With Super Bowl XLVI just a few days away, it’s already ‘game on’ at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND).

Like the New England Patriots and New York Giants, the team players at IND have spent months studying the playbook and practicing their moves: Public safety procedures have been tested. Security checkpoint hours have been tweaked. Offerings at shopping and dining outlets have been beefed up. And an enhanced team of Airport Ambassadors has gone through the special Super Bowl Super Service training program and is now on duty welcoming and assisting visitors.

“With original Indianapolis businesses throughout the terminal and employees that have had years of training focused on providing super service, IND will make a great first – and last -impression of the city,” said Evan Strange Marketing & Communications Coordinator for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.

In addition to the “regular” passengers traveling through IND this week for non-Super Bowl-related purposes, the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) is expecting an increase of about 40,000 Super Bowl-bound passengers. It is also planning for an extra 75 commercial flights and at least 60 chartered ones.

Pre-game traffic has been arriving steadily, but is expected to pick up on Thursday. And, of course, pretty much everyone will head to the airport after the game on Sunday night.

If you’re headed that way, here’s what you’ll find at the airport:

Technology-wise, IND has added bandwidth to the free public Wi-Fi system, optimized its website for mobile users and rolled out an IND app. Cellphone service providers have also made upgrades to their infrastructure to accommodate increased mobile usage.
Indianapolis Airport resources

Security-wise, there will be extra police patrols throughout airport property and paramedic crews with be standing at the ready inside the terminal, instead of off-site. There will also be a specially trained Joint Hazardous Assessment Team on duty to deal with any suspicious packages or bags, so keep track of your belongings.

To assist sports fans on their journeys to and from the city, the airport has expanded the number of parking spots in the cellphone lot and issued temporary licenses to extra, authorized taxi drivers. During peak hours, there will be increased service on the public buses to and from the airport and, after the game is over, a remote airport employee parking lot will serve as an overflow lot for rental car returns.

The airport is also prepared for snow. Private contractors are on standby in case the airport needs them and the airport authority has purchased extra snow-removal equipment, including a giant, multi-use, snow-removal vehicle equipped with both a broom and a two-lane-wide plow.

Many passengers will likely be spending extra time at the airport, so most concessionaires have extended their hours and many kiosks and shops are offering licensed team merchandise and a wide variety of Super Bowl-themed souvenirs.

Just Pop In!, a local gourmet popcorn company with both a shop and a kiosk at the airport, has created commemorative Super Bowl tins and packaging and special Giants and Patriots popcorn flavors. “The team colors are very similar,” said Just Pop In! co-founder Mandy Selke, “But for the Giants we’ve mixed blueberry, cherry and plain white, salted popcorn. For the Patriots we mixed blueberry, cherry and our black cherry, which has sort of a gray color.”

The airport’s Enroute Spa is offering special Super Bowl-themed services that include the End Zone Spa Treatment. “For $38 guests can restore their sense of well-being with a 20-minute massage and, afterwards, receive an aromatherapy spa product they can take home,” said spa owner Erin Humphreys.

For souvenir-seekers, Lids Locker Room has set up an 80-foot-long pop up store and the Paradies Shops has created a sports-themed outlet with both Super Bowl merchandise and EA sports video games. The Collectors Den is selling a commemorative replica of the game coin used to determine possession at the start of the game and, on Sunday, gear celebrating this year’s Super Bowl champions will be rushed to the airport as soon as a winner is declared.

For those passengers trying to get out of Indianapolis after the game is over, the airport is urging everyone to arrive at the terminal at least three hours prior to their departure.

All airline ticket counters will be operating with expanded hours, with most opening at 3 a.m. on Monday morning. The TSA is also doing its part to help departures flow smoothly. Security checkpoints will be open round-the-clock from Sunday through to Monday and two extra screening lanes will be set up at each concourse entrance.

And a reminder: For those heading straight to the airport from Lucas Oil Stadium in the throes of celebration, keep in mind that beer is indeed a liquid.

Courtesy UW Digital Collections

Some airports are kid-friendly; others seem made for the business traveler.

But as winter approaches, it may be helpful to know which airports savvy skiers and snowboarders seek out — and where a boarding pass may be exchanged for a free lift ticket.

Grab ‘n’ go
No one wants to spend the first hours of a ski vacation hanging around the baggage claim area waiting for their gear to arrive.

