As part of its Liberty Weekend festivities, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) will present a free concert by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will take place at 8 pm, on Saturday June 26, 2010 in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which doubles as the public lobby area for gates 60 to 129.  All attendees will get three hours of complimentary airport parking.

Saturday June 26^th and Sunday June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, unticketed visitors are invited into Silicon Valley’s Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for a sneak peek at the new high-tech Terminal B.  The new building includes seating areas with built-in power ports and public art that includes German multi-media artist’s Bjoern Schuelke’s Space Observer, an interactive, two-story tall robot-like structure with three legs and propeller-equipped arms.

(Watch a Space Observer movie.)

Registered visitors will be able to walk through the terminal, see the art, buy a souvenir and enter drawings for prizes that will include airline tickets and travel packages.

If you plan on visiting the terminal, you’ll need to register in advance on the SJC website by Wednesday, June 23^rd and pick the day and time you want to stop by.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a great photo slide show of the San Jose Airport through the years from The Mercury News.

Now, with the installation of five free power poles, everyone can recharge all their gadgets for free and access the Internet even they don’t have a laptop with them.

According to this article, each pole is equipped with a 22-inch LCD monitor and a computer unit and outfitted with two power socket outlets and four USB ports.

Free Wi-Fi and free charging poles are great.  But the airport also has a nine-hole golf course, an aviation discovery center, a game zone with sports simulators, and lots of other entertaining ways to spend your time when you’re stuck at the airport.

Add your discoveries – and remember to pack your power strip.

There are now 50 free 4-outlet charging stations scattered through Terminals A, B, and C at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).

The charging stations are courtesy of Samsung Mobile, which sponsors similar power charging stations at five other major airports (so far): John F. Kennedy International Airport (54), Los Angeles International Airport (51) LaGuardia International Airport (12), Orlando International Airport (18), and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (22). In addition, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has eight Samsung Mobile Travel Centers, which also offer couches and other amenities.

Power charging stations (both free and pay-per-charge), desks with working power outlets, and banks of seats with built in outlets seem to be popping up at more and more airports these days. But don’t leave your extension cord home just yet: during high traffic times a spot at the charging station is harder to get than a seat in the sports bar during a playoff game.

I had a chance to visit the terminal a few weeks back as finishing touches were being put on the baggage system and gate areas and it really looks lovely. It’s bright and airy and full of amenities travelers are sure to appreciate.

For example, in addition to a children’s play area and free wireless Internet access, there are plenty of well-marked and easy-to-get-to power outlets. Those white power plug graphics on the chair backs tell you that the seat is “hot.”

Travelers with laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices will be pleased to find that power outlets have been conveniently placed between the seat backs at Gates 2 – 14.

(Photo courtesy John Wayne Airport)

The airport is also proud of its restroom renovations. The Terminal B restrooms (across from Gate 4) have already re-opened. Restrooms in Terminal A (across from Gate 11) will re-open this summer.

SNA’s lavatories aren’t just new, they’re “environmentally responsible,” with low-flush toilets and “Zurn urinals that use only one-eighth of a gallon of water – well under the federal standard of 1 gallon maximum per flush.”