view inside a hotel room

My PhD student and I have arrived safely in Jacksonville, Florida.  

We had a transit through Washington DC airport: I was slightly anxious, as we only had a 90 minute layover, yet we had to go through immigration, collect and recheck baggage, and find the new gate.  I’ve had delays with all those issues before on other trips.  However, not this time.  Immigration was super swift: there is a separate "transit" immigration (I've not encountered that before in other airports) and there were four desks open for the non US passports transiting from our flight.  Then baggage collection and rechecking was even easier.  A small conveyor belt held the luggage from our flight, which was already there as we arrived from immigration: pick up suitcase, walk through "customs" (four or five paces), drop suitcase on another conveyor belt.  And we're done.  It took longer to then walk to the new gate.  I was impressed.

We had booked a "limo" from Jacksonville airport to the hotel (that seemed sensible, because originally there were supposed to be three of us; but Covid struck down one of the team).  The driver was waiting at baggage collection (I will never get over how casual local flights are in the US), so that was reassuring.  The car was a Tesla, and the driver proudly demonstrated its self-driving capabilities.  Hmm.

Then safely at the hotel, in the middle of a big strip mall.  It's just a standard mid-range conference hotel, nothing fancy, but the rooms are huuuuge, including a decent kitchen, a small dining area, and a lounge area, in addition to the expected bed/desk/bathroom:

Kitchen area with microwave, hotplate, sink, and fridge.  Small dining table visible bottom right.

Sitting area with couch and footstool/table.  Small dining table visible bottom left.

The more traditional part of the room: desk and bed, with bathroom off to the left.

Huuuuge.  (I haven't got a top range room or anything; my student's room has the same layout.)  People live in smaller places than this!

It's dark out, so the traditional view from the window will have to wait until tomorrow.  Off for something to eat (fortunately there are tons of places to eat nearby in the mall), then to crash.