Portland International Airport

Travel Tidbits: Fresh art Portland Int’l Airport

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Fresh art at Portland International Airport

PDX Art

Window Seat, an exhibit of large-scale aerial photographic prints and handmade quilts inspired by the view artist and writer James W. Earl had out of airplane windows between Indianapolis and Portland is at Portland International Airport through October 31, 2014.

Earl is a professor of English at the University of Oregon and his illustrated explanation about his interest in this subject – and how he got the images he worked with -is a great read.

Of the image above Earl writes:

“My delight in this image has little to do with planets or any other imagined resemblance. It’s more purely abstract, like classical geometry, like abstract art. Why do these fields strike me as so perfectly balanced, so perfectly . . . beautiful? As always, each of the squares is different. I love the two pearl-like small circles above, echoing the larger ones. (Pearls? My imagination won’t quit. I found myself calling this image “Cherry Pie,” before I finally settled on “Farm,” which is what it actually is.) For scale, note the tiny barn in the lower left corner.”

Fresh art at PDX and CVG airports

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CVG LONDON POLICE

The street artists known as The London Police spent two days last week at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) making a work of art for the airport’s “fast-past hallway,” which is the underground connection between the terminal and the parking garage.

Passengers got to watch as the duo, who are well-known for the their LADs characters (black-and-white smiley-faced characters with over-sized features), worked on the new piece work in the CVG ticketing area.

There’s also new art at Oregon’s Portland International Airport

PDX ART AUG

Rebecca Shapiro’s Untangled, a series of black and white paintings on 40-foot canvasses with changing light displays, were part of her TEDxConcordiaUPortland 2013 presentation.

(Photos courtesy CVB and PDX airports)

Fresh and tasty art at Portland International Airport

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Between the herds of food trucks and the bevy of highly-rated restaurants, Portland, Oregon has become a foodie’s mecca.

Now there’s an exhibit of photographs by Dave Lutz at Portland International Airport (PDX) celebrating that chow-centric culture. The photos Lutz chose for this show feature culinary landmarks, including Andina, Bar Mingo, Beast, Huber’s, Jacobsen Salt Co., Le Pigeon, iorio, Nostrana, Paley’s Place, Papa Haydn, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and the Tabor Czech food cart. And each photograph is accompanied by a description of the place and people pictured.

hubers final_std

Huber’s Café, established in 1879, is Portland’s oldest restaurant and well-known for Spanish coffees. Keith Korter, bartender. Photo by Dave Lutz.

 

Whether you’ve eaten at any of these beloved Portland hotspots, be sure head down the PDX Concourse Connector (post-security) next time you’re at Portland International Airport. PDX art program coordinators promise you’ll find out which local chefs are multiple James Beard Award winners and “how a local staple grew from the back of a Ford Pinto into a national chain.”

Souvenir Sunday at Portland International Airport – again

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It’s Souvenir Sunday – the day StuckatTheAirport.com takes a look at the fun, inexpensive and locally-linked items for sale at airports.

Last Sunday, I shared some of the items I spotted at the Pendleton Store at Portland International Airport (PDX).

This week I’ve got a few more PDX finds to share.

PDX Moonstruck

Portland-based Moonstruck Chocolates were among the many regionally-created chocolates for sale at the Made In Oregon Shop, which also had a great section of locally-brewed beers, including this very unusual Voodoo Doughnut-inspired chocolate, peanut butter and banana ale.

PDX VOODOO DOUGHNUT ALE

And, rare among airport book shops, Powell’s Book had a good selection of used books for sale.

PDX Powells used books

Do you poke around the shops when you’re stuck at the airport? If you find a fun, locally-linked item that strikes your fancy, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, I’ll send you a travel-related souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday at Portland International Airport

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PDX_Oregon Tablecloth

It’s Souvenir Sunday and time to take a look at some of the fun, inexpensive, locally-linked items you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s treasures come from Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX), which I visited while trying to collect on all the offers included in the Portland Passport that Travel Portland is offering visitors as a perk with hotel rooms booked through its site from now through April 1st. The freebies include tasty treats such as a cream doughnut from Voodoo Doughnuts (their slogan is “The magic is in the hole.”) and a YouCanHasCheeseburger from Brunch Box, one of the 500 or so food carts in a city known now as “Food Cart Heaven.”

PDX Brunch box

For some reason, a plate of meatballs from the cafeteria at IKEA is one of the items on the passport. And while I don’t eat meat, (they offered a nice Greek salad instead) I was all too happy to make the trek out there because IKEA is just one stop on the MAX light rail before the airport.

Portland International Airport is one of my favorite airports partly because I used live nearby, but also because among the many amenities it offers is a pre-security shopping street with outlets from some of the city’s most popular local stores. And because in Oregon, there is no sales tax.

I found the Oregon-themed table cloth pictured up top at the airport’s Pendleton store, which carries a wide variety of iconic Pendleton apparel and blankets as well a nice variety of accessories and items for children.

