Layover

Fresh airport amenities for summer travel

Air Travel, Airports, Entertainment, Events, family travel, Food, Free Stuff, free Wi-Fi, Fun Stuff, Kids, Kids travel, Layover, Lounges, Music, Observation Decks, Restaurants, Wi-Fi, , , , , , , , , ,

In my msnbc.com column this week –Fresh airport amenities make the wait fly by – I offered a run-down of some of the programs and services air travelers can take advantage of this summer.

One amenity that didn’t make it into the story is self-service ice-cream sundae machine at Boston Logan International Airport.

Make-your-own sundae machine at Boston Logan Airport

We all scream for ice-cream at the airport

Using a touchscreen, customers choose a flavor (12 are available) and a mix-in. The machine then prepares and delivers the dessert.  Boston Logan Airport has two  MooBella machines installed: one is at Terminal C at the Back Bay Café (Gates 11-21); the other is at Lean & Green (Gates 40-42).

If you test it out, please send a report – and a photo.

What else is fresh and new at airports this summer?

Philadelphia International Airport offers entertainment this summer

Mimes among the entertainment at PHL this summer

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) now has free wireless and a Passenger Chillin’ Zone with sofas, tables, chairs, ottomans and foliage (Gate D-3). Throughout the summer, PHL is also hosting a Just Plane Fun program with live music, appearances by mascots from local sports teams, contests and other activities.

From now through the end of August, Miami International Airport is throwing weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) parties with a different theme each week. This weekend’s theme is Havana Nights, with domino tables, mojito demonstrations, a DJ, rumba dancing and cigar rolling.  August 20-23 you’ll find a flamenco dance show, Latin food sampling and more.

Observation Deck at Los Angeles International Airport now open

Observation Deck at LAX now open on weekends

At Los Angeles International Airport, the outdoor observation deck on top of the Theme Building in the center of the airport is finally open. Closed since 9/11, and during the building’s $12.3 million renovation and earthquake retrofit, the deck is open weekends, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free telescopes offering great views of arriving and departing aircraft, the airport grounds and the surrounding area. Pink’s, an iconic Hollywood hot dog stand, has also opened a branch in the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

At Outagamie County Regional Airport (ATW) in Appleton, Wisconsin, they’re still lining up to get candy from the giant purple machine with flashing lights.

Candy-dispening machine at Outagamie Airport

Willy Wonka candy machine dispenses mixed candy treats

Located pre-security, the Willy Wonka candy machine is one of 25 such machines in the country (there’s one at the Mall of America) and is currently the only one at an airport.

Passengers had so much fun during the special events held at Vancouver International Airport during the 2010 Winter Olympics games that the airport decided to host Take-off Fridays festivals all summer, complete with face painting, DJs spinning music, prize drawings, meal specials and frees samples from a variety of airport shops.

And San Francisco International Airport is presenting You are Hear concerts again this summer. Performances take place every Friday through August 28th between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at three different stages in the airport. This week the line-up includes Quinteto Latino in the International Terminal, Lavay Smith & The Red Hot Skillet Lickers in the United hub and, in Terminal 1, Threeocracy. See the SFO website for the full season schedule.

Enjoy!

Party alert for Miami International Airport

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Some airports are pulling out the stops this summer and throwing parties for travelers.

One example: Miami International Airport is hosting themed weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) events from noon to 3 pm through the end of August.

Miami Airport Havana-themed party to feature dominoes tables

Havana-themed party at MIA to feature dominoes tables

This weekend’s theme is Havana Nights and will include domino tables, mojito demonstrations, a DJ, rumba dancing and cigar rolling.

Miami Airport Havana-themed party to feature cigar rolling

MIA Havana-themed party to feature cigar rolling

August 6-9 it will be a Miami-themed Kids Weekend.  August 13-16 will focus on music. And from August 20-23 get ready for a flamenco dance show, Latin food sampling, photo opportunities, games and more.

Flamenco dancing coming to Miami Airport

Flamenco dancing coming to Miami Airport

Photo courtesy National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Project, via Flickr Creative Commons.

All photos courtesy Flickr, via Creative Commons.

Ice-cream. At the airport, the hotel and beyond.