That’s why John Hanna, CEO of NimbleTravel.com, recommends Denver International Airport for its “wonderful, dedicated ski baggage return” and “easy transport to the slopes on the Colorado Mountain Express.”

Michael Bociurkiw, founder and editor of My Savvy Traveller, gives props to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and any airport in a city that’s hosted a Winter Olympics. “You can be sure they are well set up to handle winter sports baggage,” said Bociurkiw. “YVR, for example, has a dedicated pickup area in international arrivals for oversized items, including skis.”

Another perk for skiers at YVR is the frequent bus service to Whistler Village, B.C., via Pacific Coach’s YVR Whistler SkyLynx.

Ski-friendly airlines
When it comes to ski-friendly airlines, Bociurkiw gives a nod to Alaska Airlines. “They fly to many ski destinations and, like Air Canada, know how to handle checked skis and boards, including special packaging, handling, tagging and dedicated drop-off and pickup stations. Air Canada gives you the option of declaring oversized baggage during online check-in.”

Travelzoo’s senior editor Gabe Saglie notes that while most airlines impose strict dimension restrictions on ski equipment, a handful stand out for making it easier to take along skis and boots. “Delta and JetBlue allow skis to go on simply as checked baggage, with standard weight limits,” said Saglie. “And skis are free if they are your first — or only — checked piece of baggage on JetBlue.”

Liftopia co-founder and CEO Evan Reece ranks Southwest Airlines as particularly ski-friendly. “The airline considers a ski bag or snowboard bag, plus your boot bag, an equal trade for a single piece of luggage,” said Reece. “So with a ski bag/boot bag and one other piece of checked baggage, there are no fees on Southwest.”

Fly in. Ski free.
The special section for ski and snowboard bags at baggage claim gets high marks at Salt Lake City International Airport, as does a program that allows arriving passengers to ski for free. Via the Park City Quick START (Ski Today and Ride Today) Vacation program, travelers may convert their airline boarding pass into a same-day lift ticket at Canyons Resort, Park City Mountain Resort or Deer Valley Resort.

Skiers arriving at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport can also swap their boarding passes for free ski-lift tickets at Squaw Valley, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, and at its sister resort, Alpine Meadows, just north of Tahoe City.

This story first appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin

Lucky for me there was plenty of it at the Vancouver International Airport.

Now, let’s just hope the Vancouver Canucks win the Stanley Cup so I have some reason to use these.

This past weekend I headed north from Seattle to the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C. to eat grilled squid at the Summer Night Market and learn slimy details about fish gutting at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site.

I intended to spend my evening watching airfield activity at Vancouver International Airport from my room at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport but instead ending up watching hockey.

I had no choice.

The 2011 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are underway and the Vancouver Canucks are up against the Boston Bruins.

Saturday night was the second game of the series and the entire city was getting ready to watch what they they hoped – no, assumed – would be the Canucks second win.

YVR airport was no exception. In addition to that giant banner on the tower, there were Canucks souvenirs for sale everywhere, travelers wearing Canucks t-shirts and jerseys, Go Canucks! messages on all available display panels and, come game time, a broadcast of the game on a giant screen in an airport food court.

I’ve never paid much attention to hockey, but it was easy to get swept up in the excitement. And it helped, of course, that the Canucks won Game 2 in the first 11 seconds of overtime. And now that I’m a Canucks fan, it was a treat being at the airport Sunday morning, when fans lined up to cheer the players (and get some autographs) as the nattily-dressed team members arrived for their flight to Boston for Game 3.

My stay at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport was hosted. A very excited young boy in the elevator tipped me off to the arrival of the Canucks team members in the airport lobby.

Emirates returns this year as the official airline of the BNP Paribas Open played in Indian Wells, California. The event is billed as the biggest tennis competition outside of the four Grand Slams and, as they did last year, the airline is asking fans to bring gently-used tennis rackets to the stadium for recycling.

Used rackets collected between March 10 and March 20 will donated to the non-profit National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network of Coachella Valley and anyone who donates a racket will have a chance to win two round-trip Business Class tickets from Los Angeles to Dubai. Nice.

Chicago Cubs’ player Ernie Banks checking out the spring training exhibition game schedule at Rendezvous Park, Mesa, 1950s Courtesy of Tim Sheriden, Mesa Historical Museum

A new exhibition at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport celebrates the fifteen major league baseball teams that head to Arizona each year for spring training as part of the Cactus League.

