That's too bad. It's a nice little restaurant (which, of course, acounts for about half of the main terminal.

I've always enjoyed Long Beach; my only fear is that I'll show up on one the rare day it rains.

My orker and I landed just after a rainstorm. We stood around waiting for our bags to show up at baggage claim, considering ourselves lucky that the weather was relatively warm and that we were relatively dry. I wonder if the TSA allow collapsible umbrellas in carry-ons.

The last time I disembarked onto a stairway/ramp in the outdoors was when I flew into RDU in the late 70's or early 80's.

Anyway, we were not only lucky Sunday evening, but we were also lucky all week: the weather was relatively warm -- in the 70's -- and no more rain showed up. Makes me wish I had had more time to sightsee.

The two things I noticed about the Long Beach airport when I had a 4-hour layover there (thanks, JetBlue!)


1. I think they were 3/4 of the way through building it when someone said "No, wait, these are plans for a bus terminal!" but they were so far into it at that point they couldn't scrap it and start over again, and

2. Their PA mics are left unguarded (and without the approval-delay thing) which meant some kids had a field day announcing to the entire airport that Marco sucks.

It was the best layover ever.

Edited at 2008-03-01 07:13 am (UTC)

As to point 1: I was amused by the fact that we walked inside to check our bags, walked back outside to go through phase one of security, walked into another building to go through x-ray/metal detectors, walked back outside and up a ramp and walked back inside into a third building to get to the gate.

And then we walked outside again to get to the plane. This is indeed a tiny airport. The next time I visit Irvine, though, I'm going to see if I can fly in to John Wayne because Sun's site is right beside the airport.

As to point 2: That's hilarious; it trumps the fact that we heard the ground crew announce, every time a plane was ready to board, that there were two ramps available for boarding "to expedite the boarding process more quickly".

Huh. I didn't know that Long Beach airport was still open. I thought it had been closed. I flew into there many years ago when I had to do some work at Seal Beach. Boy, does that bring back bad memories...

It's alive and thriving and absolutely packed. The free wifi meant that most everyone who had a laptop had it on their lap. I didn't have any problem finding outlets to use, either.