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We’re having a heat wave.

Well, a lot of the country is having a heat wave. The kind of tropical heat wave Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe and Gale Storm sang about.

And when there’s a heat wave there’s only one thing to do: eat ice-cream and lots of it.

Back in the 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice-Cream Month and set aside the third Sunday of the month as National Ice-Cream Day.  And, as this photo proves, President Barack Obama is a big fan of ice-cream too.

(Photo courtesy Wells’ Dairy, Le Mars, Iowa)

So as you’re traveling around this month, be sure to stop and eat some ice-cream.  If you’re stuck at the airport, it’s a good chance you’ll find a branch of Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen-Dazs or some other well-known ice-cream or frozen yogurt chain in the food court.

Better yet, here’s hoping you land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, where there’s a branch of Amy’s Ice-Cream, a local favorite, or at Little Rock International Airport, where you can find Arkansas-made Yarnell’s Ice Cream.

Know of some other airports where you can get great ice-cream? Please share your find in the comments section below.

And while you’re out on the road, why not learn something about this sweet treat?  For a recent msnbc.com article, Ice-cream fans celebrate sweet treat – I found a few factory tours that not only offer an ice-cream education but, in the three cases below, a free sample.

Ben & Jerry’s, Waterbury, VT

(Courtesy Jeff Pecor, Yapta)

If you’re in New England and your travels take you anywhere near Vermont, make your way to Waterbury for a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream factory. The adventure includes an entertaining “moo-vie” about ice-cream production and a visit to the “Flavoroom” to taste the flavor of the day. Details at Ben & Jerry’s.

Blue Bell, Brenham, TX (Broken Arrow, OK; Sylacauga, AL)

Ice-cream at Blue Bell Factory, Brenham TX

Named for the Lone Star State’s native bluebell wildflower, the Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell Company offers tours of its ice-cream plants in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama. Each tour ends with a complimentary scoop of ice-cream and the opportunity to purchase additional scoops for $1 or less.  Details at the Blue Bell website.

Velvet Ice Cream, Utica OH


(Blue icing getting mixed into a special birthday cake ice cream)

The Velvet Ice Cream factory in Utica, OH makes more than five million gallons of ice-cream a year in “small” (for the industry) 800-gallon batches at the Ye Olde’ Mill, a 20-acre site that houses an ice-cream museum, a historic grist mill with water wheel, a fishing pond and other attractions.  Factory tours don’t usually include a complimentary taste of ice-cream, but for National Ice-Cream Month visitors who show up weekdays between 1 and 3 p.m. will get to taste the flavor of the day as it comes off the line. For details see the Velvet Ice-Cream Company website.

If your travels don’t take you near these shops, consider stopping by one of the Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants participating in the company’s “Scoop for Success” program.  During National Ice Cream Month part of the proceeds of a specially-designed ice-cream dessert at each restaurant will be donated to Dress for Success, an organization devoted to helping women re-enter the workforce.

And we’re not just talking chocolate sundaes. At Firefly in Washington, DC, the designated dessert is peanut butter ice cream sandwich with chocolate decadence, banana’s foster sauce and praline crumb.

Firefly, Washington DC dress for success dessert

NIOS, in New York City, is serving vanilla bean gelato with caramelized popcorn and caramel sauce. And at the Red Star Tavern & Roast House in Portland, Oregon, the decadent dessert is red velvet doughnuts with bourbon-pecan cheesecake ice cream.

Kimpton Portland Red Velvet Donut dessert

On July 15th, 2010 Kimpton Hotels will also be hosting a National Ice Cream Social.  All proceeds from special desserts sold in the hotels’ “living rooms” will be donated to charity.

Do you need any more reasons to go eat ice-cream?  Go!

Tidbits for travelers: LAX views, Orlando news, & KCI cruise

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Here’s great news for anyone who finds themselves stuck at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the weekend.

The Observation Deck at the top of the Theme Building, which has been closed since 9/11, will finally re-open to the public this Saturday.

(A view of the old version of the observation deck; courtesy LAX. New version: under wraps!)

There will be a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday morning (June 21, 2010) but the official public hours of the deck will be Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Go take a look through the new telescopes and enjoy the view!

