The Great American Bagel Bakery, Fort Myers Airport (RSW), FL USA

Naples is an easy destination to get to from Boston, and it’s such a nice escape from winter weather. To be able to have breakfast in Beantown and be in a warm outdoor pool in the afternoon just can’t be beat, especially when traveling with 2 kids.

We enjoyed our 3 days in sunshine, recounting the fun times we had (by the way – Children’s Museum of Naples was absolutely fantastic!!) and looking forward to future trips together.

Fort Myers airport is really nothing to be excited about – besides the bagel shop. Always a long, long line, we rarely have time to even grab snacks let alone wait for a bagel. But this day was different, and luck blessed us with an extra 20 minutes in Terminal D.

We placed our Starbucks mobile order (what’s the deal with people waiting in line for 15+ minutes when mobile orders were ready in under 5?!) and waited patiently for a bagel.

Yes, Chicken Bacon Club Sandwich on an Everything Bagel – that’s what I needed in this moment of traveling with 2 kids under 4 while waiting for our plane to board. The line moved quickly as it only continued to extend into the hallway, clearly everyone at his airport recognizing that The Great American Bagel Bakery was THE spot to hit up prior to one’s departure.

Bagel ready, we walked over to Starbucks and garnished quite the confusion and concern when everyone standing in line watched us skip ahead and take our mobile orders.  Really, who waits in line at Starbucks?

Extremely good bagel, commonplace club sandwich at best. While the chicken breast was moist and on the tender side, the bacon was that airport sandwich bacon that could stay “fresh” for months if not years, and did its best to ruin each bite down.

Honestly, after a few minutes I sat back and wondered: why didn’t I just get a bagel with cream cheese? This was a darn good bagel, top of the league, being brought down by its attempt to masquerade as a club sandwich.

I barely finished my meal, and relegated my hunger to whatever snack boxes I would find on our JetBlue flight home, hoping our kids would sleep at least part of the flight…