We chased our own shadow all over the Potomac river and finally touched it at the edge of the runway in DCA airport…

I don’t golf. And I don’t have any club memberships. But it is always good to have friends who do!! Today’s off site meeting is in a great golf club in idyllic settings outside Lexington, KY. My contribution was to pull rank to have the meeting in the patio instead of in the room. Beautiful set up!!! It almost looks like one of Sharmila’s paintings.

It is not often that airport Marriotts pay a lot of attention to aesthetics. They are meant for busy business passengers looking for a bed to sleep in for the night. That is why the bars are open very late at airport Marriotts 🙂
The Cincinnati airport Marriott seems to be different. Beautiful fountain in the atrium.

I am surprised I did not learn this before today. I knew Kansas City airport is not in Kansas but Missouri… but Cincinnati too??
Got down at Cincinnati, took the rental car and my iPhone instructed me to take “Kentucky 212”. I am like, “What? I am still inside the airport area”. Checked into the hotel and asked the young lady what the deal was.
And it is then that I realized Cincinnati airport is not in Ohio either. It is in Kentucky.

So, I had to look it up. A very interesting history. Copied the Wikipedia story here…

President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved preliminary funds for site development of the Greater Cincinnati Airport February 11, 1942. This was part of the Army Air Corps program to establish training facilities during World War II. At the time, air traffic in the area centered around Lunken Airport just southeast of central Cincinnati. Lunken opened in 1926 and was located in the Ohio River Valley. Due to its location, the airport frequently experienced fog, and the 1937 flood completely submerged its runways and two-story terminal building. While federal officials wanted an airfield site that would not be prone to flooding, Cincinnati officials hoped to build Lunken into the premier airport of the region.

A coalition of officials from Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties in Kentucky took advantage of Cincinnati’s short-sightedness and lobbied Congress to build an airfield there. Boone County officials offered a suitable site on the provision that Kenton County paid the acquisition cost. In October 1942, Congress provided $2 million to construct four runways.

The field officially opened August 12, 1944, with the first B-17 bombers beginning practice runs on August 15. As the tide of the war had already turned, the Air Corps only used the field until 1945 before it was declared surplus. On October 27, 1946, a small wooden terminal building opened and the airport prepared for commercial service.

The first airplane, an American Airlines DC-3 from Cleveland, Ohio, landed at the airport January 10, 1947, at 9:53 am. A Delta Air Lines flight followed moments later. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 97 weekday departures: 37 American, 26 Delta, 24 TWA, 8 Piedmont and 2 Lake Central. As late as November 1959 the airport had four 5,500 ft (1,700 m) runways at 45-degree angles, the north–south runway eventually being extended into today’s runway 18C/36C.

That is one humongous Lone Star near the Capitol in Austin.

Evening firepit, boats, lakes, mountains. Totally makes up for the crazy French name…

Since I was already in a place that I had great difficulty in pronouncing the name (Coeur d’Alene), I figured might as well visit a place that I will have absolute no chance ever of pronouncing. So, I walked to this place – it is actually a quiet beach by the lake – called Hnya'(pqi’nn. I am not kidding you. The name has two apostrophes and one parentheses! Evidently, in the language of the Couer d’Alene tribe (also called the Schitsu’umish tribe), it means “Gathering Place” and is pronounced “hin-yap-keehn-un”.

See the picture on the top. This beach is steeped in history. Many centuries ago, various tribes – at least three more – used to gather exactly at this spot during spring and fall to celebrate with their families and give Thanks. They used to sing, dance, have competitive sports and fish a lot from the river and lake.

Many years later – in the 18th century French fur traders discovered the tribes here. That explains the French name of this place. Evidently the tribes were very tough negotiators. I understand in French that is what the name refers to.

Towards the second half of the 19th century, General Sherman (remember the quote of his and his picture that I had talked about last week that I found walking between Terminal B and C at the Atlanta airport?) had a fort built right behind the beach and called it Fort Coeur d’Alene. That was later renamed after him.

And today, that fort has been reconstructed and built out to be the North Idaho College. See the pictures on the bottom half.

That was an amazing history lesson. I went down to the quiet beach for a few minutes and tried to imagine what that beach must have witnessed over the centuries. Then I slowly strolled back to my hotel.

Remember Sheboygan Falls on Sheboygan river in Sheboygan city in Sheboygan county? Well, today I arrived, after multiple flights and car rides to a really really beautiful resort called Couer d’Alene in a really cute city called Couer d’Alene by an exquisite lake among the mountains called, of course, Lake Couer d’Alene among a forest park called – no points for guessing – Couer d’Alene.
One big difference. Unlike “Sheboygan”, I have not figured out how to pronounce this name 🙂 For the curious, this is in Idaho on the border of Washington.

Minneapolis airport can be easily renamed as iPads-R-Us. There must be a thousand of them for free use by passengers. I won’t be surprised if more passengers are missing their flights after clearing security than before at this airport 🙂