Orlando Airport getting Google-ized?


According to this story in the Orlando Sentinel, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) is in discussion with Google for a two-year deal in which Google would pay the airport more than $100,000 a year to sponsor the existing (free) airport Wi-Fi and provide a variety of other amenities, including free Internet kiosks for passengers traveling without laptops and phone booths at the international gates offering free long distance calling.

Sounds like Google is talking to other airports about this same sort of ‘experiment,’ but no word yet on where.

And this sounds like fun:

(courtesy Hot Rod)

This Saturday (June 19th, 2010) Kansas City International Airport will be hosting its fourth KCI Cruise. Not a sailing ship cruise, but the sort of cruise where hundreds – in this case up to 500 – owners of classic, muscle and special-interest automobiles gather in a parking lot to show off their cool cars.

The event runs from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. (weather permitting; wouldn’t want anything to happen to those cars!) and money raised from the sales of donated food and prizes will go to area charities. The prizes are nothing to sneeze at. They’ll be giving away Frontier Airlines tickets, Chiefs and Royals tickets, Justin Bieber concert tickets (!), hotel stays and more. For more details and for directions to the event, see the KCI Cruise page on the Kansas City International Airport website.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport upgrades departure gate experience

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I’m a big fan of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The amenities there – from the play areas and the first-class art collection to the plentiful lounge chairs, the casino and floating branch of the Rijksmuseum – make long layovers more of an adventure than a chore.

Now they’ve turned their attention to the departure gate experience with a new waiting area intended to make the time passengers spend waiting for flights “as pleasant and inspirational as possible.”

Inspirational? That’s a tall order. But the first new-style gate area rolled out, which will be used first by Cathay Pacific, does look different and quite promising. The seating area looks more like a living room than a ‘holding area.’ And there’s a concierge desk, binoculars for plane spotting, water fountains, work desks and “daylight capturing devices” that will “change the lighting from ‘warm’ to cool’ during the boarding announcement in order to get people going.”

One problem: if these new gate are as nice they sound, it may be hard to get people to go!

Souvenir Sunday: Pineapple presents from Honolulu Int’l Airport

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Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday – the day we take a look at some of the inexpensive and sometimes wacky souvenirs many of us end up buying when we’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s souvenirs come to us courtesy of Pam Mandel, a lucky Seattle gal who just returned from an adventure in Hawaii. (Am I jealous? No way. I love cold, rainy June days in Seattle. Really…)

(Photo courtesy Pam Mandel)

You can read about Pam’s journey – and see some truly lovely photos – on Pam’s Nerd’s Eye View blog, but I caught up with her – via Twitter – when she was hanging around Honolulu International Airport.

It’s always hard to end a vacation. Especially one in Hawaii. But the Honolulu airport softens the transition with plenty of open spaces, art and history exhibits celebrating Hawaiian culture, and a trio of tranquil cultural gardens – Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian – that can almost make you forget that you’re at an airport.

(Photo by Harriet Baskas)

But this is Souvenir Sunday – which is all about shopping.  I asked Pam to look around the airport shops for something under $10, “of” Hawaii and, ideally, sort of offbeat.

This pineapple slicer caught her eye – but at $13, it was a bit outside our Souvenir Sunday budget.

(Photo by Pam Mandel)

Plus – hello, TSA – wouldn’t a pineapple slicer need to have something built in – like a blade- that can actually slice a pineapple?

So instead we’re settling on these cute pineapple magnets.  Cute as a button, under $10, and a great choice for this week’s Souvenir Sunday.

Thanks Pam, for sending along these photos!

(Photo by Pam Mandel)

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

Schiphol getting world’s first airport library

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Library at Strahov Monastery

(Strahov Monastery library, Prague. Photos courtesy Curious Expeditions , via Flickr)

Over the years I’ve heard from one or two US airports that were toying with the idea of letting their local library have a cart somewhere in the terminal where travelers could check out and return library books.

But so far, it seems nothing much has come of that.

Now comes word that, come July, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport will have the world’s first airport library, complete with books, films and music. According to Radio Netherlands:

As the airport library is a place where people will pass time and then leave on their flights, visitors will not be allowed to take books, DVDs or other items away. There will, however, be a separate ‘download room’. A new device will allow visitors to not only watch films, but also to download them to mobile phones.

