Phoenix (PHX)

I don’t end up with too many opportunities to fly through Phoenix. While it’s a large hub for US Airways (now American Airlines), it doesn’t serve Dayton.

As it turns out, In-N-Out Burger is also in Phoenix, and doesn’t serve Dayton.

While I’m sure it’s a trope by now, as someone who doesn’t live in the Southwest, I love when I get to visit cities that have In-N-Out burger. So when my girlfriend and I were taking a trip to Hawaii, we decided to take advantage of our 3.5-hour layover at PHX, and had a taxi take us to Tempe to take us through an In-N-Out. To date, this remains my most expensive trip to a fast food restaurant (a $40 taxi fare to get $10 worth of food), and the only time I’ve taken a taxi through a drive-thru.

Although the carpet at Portland (PDX) is more famous, Phoenix’s carpet is my favorite—actually incorporating plane silhouettes feels really appropriate at an airport. (For a similar reason, I’m a fan of the carpet at Amarillo.)

Unfortunately, carpeting at airport is becoming out of fashion; terrazzo flooring works better with rolling suitcases. As of my most recent trip through PHX, nearly all of the carpet had already been removed.