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Airport employee Timothy Ihle's recipe was chosen for the LAX International Dog

(Photo credit: Jay Berkowitz/LAWA photographer)

Hot dog fans rejoice. There’s now a branch of Pink’s Hot Dogs in the pre-security food court at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at Los Angeles International Airport. On the menu: the LAX International Dog, based on a “recipe” suggested by an airport employee.

And in Oregon, there’s now a branch of The Barbers at Portland International Airport.

Look for the lighted barber pole

(Photo courtesy szlea, via Flickr Creative Commons.)

Like the company’s 16 other Pacific Northwest locations, the pre-security airport shop has an old fashioned barbershop appearance and offers haircuts, hot lather neck shaves and shoe shines.  (Still checking to see if the free popcorn served at other branches will be offered here.)  To celebrate the grand opening, haircuts are only $5 through August 15th. Another reason you – and your hair – should head to the airport early.

Categories: Air Travel, Airport shops, Airports, Food, Restaurants, Shopping
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There are close to 700 aviation and space museums around the country.

Each Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com, we feature one of them.

This week: The National Museum of the US Air Force.

This museum has a lot of fans and I took a lot of heat for leaving it out of a recent msnbc.com column – Aviation Museums that Soar – that only had room to mention six aviation and space museums around the country.

So here we go:

Northrop B-2 Spirit at the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force

With 17 acres of indoor exhibition space and more than 400 aerospace vehicles in its collection, the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, OH, is the largest military aviation museum in the world.

In addition to an IMAX theater, and more than a half dozen huge galleries filled with one-of-a-kind aircraft and aerospace  vehicles, the museum has  personal artifacts, photographs, documents and exhibits that help tell the Air Force story.

The Air Power Gallery at the National Museum of the US Air Force

If you plan to visit, you might have to pick just a few galleries to see.  And choosing won’t be easy.

In the Early Years Gallery, the aircraft, exhibits and artifacts start with the Wright brothers and continue through World War I and the beginning of World War II.

Reproduction 1909 Wright Flyer at National Museum of the US Air Force

In the 140-foot tall, silo-like Missile and Space Gallery you’ll find a collection of missiles that can be viewed from the ground level or from a platform that runs around the inside of the gallery. There’s also the Apollo 15 Command Module, Mercury and Gemini capsules, rocket engines, satellites and balloon gondolas.

The Missile and Space Gallery at the USAF Museum

And in the Presidential Gallery, for which there are special entry requirements, you’ll see the airplane that served as Air Force One the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as well as airplanes used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

President John F. Kennedy disembarking Air Force One

There’s more – lots more – so before you visit be sure to poke around the National Museum of the US Air Force Museum website.

SPAD XIII at National Museum of the United States Air Force

The USAF Museum is open daily. Admission is free.

A great time to visit might be during Labor Day weekend (Sept 3-5, 2010) when the museum hosts the Giant Scale Radio-Controlled Model Aircraft Air Show with model jets, helicopters and warbirds doing acrobatics in the sky.

Do you have a favorite aviation or space museum? If so, leave a comment below and we may feature your suggestion in a future Museum Monday on StuckatTheAirport.com.

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, Exhibits, Free Stuff, History, Museum Monday, Museums
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Traffic was slow heading into Spokane International Airport on Friday because most drivers had their eyes on the sky.

I don’t blame them: the USAF Thunderbirds and other military flight demonstration teams were practicing for this weekend’s Skyfest 2010 at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Inside the airport, flights were delayed while practice flights took place. So there was plenty of time to shop for souvenirs.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the concourse with the Simply Northwest store, which is filled with a wide variety of local and regionally made items such as wine, chocolates and Bumble Bars.

Nope, I was in the other concourse. The one with just a small souvenir section in the newsstand.

But, lucky for me, there was a shelf filled with one of our favorite Souvenir Sunday categories:  Candy “poop.”

I’m really not sure what makes this an appealing food or souvenir item, but we’ve seen Cardinal Poop (Indianapolis), Pelican Poop (Fort Myers, FL) and Armadillo Droppings (throughout Texas).  So it’s no surprise that at Spokane International Airport, there’s an entire shelf of Moose Poop and Bear Poop.

Next time you’re stuck at the airport, check out the souvenirs. If you find something that’s about $10, is “of” the city or region and is a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may end up featured on Souvenir Sunday at StuckatTheAirport.com. And if it is, you’ll get a fun souvenir from us.

Categories: Airplanes, Airport shops, aviation, Entertainment, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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Friday morning I had the extreme pleasure of spending some time with Addison Pemberton and his wife,Wendy, at Pemberton & Sons Aviation headquarters at Spokane, Washington’s Felts Field.

Pemberton & Sons Aviation headquarters - photo: Harriet Baskas

Using many parts from the original aircraft, Pemberton, his family and more than 60 volunteers completely restored a 1928 Boeing 40C airplane that crashed into a mountainside in Canyonville, OR..

(Photo courtesy Addison Pemberton)

That restored plane took its first test flight on February 17, 2008 – Addison Pemberton’s birthday – and it is now the oldest flying Boeing airplane and the only flying Boeing 40.

(Photo courtesy Addison Pemberton)

When I arrived at the company’s hangar, Pemberton was just finishing up his lunch and making final arrangements to fly the plane to Concrete, WA to attend the North Cascades Fly-In. Yet he and Wendy were kind enough to show me around and then sit down and tell me about the history of the airplane, the details they’d discovered about the 1928 crash, the story of how the airplane’s remains were found, and how those remains were turned into the shiny, fly-able airplane out in the hangar.

Remains of the Boeing Model 40 crashed in 1928

The story is quite amazing. And it is well-documented on the Pemberton’s website and in a variety of videos, including this Northwest Profiles feature from Spokane’s KSPS TV

At 1 pm, it was time for Pemberton to head off for the fly-in. But before he took off, he and Wendy let me climb up a ladder, look in the cockpit and sit in the passenger cabin, which has a telephone, a small desk and four seats.

(Photo: Harriet Baskas)

Thanks, Pembertons, for saving this historic plane and for your generosity in sharing it with others.

(Photo by Pam Scott)

Categories: aviation, Aviation history
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I’ve been touring Spokane, WA and the surrounding countryside this week in search of unusual people, places and events to include in the 3rd edition of Washington Curiosities, one of the books I write for Globe Pequot Press.

The week will end with a visit to Felts Field to meet Addison Pemberton, who found and rebuilt (with the help of more than 60 people) the oldest Boeing airplane still flying.

I’ll report back on my visit with Pemberton and his airplane, but in the meantime, take a look at my new Spokane buddy. I found him while touring Marvin Carr’s One of a kind in the world museum, which is filled with wonders ranging from the oldest typewriter in the world to a taxidermied giraffe and Elvis Presley’s 1973 Lincoln Mark IV.

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Boeing, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Museums
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