Houston

First time flying through Houston. This airport has a lot going for it with a few major drawbacks. One major plus is that there are shops and a variety of eating options everywhere. That’s always nice. After walking through a goodly portion of the airport to get to my gate (drawback), I know that the next time I come here I won’t feel like “oh man, last chance for food and gas for 20 miles” which is what I feel in many airports that have only one major food court or kiosk and then have almost nothing down by the gates. And the options are good, they aren’t all totally random untrustable airport vendor crap. There’s a La Salsa, a Panda Express, and a number of pizza and Frenchy sandwich shops. Coffee in the form of Starbucks and Peet’s is plentiful.

The signage could be better. I was trying to get from the E terminal to the B terminal and somewhere in the C terminal I completely lost the signage for the B terminal. I was so confused I had to sit down at a quasi-French wine bar to eat lunch and ask for directions (the other immediate source for direction would have been the Spirit of the Red Horse store personnel. More on that in a minute.) It’s not as dire as it seems. If you do find yourself at Le Grand Comptoir in the C terminal in Houston, the chicken, apple, and brie crepe is fairly delicious (I would go lighter on the bland cream sauce) and comes with a nice mixed greens side salad. It’s a pretty good deal for a gourmet-ish meal at around 11 bucks. I can’t vouch for any wines because I can’t drink wine mid-day or I will be sleepy the rest of the day and I needed to be awake for my long drive to the middle of nowhere, Mississippi late in the day.

Later on in the journey to the B Terminal, I ran across the Beauty Lounge. The ladies were really nice, they offered help initially, but didn’t hover as I slathered on expensive anti-aging creams and mixed a bunch of Armani perfumes (this is a bad idea. I am now choking on my own weird smell.) But I appreciate that if you are going to leave out exorbitantly expensive samples, you allow people to try them on liberally instead of nagging them to death and forcing them to pretend they really want to buy the full line of Lancome collagen-enhancer products while in the airport. The main downside of this airport is the weird setup. Why did I have to walk half a mile to take a train to a different terminal? This could have been done better. If I have to take trains, I want more stops. If I have to walk, I want more moving walkways. I know, I know, I bitch about Phoenix Sky Harbor and their interminable moving walkways, but it would be infinitely worse if they didn’t even have said walkways. So, while I am glad that there are plentiful options for food, drink, and buying of beauty and entertainment products on my walk between terminals, I would appreciate if that walk weren’t quite so long and unfacilitated.