Changi Airport's giant slide

Now, to celebrate the 2010 Singapore Formula 1 Night Race, which takes place in the streets of Singapore from September 24-26^th, Changi Airport is having its own Grand Prix Festival.

From now through September 30, 2010 both airport visitors and travelers can participate in racing-themed activities that include remote-controlled race cars, racing game consoles and prizes.

Could it be possible to have too much fun at an airport?

This week’s snacks come from Houston Hobby Airport, where the Rodeo Houston store carries Alamo Crackers

Wild West Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle: fuel for cowboys?

And these adorable chocolate cow cookies.

Not just cow cookies: chocolate cow cookies!

Tomorrow – on Souvenir Sunday – we’ll put the snacks away and take a tour of some of the fun, offbeat, inexpensive souvenirs for sale at Houston’s Hobby Airport.  Like these ‘must have’ salt and pepper shakers:

A big tip of our cowboy hat to Melissa Sustaita of the Houston Airport System for sharing her photos.

This coming Sunday, it will be dancers.

During “Dance Terminal, Dance, ” professional dancers will descend on the airport to teach and perform Latin dance moves and compete in a dance tournament.

Travelers can watch the championship tournament, take a turn on an airport dance floor or join a workshop in Salsa, Merengue, Disco, Neotango, Bachata, West Coast Swing or Dirty Dancing.  There will also be a kids’ disco and performances by a variety of dance groups, including Step Dance World Champion Bernd Paffrath.

So when was the last time you danced at the airport?

Souvenirs at Boston Logan Airport

Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday;  the day we give thanks for the fun, inexpensive souvenirs you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s treats come to us from Boston Logan International Airport’s Boston Tops shop, where the clerk on duty was kind enough (after a bit of cajoling..) to model this cute lobster cap for us.

Gebra models lobster cap for sale at Logan Airport

Not a hat person?  We also found these fun Boston and Massachusetts-centric souvenirs in the store. Like the pot-holder with lobster-cooking instructions, each items sells for under $10:

Lobster cooking instructions

Tiny stuffed lobster souvenir

And my favorite:

Souvenir chocolate at Boston Logan Airport

Have you found a great souvenir while you were stuck at the airport? If it’s under $10, “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.

This week we take a look at a MooBella ice-cream-making machine at Boston Logan International Airport.

Ice-cream-making machine at Boston Logan Airport

One of two such machines at the airport (there’s one by the United Airlines gates in Terminal C), the make-your-own-ice-cream machine by the Air Tran gates (also in Terminal C) promises customers that their made-to-order cup of ice-cream (about a dozen flavors to choose from), complete with mix-in, will be delivered in about 40 seconds.

I tried it out (mocha ice-cream, chocolate-chip mix-ins; decadent, I know…) and of course I wanted to know how the machine did its “magic.”  So Chan Park, manager of Lean & Green Gourmet, came by and opened the machine. He showed me how the flavors get mixed in with an ice-cream base (premium or light), how that mixture gets turned into ice-cream inside the machine, how the mix-ins get mixed in, and how the concoction gets scooped into the cup.

I’m still not sure how it works. But it does.  And while you can get ice-cream scooped the old-fashioned way elsewhere in the airport, having a machine create ice-cream just for you is tasty, entertaining, and fun.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has partnered with the Dutch Public Libraries to open the world’s first airport library.  The library is just past passport control, on Holland Boulevard, and offers passengers waiting for a flight a place to read books in 29 different languages, listen to music, watch films and download material free of charge.

This from an airport that already offers travelers a great collection of art, a casino, a seafood bar, a chocolate bar, a fun forest for kids, a branch of the Rijksmuseum and lots more.

Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands was on hand for the opening of the Schiphol Airport Library on Holland Boulevard

Now… when we will have library branches in US airports? 

But you’ll have to look up to see it.

