The Tampa Airport

The Tampa Airport is, by far, the cleanest, most well run airport I have traveled through. I say this after going through the place about 8 times total over the past few years. The bathrooms are just about spotless, always, at least in the Southwest Airlines wing. The train to and from the main terminal is a blast for the little one. The shops inside the main terminal are pretty stellar, especially the Ron Jon Surf Shop. Also around is an Animal art installation. Last year we saw painted manatees and this year it was elephants. A very cool things for the kids to see and spot while walking about or shopping in the airport.

On this trip, we discovered the airport play area. It is a cleverly and simplistically designed little spot in front of gate C 36 (our gate, convienently enough) with three big-metal-looking-but-actually-soft airplanes for kids to play in and climb on. There is also a little slide and a tunnel for babies to crawl through. The area is surrounded by a waist high marble-ish white wall with plush bench seating throughout for road-weary parents. The kids zone is only about 10 yards from those immaculate rest rooms, and a stone's throw away from the Nathan's hot dog vendor - which is also a plus.

Our flight home was uneventful. The little one slept most of the way and the Mrs. and I shared the iPod headphones to listen to the podcast of the most recent episode of This American Life. How nice I am to share - considered I just purchased the new Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire discs and ripped them on to the iPod before we left. I have not yet gotten through either in a single sitting. And I have to confess, I bought them at Target for $9.99 each (I couldn't help myself, I wasn't going to be near AKA Music in Philly for some time and wanted them right away!) and have already sold them on eBay - making back 100% of my money. Not bad at all.