approximately 10 minutes, and we had no issues finding bin space. I also did not need to sit in a middle seat for this flight! We pushed back early, because…why not?

The flight up to Manchester was uneventful and short. We landed quite early. With only 45 people on board and an airport that understands how to staff their jetbridges, deplaning was incredibly quick. Since we had only carry on luggage, we headed straight downstairs and waited for John to pick us up. He didn’t appear right away, so then we got on the phone. He’d fallen asleep in the cell phone lot. A couple minutes after that was established, he pulled up to the curb in my car, we headed outside where it was FREEZING, I took over the driver’s seat, and it was off to my in-laws’ to retrieve the dogs and head home.


Final thoughts:

Disney during the Christmas season is just so magical.

Jollywood Nights was definitely our favorite of the two Christmas events.

A getaway is absolutely the best way to celebrate a birthday.