SFAA - San Diego

* * * 'SFAA' is 'Scenes From An Airport'. Everyone knows a "road warrior", or at minimum, is familiar with the concept. The strong-willed business man, that spends more time in the seat of a plane, than sleeping in their own bed. I know one, and these are his stories. He’s my guest writer.* * *

I am in Terminal 1 at San Diego Airport.
For such a beautiful city they have a terrible airport. The airport is downtown and is boxed in by the water and I-5. It has no place to grow so it has remained the same for many years. I am on Southwest today so there is some expectation of inconvenience, but this place is crazy. I am in an area for gates 3-10, so 7 gates. It is a circular waiting area with some food vendors in the middle and the gates surrounding it.

When I was in line for security there was a sign that they had limited restrooms upstairs, but I ignored that. They weren't lying…there are 2 standers and 2 sitters in the mens serving 7 flights out and in at any given time. The flight leaving now is bound for San Antonio…mine isn’t for another 2 hours, but at least I am surrounded by Texans or folks trying to get there as soon as possible.

The lady across from me dressed in a black body suit apparently works for puretexan.com or really likes it since she has a huge sticker on her notebook. The S.A. flight has now enveloped my seating area with the A and B lines filing past. On my way out here last night I sat next to a non-flier…meaning she didn’t like to fly. She had been visiting her best friend that had just moved from San Diego to Austin and was visiting to see if she should follow. She was about 45 and had an 8 year old daughter in tow. She drank A LOT to calm her nerves and talked to me the whole way. She lives on Coronado Island, which for those who don’t know San Diego is an awesome little island off of San Diego. It is where the Navy SEALS train and like all of San Diego is very expensive. She said her 1950's house that was about 1400 sq ft would easily sell for $2M. Thus the reason why everyone that now lives around me in Austin is from California.

The good news is that most people from California can assimilate to the Austin lifestyle very easily. They like the outdoors, are environmentally aware, are kind of weird, and bring cash to Texas.

To recap…San Diego is an awesome place, but the airport sucks.