Play Ball: The Cactus League Experience includes original Mickey Mantle and Ernie Banks baseball cards, photographs, signed baseballs, paintings and other cool baseball memorabilia. Look for the display in the Terminal 4, Level 3 gallery through September 11, 2011.

Here’s a preview:

Young baseball fans getting their gloves autographed by a Baltimore Orioles’ player, 1950s.
The Orioles trained in Arizona at Panther Field in Yuma in1954 and Scottsdale Stadium I from1956 through 1958. Courtesy of Mesa Historical Museum

The Boston Red Sox were welcomed in Arizona at Scottsdale Stadium I by the Sheriff’s Posse.  Ted Williams is on the far right. Courtesy of Mesa Historical Museum

The New York Yankees team wearing cowboy hats at the “old” Phoenix Municipal Stadium, 1951. Courtesy of Mesa Historical Museum.

Batter up!

(Even PIT’s T Rex is excited about the Steelers being in the Super Bowl)

Super Bowl mania is reaching into airports: four airlines have added extra flights from Pittsburgh to Dallas for the Super Bowl and on Friday morning (February 4^th), Pittsburgh International Airport will be hosting a black-and-gold-themed pep rally for Arlington-bound Steelers fans.

The rally will take place in the airside terminal between 8:30 and noon and feature live music, special guests, “Hudsy” the Dog from Hudson Booksellers, Steelers merchandise and lots of excited fans.

To celebrate two new airberlin routes, The Bavarian Strollers will be playing oompah-filled songs at Gatwick Airport and Victoria Station on Monday, February 7^th. The song list will be made up of requests voted on via Twitter and four random voters will win airberlin tickets from Gatwick Airport to Nuremburg or Hanover.  Details on the airberlin oompah contest here.

And there’s a new video arcade at Orlando International Airport: the “King of Kong” arcade is in the main terminal near the food court.  At the grand opening Twin Galaxies, the authority on video game high scores and world records, unveiled a set of video-game-related trading cards. The first two cards in the series feature Billy Mitchell and Walter Day. Mitchell has numerous world records for Donkey Kong and Pac-Man; Day is known as the founding father of organized video game playing and competitions.

You’ll probably start your Texas adventure at Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport.  And the airport is ready for you.

From February 2th through February 7^th, DFW will greet football fans with video highlights from past NFL games and a wide range of entertainment, including bands, live statues of football players and Rowdy, the Dallas Cowboys mascot.

You have stuff to do.  Deadlines.  Work someone will pay you for if you just, you know, do it.

So you pour a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer.

But then, dang, the Internet happens.

Here’s a bit of what got me distracted today.

Air New Zealand posted time-lapse video footage of its first new domestic A320 being built and painted with all black livery.

The paint job has something to do with the All Blacks rugby team, so of course I had to visit that site and then the Small Blacks site as well.

As long as I was visiting the Air New Zealand site, I had to check in on what that wild and crazy furry creature, Rico, was up to. I found this reel of bloopers.

A quick check of email and Twitter sent me off in new directions.

Florida’s Dali Museum was opening in its snazzy new building in St. Petersburg, FL. And as someone who first came upon that museum collection, by accident, when it shared space with a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, I of course had to visit.

While there, I came across this clip of Salvador Dali as a guest on the old TV show, What’s My Line?

Then, of course, it was time to check email and Twitter and catch up on my RSS feed.

A blog post by the folks at the  Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 5 Cool Things at the Udvar-Hazy Center You May Have Missed – caught my eye because the Udvar-Hazy Center is just down the road Dulles International Airport.

And then I really got tangled up in the web. A comment on the museum blog post mentioned Anita, “the spider from Skylab.”  I didn’t know about Anita so had to follow that thread.

It turns out that Anita and a companion spider, Arabella, were part of an experiment flown on Skylab, a space station launched in May 1973.

According the Smithsonian website:

Scientists and students interested in the growth, development, behavior, and adaptation of organisms in weightlessness provided a variety of biology experiments for flight in the orbital research laboratory. A common Cross spider, “Anita” participated in a web formation experiment suggested by a high school student. The experiment was carried out on the Skylab 3 mission, which lasted 59 days from July 28-September 25, 1973. Astronauts Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott carried out the scientific research in space, reported the results, and returned this specimen at the end of their mission. NASA then sent Anita, a companion spider “Arabella,” and the experiment equipment to the Museum.

Anita is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Arabella is in storage.