Fresh art at Spokane International Airport

Louise Kodis’ new textile sculpture “Conversations Between Clouds” in now installed in the rotunda of the airport. The sculpture is a flock of three dimensional floating shapes suspended under the ceiling and is made out of bamboo rod, curved acrylic rod, colored and textured silks and synthetic fabrics.

(Photos of Conversations Between Clouds courtesy Gay Waldman)

There’s another great piece of art at Spokane International Airport that you’ll need to look up to see:

Ken Yuhasz’s Aer-O-Toaster

Ken Yuhasz’s Aer•O•Toaster was installed in 2009.

Yuhasz says his toaster is based on the classic Sunbeam toaster from the 1930s and the ‘Flying Toaster’ used as a screen saver on countless computer screens during the 1980’s and is a re-creation at one-half scale of a Gee Bee racing plane from the early 30′s.

ATL pet relief area

And the smart park at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)

PHX pet relief area

Both are pretty doggone cute. But the folks at Reno-Tahoe International Airport felt left out – so they sent me a note about the spot they’ve set aside for Spot.

RNO airport pet relief area

It’s hard to tell how cute the park is -but I love the name: Bark Park.

And here’s the park for pets at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Austin-Bergstrom Airport dog park

Have you and your pet found an airport pet relief area that’s fancy AND functional?  Let us know and we’ll try to sniff out a photo and post it here.

Today, to mark the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death on August 16^th, 1977, we’ll make a stop at Graceland, where two of Elvis’s jets are on display.

This Lockheed JetStar was dubbed Hound Dog II:

Hound Dog II, Elvis Presley's Lockheed JetStar

(Photo courtesy jbcurio, via Flickr).

According to this article, Elvis purchased this  Lockheed JetStar in September, 1975 for $899,702, while waiting for his other plane, the Lisa Marie (below), a Convair 880 Jet previously owned by Delta Airlines, to arrive.

At Graceland, visitors sit in a mock 1970′s-era airline terminal to see a short film about Elvis and his airplanes and are then allowed to tour the JetStar and the Lisa Marie, which was also known as Hound Dog I or Flying Graceland.

Elvis Presley's airplane - the Lisa Marie - at Graceland

(Photo courtesy rgblasson via Flickr

Sadly, I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Graceland. Yet. But when I do, I’ll make a beeline for the airplanes. First stop, the Lisa Marie. According to this article, the airplane has a seating area, conference room, library and plush bedroom with an executive bathroom equipped with gold washbasin and faucets.

Have you seen Elvis’s airplanes at Graceland? Share details of your visit below.

And please let us know if you have a nomination for an aviation or space museum you’d like to see featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

A favorite: Elvis and Nixon

Shopping at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply co

No doubt just like the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. in Seattle, where there’s an Atomic Teleporter on-site and shelves full of useful and just plain fun and bizarre things for that out-of-this-world trip.

Come by later

Unfortunately – or maybe, fortunately – the space teleporter was out of service this weekend when we stopped by, but that just left more time for shopping.

Our goal on Souvenir Sunday is to find the best and, ideally, the most offbeat items in the under $10 range. Often, that’s a challenge.

Not here.

We found these luggage tags good for intergalactic travel:

Don't lose your luggage in outer space

A useful repair kit:

And the perfect snack food for the ride.

Snacks for the trip

And, because you never know just what will happen on any trip, we stocked up on some emergency underpants in convenient reusable tins.

Be prepared

Whether the space teleporter ever gets fixed or not, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. is an incredibly fun place to stock up on travel supplies for any sort of adventure.  It’s also a good cause: all proceeds from the shop benefit 826 Seattle, a non-profit writing center that helps young people develop their writing skills. When we stopped by there was a neighborhood-wide hang-out-in-the-street-event going on and these young writers were creating and performing poems based on quick interviews with passersby.

If you’re stuck at an airport somewhere on earth, take a look in the souvenir shop. If you find something there that’s fun, offbeat and under $10, please take a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may show up on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday. And if it does, we’ll send a special souvenir your way.

Wish you were here