I like the local/regional side of Calgary (CYYC). No fancy stuff, concrete walls, simple gates that open right to the tarmac where you board airplanes from the ground. It looks like a proper airport whereas most airports look like the goddamn Mall of America. I came here to get on an airplane, not spend a day at Camp Snoopy.
Rochester (KRST) is nice because getting through security takes 30 seconds and you get a nice 17-minute flight to MSP (where you get to see what it feels like to be a corporate asshole for a brief few moments), and all for barely any added cost to your ticket -
or even a discount compared to an MSP-only itinerary! No joke, it's often $50-100 cheaper to fly out of RST to a given destination than MSP on Delta (the other option is American, and who in their right mind would fly that dogshit overpriced-and-unpleasant airline in this day and age?).
Logan (KBOS) is a very efficient operation. For as busy as it is, they get you through and to your gate pretty quickly. Sometimes I look out the window and imagine what it looked like when it was an Eastern hub.
Wold-Chamberlain Field (KMSP) will always have a soft spot in my heart. It was the closest major airport to me for most of my life and the place where I started many adventures to visit family, go to museums, visit friends, and in one case get to the hospital before my great aunt died. I used to go planespotting with my friend Matt from the parking ramp at the Mall of America. I remember watching Northwest DC-9s blast out to who-knows-where through the skylights at the mall, or driving past the old North Central/Northwest/Delta hangars by 494 on my way back to St. Cloud to visit my best friend. I remember when the concourses were Green, Blue, Red, and Gold, not C/D, E, F, and G. When the terminals were Lindbergh and Humphrey, not the bland 1 and 2. There's been this movement to strip airports of their quirks and dumb everything down over the last 30-odd years in the name of insulting the intelligence of the public and I dislike it. I guess it all fits on a smartphone icon better.
AIRPORTS I DISLIKE:
LAX. Crowded overall; small, dirty bathrooms; getting from point A to point B takes forever because of awkward layouts and the crowding. I used to like hanging out behind the runways with my uncle Patrick in the '90s but you can't do that cool shit anymore. We used to grab munchies and soda from the gas station across the street and then get our faces ripped off by 727s and DC-8s and older 737s. It was fun.
Denver (KDEN, never flew into Stapleton). NOT A SINGLE GODDAMNED CLOCK IN THE WHOLE PLACE. It was true in 2000 when I flew to Albuquerque when my great aunt died, and it was still true in 2015 when my brother and I had a layover there on the way home from visiting family in SoCal. Airports and train stations are two places where there ought to be a clock every 100 feet, or at least one in every concourse.
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE:
Hunstville, Alabama (KHSV). Alabama is a weird place. You've got rednecks and rocket scientists without much in between. HSV is on the rocket scientist end of the spectrum, with a huge NASA presence. It's a charming small airport with jet service from Atlanta and security is light. There's lots of neat space program related displays, and there's a pretty cool museum in town with more real-life rockets than you'd ever expect to find in Alabama of all places, including an unused Saturn 5 suspended from the ceiling and a fully-stacked Saturn 5 static test airframe outside. There's also an Apollo command module (16?) and a bunch of cool green 1960s military shit. My brother and I flew there in 2013 as an excuse to fly on a DC-9 before they were gone for good.
Atlanta (KATL). You know, for such a massive, busy airport, I find navigating this one to not be so bad. Delta Airlines is based here, and if you go to the gate at their HQ and tell 'em you're there for the museum, they let you on the lot. The museum onsite is awesome. Ever seen a widebody resting on a carpeted floor in a room? Well, their first 767, purchased by the employees, is sitting on a carpeted floor in a room. Walk right into the cockpit if you like. Sit in the first class seats or view the exhibits in the back. Pop your head into the inlet of a massive turbofan engine. Fuckin' surreal. They've got a 737 simulator there and one of these days I want to book some time in it for funsies. ALSO THE AIRPORT HAS A FIVE GUYS.
John Wayne (KSNA). This was the first place I ever met my family, though I was only 6 months old. My aunt Rochelle grabbed me out of mom's arms at the end of the airstairs. Yep - no jetways in 1985. These days, I find it a good alternative to LAX when I'm visiting fam. Short security line and there's a Carl's Jr. The noise abatement takeoffs are always fun, and then you turn out over the coast and I get one last look at my childhood home before heading out over the mountains. The only way it could be better is if it were better integrated into mass transit, say if light rail or a subway could take you to the Amtrak station to catch a Metrolink or Surfliner train. Now that I live in Boston, the T has me spoiled.
McCarran/whatever it is now (KLAS) has windows that look like the laser ports on the rock crusher boss from the original Star Fox, which I find perpetually amusing.
I would have liked to have experienced Edmonton's City Centre airport. I stood on the grounds when I flew out to visit my friend Derek and could just imagine the approach over the city and mall. It must have been pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbNIij9ZBHI
OrthodoxEaster wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:31 pm
Taoyuan International, in Taiwan, had a human-sized display of Pili warriors, these massive, elaborate glove puppets that look like a cross between mythological heroes from Chinese folktales and pretty-boy new-wave bands from the early '80s. They beat the shit out of one another, w/much fake blood, on a late-night tv program. I'm walking down a corridor, en route to a gate, and there they are:
https://www.moc.gov.tw/en/News_Content2 ... 97&s=18201
That's fuckin' sweet.
