Airport Swillin’

For those that know me, they know that I like to act childish in times where good manors are better suited. Funerals, church, fine dining – Airports are no exception. I don’t mean I act overly foolish or out of line, but I just kind of – incognito – do things that aren’t necessarily right. Airports are high security, high class establishments. Everything is orderly, and acting out of line is something that you don’t want to do – you don’t want to make a scene. So what do I do? I drink heavily at airports. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know why, but I just want to pound alcohol like I’m back in College when I get into a terminal. I think it’s because I’m a huge person, and an airplane is grossly uncomfortable for a person of my size. I like to get fuzzy before I shoe-horn myself into those damn seats.

This recent trip was no exception to this concept. You’d be surprised how quick of a buzz I can achieve during a half hour layover. Both of my layovers were in the Charlotte Airport – which is no exception when it comes to decent places to drink. The first was the ‘Taste of Carloina’ that featured local beers from the area – I was able to down a 22oz of Wicked Weed’s Napoleon Complex and a 22oz of Hop Drop & Roll in about 16 minutes.

I took the opportunity to check out the drawing I did from Buffalo to Charlotte –

Had a Rick & Morty type vibe with my standard ‘life in clutter’ style.

From there, we (my Wife and I) went to some seafood joint. I guess I could look it up, but I don’t have the time for that – you could always look up ‘charlotte airport eating’ and find the only seafood joint on the list.

The place had some pretty good looking seafood, not going to lie. lotta deep fried stuff, but we only had time for the waffle fries:

Oh and another 22oz of beer with a shot.

Now I know what you’re thinking – why would you do a bar crawl at an airport? aren’t beers and food astronomically priced? Yes, they are, yes, this is foolish behavior – refer to the first paragraph of this post.

All of the above was accomplished in under 45 minutes – The layover on the way back was 3 hours long – you know we did some damage.

We actually started with my parents in the Jacksonville airport – at Chili’s – I treated my folks to some margaritas and some snacks. And look at what I found there:

Good minds think alike I guess – hopefully I won’t get a ‘cease & desist’ letter. Sorry guys!  Didn’t get a picture with my folks and the margaritas – pretty lame, sorry about that. But with a drink on the plane, we got back to Charlotte and things started poppin quick!

It was valentines day, so we bar crawled heavily through the airport to the 1897 market – which is the place to go for food – do not fuck around, go there if you have time for a meal. We had our valentines day dinner there, and it was great. Sat right at the bar that was set up in front of the kitchen so we could watch all the action:

Dirty Mac & Cheese:

French Onion Soup:

And last but certainly not least – Steak & Frites!

That hit the spot. We stopped at a couple other places, and I apologize that my photography work wasn’t happening for the drinks, but I was feeling REALLY good by the time we got in line to get on our plane back to Buffalo.

I don’t want to know what the total we spent at the Charlotte airport was, but I will let you know that I’m not proud of it. I also know we made some friends through some drunken conversation, and probably scared a couple other people with our ridiculousness. It was a great valentines day. They say ‘people watching at the airport’ is one of the best things to do on a date – and they are right – especially when you sneak a few drinks into the mix.

 

 

 

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