Anyone been to SEATAC? If you have in the last X many years you immediately recognize the “fish” swimming along the floor in the terminals. Well, I discovered while wandering around Miami International Airport (MIA…) that it too has
a pattern built into its flooring in the terminals. Obviously, there are a lot of sections that are much more interesting than this quick photo grab, but you get the general idea. Gold rather than the silver of SEATAC, and dozens of different patterns imbedded along the extremely long terminal. The D terminal is long enough that it has its own dedicated sky train….
Anyway – I survived the red-eye from SFO on a packed American Airlines flight after a scramble for the correct documents for checkin. Found coffee and empanadas at a lovely small Cuban café which had ½ a dozen cheerful, prompt, and competent employees. There was a Starbucks, but the line was extremely long and a second employee finally showed up. Admittedly, it was before 0600 but still… I stayed awake till I was secure in my seat on the flight to St Maarten. Once there, I discovered that being in the middle of the plane meant you were last off, regardless of heading to the front or the rear stairs. Which meant that I was literally in the back of the second bus and the last person from the flight in the immigration line. That was ok, I had a lovely chat with two pilots out of Cleveland who were here to pick up their corporate jet along with the load of passengers they had dropped off last week. Both had elected to be flown home commercial and return rather than hang out for a week.
But, even being just about the last one on my flight to clear medical clearance, immigration, and collect my luggage, I found my hotel transfer without problems. The other two passengers for the trip were on the Delta flight that landed after me. No problem. Hang out.
I made it safely to the resort. I am wiped and some food would be a really good idea, then I think that sleep will surely be in order.
