The Terminal Redux

Feeling a bit like Tom Hanks after spending half a day at San Francisco International Airport due to flight delays back East. Fortunately the award-winning SFO is one of the best airports to get stuck in, remodeled with style during the dot-com boom. Here in Terminal 3 where United and American airlines dominate, like the other terminals at SFO, there’s excellent food, decent shopping, and museum-quality exhibits.

Especially good for us womentravelers (and everyone else) -- the restaurant choices are popular Bay Area kitchens, not the usual fast-food concessionaires we suffer through at most US terminals. (Why don't other airports get it?? Last week at Philadelphia International Airport the junk food lines were painfully long and greasy pizza smoke set off a fire alarm, and more flight delays...)

The first latte of the day at Peets Coffee and Tea, dropped in for yogurt and juice at United Airline's members-only Red Carpet Club, lunch at Sankaku noodle and sushi, sandwich to go at Boudin Bakery (sourdough bread) and dinner at renowned Bay Area chef Bradley Ogden’s Yankee Pier. These restaurants are smart publicity moves for their owners – I now frequent the original Yankee Pier, next to the headline-winning Lark Creek Inn (and Ogden’s local signature resto) – in Larkspur in the North Bay. (Hot tip for their Larkspur locations: this month of July their bottles of wine are half price.)

I stop by Marilla Chocolate Co. for bars of Ghiradelli and Scharffen Berger local chocolate for gifts, buy $10 light-weight pashmina shawl to match my outfit (best for cold airplanes), dawdle in Compass Books with its sophistication of an independent bookseller, and keep track of lost time by perusing the latest timepieces at Swatch. I had plenty of time to research my next Treo in the Palm store and cruised through the stunning The Sea exhibit. A sister womantraveler and I chatted away about our Chico's Traveler collections, skirts and pants which have become our airplane uniforms – wrinkle free, loose fitting and easy to clean and pack.

For a day that could have been a total disaster, the experience validated all my travel-smart theories. Arrive early. Be pleasant. Join a Frequent Flyer club. Carry a great bag and a Netflix movie for the laptop. Keep your cell phone charger with you, not in a checked bag. And just be ready. It’ll happen to you sooner or later these days as delays are dependable, not the exception.