A brilliant idea! Hopefully other airports will team up with local libraries and do the same.

And, for fun and inspiration, take a look at this Librophiliac Love Letter from Curious Expeditions – a round-up of some of the world’s most beautiful libraries. Schiphol’s new library may not end up looking like any of these, but I bet they’ll create something quite inviting.


Love the layover: Museum of Bags and Purses

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There are a lot of things to love about Amsterdam, including the canals, The Van Gogh Museum, The Rijksmuseum, the cheese, the bicycles and the chocolate.   On my most recent visit, I discovered one more: The Museum of Bags and Purses Hendrikje.

The 4000 piece collection includes pouches, pockets, purses, suitcases and accessories dating back to the 16th century and tells a wide variety of stories about fashion, art, history, decorative arts, and industrial innovations.

Here a just a few of my favorite items in the collection, starting with, of course, this assortment of trunks and suitcases:

This bag is actually a working telephone!

And this tortoise-shell bag inlaid with mother of pearl is the purse that started the collection.

Love the layover: See Donald Duck & Madonna at Keukenhof on a Schiphol layover

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I first learned about Keukenhof last year, when the historic 80-acre park that bursts forth each spring with 70 million tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and other flowering bulbs was celebrating its 60th anniversary with, among other things, an installation of flowers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

Even to someone who can barely keep a houseplant alive, I liked the idea of seeing acres of Holland’s tulip fields in bloom and of strolling through a park filled with so many perfectly planted display gardens.  And once I discovered that you can get to the park by public bus from Schiphol, I was sold.

So on arrival in Amsterdam this week I stashed my bags and headed out to the gardens.

Tulip fields

The perfectly tended-do gardens are as advertised: a festival of colors, aromas, and landscapes laid out along footpaths that are dotted with water features, foot bridges, artwork, play spaces and pavilions filled with – more flowers.  There’s even a Walk of Fame with flowers named for Donald Duck, Madonna, and other celebrities.

Some of the flowers, especially a few of the unusually-shaped and colored tulips, don’t look real. But, of course, they are. That why, as popular as is it, Keukenhof’s spring garden is only open to the public for eight weeks a year.  This year’s closing day is May 16th.  So if you’ve got a layover at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport before then, take the #58 bus out to see the gardens. If not, add the gardens to your ‘must see’ list and schedule your next trip with a long layover at Schiphol.


(Keukenhof photos courtesy: Keukenhof)

Tulips at Keukenhof

Free movies at LAX

Air Travel, Airports, Art, Exhibits, Layover, Movies,

If you’re waiting for friends or family to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), or have a long layover and have already popped over to the Theme Building and taken the elevator up to the Encounter Restaurant, then make your way to the arrivals area at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) and catch a film.

Seventeen artists have created “custom moving image work” (video art) for the two giant installations in the TBIT arrivals area. One screen is a 25-foot monitor grid; the other screen links 58 monitors together in a 90-foot long serpentine filmstrip.

Filmstrip video screen at LAX

What will you see?  The topics and themes are pretty far-ranging, but here are just two of the descriptions that seem especially appropriate for the airport:

Current by Patty Chang and Noah Klersfeld:

“Filmed in the baggage handling area of LAX. two kaleidoscopic videos play back to back.  First, 25 screens show the repeated image of a houseplant traveling on conveyor belts from the check-in counter to the baggage sorter. Then, the 25 screens simultaneously show 25 different versions of that journey.  Order sits beside chaos.”

To and From LAX, by Chip Lord, includes:

“footage from airports around the world to represent the global network and reflect the travel patterns to and from LAX. From amongst the universal spaces of travel emerge the emotions of greeting, boredom, and excitement as 25 destinations are represented.”

Altogether the new video installations at LAX offers three hours of artist-made material. Enough to entertain you and your kids through a long delay. Enough to make you want to volunteer to pick up a friend at the airport. And maybe enough to make you schedule a long layover, so you can say you went to LA for dinner and a movie – at the airport.

(Photos courtesy:Jay Berkowitz/LAWA)