Had a nice talk with Jesse Leavenworth, a reporter from the The Hartford Courant, a while back about my favorite topic – airports with great amenities – and see that his article has hit the paper.

I chatted with Leavenworth about some of my favorite airports to spend time in – including San Francisco International Airport - SFO (great art and food choices in the Int’l Terminal), Oregon’s Portland International Airport- PDX (great shops and no sales tax), and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (a casino, lots of art, on-site museum, and loads more).

Leavenworth was especially pleased to hear me praise Schiphol, because his paper’s hometown airport, Hartford’s Bradley International Airport (BDL) has a direct flight to Amsterdam. Oops.. not any more.. Northwest Airlines just announced that it is dropping that route as of October 2.

Bradley still has loads to offer, including a free parking coupon for folks who sign up for the airport’s frequent-parker program and free Wi-Fi for all.

Last time I went through BDL, they were still displaying something truly unusual: three patch-sized embroidered scenes created by Raymond Materson to honor the 1994 Special Olympics. Materson was in prison when he made the patches and unraveled his socks to get the colored thread to use in his artwork. Once out of prison, Materson kept sewing. His work is now highly prized and displayed in museums and in art galleries.

Materson is currently in his first major overseas exhibit at the Compton Verney Gallery in Warwkickshire, England. To celebrate, he made this portrait of Queen Victoria and was kind enough to let me share it with you.

Courtesy and copyright: Ray Materson

Hungry, environmentally-conscious travelers at Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX) now have another place to drink organic beer and dine on organic meals, including the “Tree Hugger Scramble.”

Already wildly popular in Portland, the Laurelwood Public House and Brewery has just opened a second airport branch. This one is on Concourse E. The menu includes Oregon-brewed organic beers and dishes prepared with beef, chicken, pork and produce from local farmers.

It’s a good fit for PDX, which is already known as one of the most environmentally-friendly airports. In addition to an aggressive recycling program, the airport turns used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel and converts table scraps and coffee grounds into compost.

To celebrate spring, and new Northwest Airlines/KLM service between Portland, Oregon and Amsterdam, the folks at Portland International Airport (PDX) are giving away a pair of round-trip tickets from Portland to Amsterdam. Want to win? Entry forms for the Spring Fling are available in the airport and on-line, but only through tomorrow – Friday, March 28^th.