Day 1 (January 10, 2023): Did someone say ‘music conference in Florida’?

On the last weekend of November, Pam received a text from her friend, Karen, inviting her to attend the Florida Music Education Association (FMEA) annual conference in Tampa — one of the largest music conferences in America.  (Texas boasts one with 25,000 participants!). Being entitled to a few days off for education leave every two years and having hardly ever availed of this, Pam decided to apply for approval to attend.  And, of course, who was I to turn down the opportunity to tag along?!

I worked from 7-11AM, scooted home, and we jumped in the car to head to the airport for our 1PM flight.  Despite it being January, the weather was definitely on our side.  The packed flight lest almost on time.  With a toddler kicking the backs of our seats for 2 1/2 hours and a shrieking baby (and to be clear, this was not a crying baby, it was a NONSTOP SHRIEKING BABY — there is a huge difference, folks!) behind us, we deplaned in Toronto with a low degree of post-traumatic stress disorder.  

Completing the American security and customs procedures was a breeze, and we were soon on our Air Canada Rouge flight to Tampa.  The flight was half empty, so there was a lot of space to spread out.  We arrived in Tampa 20 minutes early!  Given the air traffic control (ATC) system glitch which wreaked havoc across the USA, it felt like nothing short of a miracle that neither weather nor ATC issues got in our way today.

We ordered a Lyft (similar to an Uber) ride and within a few minutes, a guy pulled up in a snazzy Ford F-150 king cab truck to whisk us off to our hotel.  Unfortunately, he missed a critical ramp and ended up driving us across the 9.9-mile Courtney Campbell Causeway which connects Tampa to Clearwater on the other side of the bay.  But still, it was a comfy ride with a very interesting driver from Massachusetts, and an opportunity to experience the bridge, albeit at night.

We arrived at our hotel at 8:30PM and called it a night.  Our real Tampa experience begins tomorrow!


Air Canada Airbus A321, just arriving inbound from Toronto.  After a quick turnaround, the packed flight returned to Toronto.

The incredibly dense business district of Young Street in Toronto.  Notice the complete lack of snow.


Our meal on the flight from Toronto to Tampa.  Quite delicious, actually.


The ‘underwater’ flamingo statue at Tampa Airport.

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