FLORIDA: The off-season

I apologize that there was no column last week, but a family emergency took me to Punta Gorda, Florida. You've heard the saying, "We caught the next flight"? Well, my brother and I caught the next flight.
My travel adventures -- not to mention the amazing Florida fauna and flora -- would be enough to fill this column for a month straight, but alas few are Unionville related.

Sunset over the Peace River.

I need to do a lot of Googling to identify all the new plants I saw. This one was in Port Charlotte.

The airport in Fort Myers. I approached the kind Delta gate agent because I wasn't quite sure what to do (last-minute ticket purchase). "You got to the airport," she said. "That's a great start!"

On the way back, we were on the tarmac in Detroit when the pilot announced that, due to thunderstorms, the Philadelphia airport was shut down. Eventually the freeze was lifted -- just in time for shift change. We finally touched down at midnight. You know it's been a trying trip when the captain tells you upon landing that "It could have been worse" and invites you to fly with his airline again "the next time the entire East Coast is shut down with thunderstorms and you feel like taking a little airplane ride."
Silver lining: Had we landed on time, Route 1 would still have been closed at Chadds Ford due to Brandywine flooding and I would have been diverted up to West Chester.