Day 23: Downtime in Long Beach
So I’m sitting here finally catching up on this blog in a bar in Long Beach, California, one of Jetblue’s two big hubs. ”Big” as in “number-of-connections-though”, to be clear; unlike Jetblue’s other big hub, JFK, no one would describe LGB as a big airport.
JFK’s T5 has like nine times as many gates just dedicated to its airline as LGB has altogether.
So while I was a little underwhelmed by the notion of whiling away six hours in T5 a week ago, today’s six-hour layover in LGB was looking downright terrifying. I pretty much decided before I landed that I wouldn’t be hanging out in the airport for that whole time just to avoid a security re-check.
But LGB’s not really right next to anything. I did some googling and weighed my options: I could have grabbed a cab or even a bus to somewhere in the area and made an excursion of my time, but that didn’t really appeal to me, so I did what I normally do instead: found something to walk to, and walked to it.
And so it was a mile north on Lakeshore Blvd., past the airport and some helipads and construction projects on my left, BOEING with it’s grand old “Fly DC” sign on my right, to a chinese restaurant that chowhound approved of for some honey walnut shrimp that was honestly just about the kickassest honey walnut shrimp I’ve ever had.
But what L.V. Chinese Restaurant didn’t have handy was a power outlet, so I moved on to a bar I saw one the way to the restaurant. Popped inside, ordered a beer, scoped for outlets, and here I am.
And what a beer it is:
They call it a “schooner”, and declare it to be a round 34 oz. Which is an odd measurement for a beer, but not so odd for a bier: 34 oz is just about exactly one liter, and a liter of beer is pretty much what you drink if you’re in Bavaria, if, for example, you’re in Munich for Oktoberfest.
I didn’t know I was ending up with a liter of beer when I ordered the Oktoberfest, but between the size and the name and the fact that I’m sitting on a wooden picnic table, I’m just about ready to hear an accordion kick in and for the guys speaking Spanish at the pool table next to me to break into a rousing chorus of Ein Prosit.
San Francisco was fun; Salt Lake City will hopefully be fun as well, though I suspect it will be a much quieter and in its way weird experience, since there’s not much mefi representation in the area.
Will I find anything fascinating in SLC in my day of wandering? Will the wholesomeness kill me dead? Will my experiences there top the time years ago when I was on a bus layover in the city for a couple hours and was an attempted de-convert courtesy of a homeless kid who apparently thought I was a little too Mormon for my own good?
We’ll see!
