Back to the Bridge

23 Mar 2026

I have terrible timing.

Just like my last trip, I am once again traveling in the middle of a government shutdown.  Ugh, seriously guys, get your act together!

So, we left the house shortly after 330a to ensure I had enough time to check my bag and clear security, just in case the lines were longer than usual.

Fortunately, my PreCheck line took all of 5 minutes, it was the bag drop that held me up.  The kiosk I checked in on made the sound like it was printing my bag tag, but didn’t spit anything out; attempts to get it to reprint only got me extra copies of my boarding pass, so I had to have an agent at the counter help and even she struggled.  I think she ended up having to cancel my bag and re-issue it?  Not entirely sure, but it took at least 20 minutes, which basically ate up my extra time buffer.

But I made it to my gate in plenty of time and we started boarding, all before the sun even started to wake up:

One short nap later, and we were landing in Fort Lauderdale and I found my assigned rental car:

Definitely not the compact I had reserved… turns out I had been “upgraded”, but I picked a little car for a reason- Florida drivers are crazy, I don’t want to navigate traffic in some giant vehicle, plus, it’s easier to find parking as little car, so I asked if they had anything smaller and ended up with this zoomy looking friend:

Still bigger than I was hoping for, but better.  Plus, it has very nice trunk space!

And after a rather stressful hour-long drive, I made it to where I’ll be staying this week!

It’s a new place- just opened last month, but it sounds like they’ve been booked solid since they opened (there weren’t many rooms available when I booked this trip last month, there weren’t a lot of review either, but it’s right by the bridge I want to dive at so I figured I’d take a chance on it).  This is my room:

Just a little studio:

I could have picked a bigger room, but it’s just me and as long as I’ve got a place to set up gear and charge my camera equipment, I’m not too picky.  I am, however, a bit worried about noise… the main route onto Singer Island (where I’m staying) runs right in front of the hotel… we’ll have to see how that goes.

But this is the reason I picked here!

That is walk-on beach access, and that bridge?  That’s where I’ll be diving!  So basically, I can gear up in my room, walk across the property:

and be diving in minutes!  No trying to find parking at the park, no gearing up on a picnic table, trying to keep sand from getting everywhere. No having to swim out of the swim area before starting my dive… just get up and dive!

But I missed tide time today, and I haven’t had much to eat yet, so I walked up and over the bridge to the local Publix for some groceries, ate and, since it’s still early, suited up and did some snorkeling around our pier:

I am not a good snorkeler…

as soon as I get my face in the water I want to chase the fishes (like this juvenile French angelfish):

and BREATHE!

Which is fine if I stay at the surface, but I quickly learned that I tip my head to the left when I’m trying to see something better (like, what on earth is this stringy thing!?)

but I brought my “good” snorkel (as opposed to my roll up one I bring to be compliant with boats that require you to have a snorkel) and 1) apparently it leaks and 2) it clips to the left side of my mask, so I kept flooding myself.  So annoying.

But I found a few crabs and this shrimpy guy:

and contented myself with top-down shots of fish:

this guy did not appreciate me being in his space:

also, crabs have fangs!?

So, not the most productive of “dives”, but I did learn that I can’t feel my wetsuit heater if I wear it with the pads on my back, so I’ll switch it to the front for my real dive tomorrow and see if that make a difference, because I got quite chilly in the hour or so I spent playing in the water.

I also worked up an appetite, so I went back over the bridge:

and picked up some butter chicken for dinner (and probably at least a couple lunches as well):

then settled in for the night.  Good night, Blue Heron Bridge!

I’ll see you tomorrow!