PDX_Pendleton stuffed animals

A bit out of my price range at $185 but, as another shopper was quick to point out, definitely offered at market price, were these Dr. Martens boots, a cool collaboration between the two companies.

PDX_PendltetonDocMartens

Do you poke around the shops when you’re stuck at the airport? If so, please be on the look-out for items that are fun, inexpensive and “of” the city or region. If you do, please snap a photo and send it along. If your airport souvenir is featured on StuckatTheAirport.com, I’ll send you a travel souvenir.

pdx thermos

Masking tape art at Portland International Airport

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Damien Gilley creates masterpiece made from masking tape at PDX.

It looks like it might be painted on the wall, but Damien Gilley’s ‘Skywalker’, on display at Portland International Airport for the next year, is actually a masking tape creation portraying aiport skybridges. Look for it on Concourse A.

Gilley’s temporary exhibit is on display at PDX for one year.

Travel Tidbits: Power, art and blades

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Alaska Airlines has installed 200 extra electrical outlets/USB ports at its gates in Anchorage, Portland and Seattle to match the power outlets in its gate areas in Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport and at Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose airports.

Portland International Airport has a new printmaking exhibit titled “Cut & Print” featuring the work of 11 regional artists. Look for it on Concourse A through February 20, 2013. “Squawkin,” above, is one of six woodcut portraits in the show created by Marc Girouard, an artist who also works at the airport.

And the annual ice-skating rink at Atlanta’s Park Tavern, the historic restaurant in Piedmont Park, opens on Thanksgiving Day as the Southwest Rink at Park Tavern.

Skaters who have their photo taken at the rink and post it to the Southwest Airlines Facebook page will be entered into a contest for a pair of tickets to one of the cities the airline serves. More details here.

Fresh art at Portland International Airport

Art,

Oregon’s Portland International Airport is showcasing work from artist Marshall Roemen in the north ticket lobby.

Roemen’s site-specific installation is inspired by American author Flannery O’Connor, particularly her collection of short-stories entitled, Everything That Rises Must Converge, which she was working on at the time of her death.

Here’s a link to more images from Roemen’s PDX installation.

Curious about O’Connor’s work? It’s a good bet you’ll find her books (new or used) at one of the airport’s three (!) branches of Powell’s Books.

Virgin America’s Portlandia-themed party kicks off PDX service

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On Tuesday, Virgin America added an 18th city, Portland, to its service network adding two daily flights from Los Angeles and two from San Francisco. As is its tradition, the airline had a fun launch event. And, as a former Portland resident, I went along for the ride as a guest.

For the launch event, the airline teamed up with IFC and its hit show “Portlandia” and invited “Portlandia” Mayor, actor Kyle MacLachlan, along as well as the real-life Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who plays MacLachlan’s assistant on the show.

"Portlandia" Mayor Kyle Maclachlan (center), real Portland Mayor SamAdams (right), Virgin America Dave Cush (left). Photo courtesy Virgin America

When it touched down at Portland International Airport the plane -named the mt. hoodie – was met by a delegation that included local dignitaries and a hangar full of people who had been invited to a Portland/Portlandia-themed party that included DJs, art projects and doughnuts, made by Portland’s infamous donut-makers, Voodoo Doughnuts.

The mt. hoodie is one of the airline’s newest airplanes. At San Francisco International Airport, it was parked next to Jefferson Airplane, the airline’s first aircraft.

(All photos, except where noted, by Harriet Baskas)

Stuck at the airport? Smart Money banks on fun

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In response to my At the Airport column in USATODAY.com last week: How the airport experience has changed since 9/11, I got a couple of calls from folks at Smart Money who were also pondering then and now changes.

Quentin Fottrell, one of Smart Money’s Pay Dirt bloggers, wanted to know if there was anything fun to do at airports.

I put down my coffee and rattled off some of my faves, starting with the Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian gardens at Honolulu International Airport.

 

Based on our chat, here’s how Fottrell wrote up the five other airport diversions we talked about for his Pay Dirt post:

 

“Palm Beach International Airport: Practice Your Golf

Operated by hospitality firm HMS Host, the airport provides an indoor putting green and, for $3, you can walk away with a souvenir golf ball.

Boston Logan Airport: Make Your Own Sundae

The MooBella vending machine makes Sundaes in 30 seconds. You can choose from 12 flavors on the touch screen. They’re at Terminal C near the Back Bay Café and Lean & Green food store.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport: Workout at the Gym

For $15, take a workout in the Hilton Hotel gym, which is attached to the airport, or relax in the sauna and steam room, or have a dip in the pool. AirportGyms.com has details of similar offers.

San Francisco International Airport: Visit the Museum

On Level 3 of the International Terminal, there are free exhibitions on vintage televisions and a photography exhibition on the San Francisco Seals Baseball Team from 1903-1957.

Portland International Airport: Take Your Bike Apart

After you’ve taken the cycle track to this airport, you can use the tools and facilities at this area near the Lower Terminal roadway to take apart your bike so you can bring it on the airplane.”

Thanks, Quentin!