I was supposed to be spending my first night of a four-day trip up in Eureka, California — home to Redwoods, Sasquatch, and presumably a large number of marijuana producers. I was supposed to be there for 30 full hours, spending two nights there and an entire day without flying. This, however, was not to be. As I hopped into my seat at the flight deck, I sent for the latest weather report, which was around 1/2 mile visibility. This isn’t great, but it would have been good enough. However, as we boarded the passengers and got set to go, it dropped down to 1/4 mile which would make even attempting the approach illegal as far as regulations are concerned. To complicate things further, sitting and waiting for weather to improve wasn’t an option since the runway was going to shut down for maintenance at 1230 am (it was 1030pm at the moment of this revelation). The flight was canceled and the company initiated the circus that is finding an unscheduled hotel in an unscheduled city (San Francisco). They sent us to the Crown Plaza by the airport, which is where we often stay for SFO overnights, but we were informed that they were full. After another hour or so, a limo came to pick us up and drove us to what evidently was the nearest hotel with four rooms available — Berkeley, California. This would have been convenient if we were flying in and out of Oakland, but obviously, we were not. I think I got to bed at 2am. We were expected to deadhead to Eureka the next day, spend a night there, and resume our scheduled trip. So after I went for a stroll down by the bay the next morning in Berkeley, I put the uniform back on and we went to the airport.

 The first flight canceled for weather, so they booked us on the next one. That also canceled due to weather. The third and last flight of the night was canceled out of sympathy or perhaps common sense that the weather in Eureka is just absolutely crap this time of year. We would again be in San Francisco, this time they found us a hotel by Union Square in downtown San Francisco at an estimated cost of about $500 per night. It’s too bad we couldn’t have just spent the day downtown instead of wandering aimlessly around SFO, but you can’t always plan these things. So instead of searching for sasquatch in Northern California or riding cable cars up Powell Street in San Francisco, I spent the majority of the previous 48 hours in San Francisco International Airport. It’s not a great story, but that’s just the way it is. Accordingly, I can tell you a lot about where to eat inside the airport. 

 I have done a few “Why Your Airport Sucks,” posts and have few gripes about San Francisco. Sure, there’s often fog and flow delays because of fog, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a lot better than O’Hare’s average weather, and 1000x better than Newark in all ways possible. At the end of the day, SFO is actually a pretty decent airport. The bathrooms are plentiful and clean, there are ample places to find food, and it’s relatively easy to get around. LAX hasn’t really been excelling in these areas as of late. And while the southern California airport modernizes, many of the fast and cheap eats have disappeared, getting replaced by trendy (and overpriced) SoCal joints such as Lemonade. If you are unfamiliar with this establishment, just imagine eating dogfood that’s undercooked. 

Anyway back to SFO — I have been in and out of this airport fairly frequently throughout my flying career. Some eateries have come and gone. Boudin Bakery used to be my go to place. I’d order a sandwich on sourdough and get a real jaw workout. If I was feeling frisky, I’d get some cookies along with it. Since its disappearance from the United gates, I have had to look elsewhere. If I’m fixing to get something cheap, I’ll just go to Burger King and get a chicken sandwich. It’s perhaps the only place in the airport that you can walk away with a meal under $10. It is, however, quite terrible for me I am sure, so a much healthier alternative is Klein’s Deli. It’s a local establishment and there are maybe three or four locations just within the United terminal alone. All the sandwiches are named after San Francisco neighborhoods. My go to is usually the Haight, which is essentially a BLTA (Bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado for those who live outside California and don’t put avocado on everything). It is divine. Also their salted caramel cookies are a real punch in the mouth. If I could only eat at one place at SFO, it would be Klein’s. But variety is the spice of life they say, so sometimes I look elsewhere.

Since I was spending so much time in SFO these past few days, I have been branching out. A new place in the terminal called Bun Mee has taken the place of Boudin. If you order one of their banh mi sandwiches, you will get a similar jaw workout since they’re made on french baguette rolls. They are generously filled with spiced chicken, pork, beef or whatever catches your fancy. Next door is a pizza place, which is popular with people who have hit rock bottom and have just stopped trying at life. I observed former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, wearing oversized sweatpants, getting pizza from there. You can also get Mexican, Peruvian rotisserie, Chinese, Japanese, and mediterranean cuisine within a short walk. In short, you have a good variety of places to choose from . . .unless you’re flying Delta through SFO.

  

As great as SFO may be, I’d much rather be back at good ol’ LAX. This has been the most pointless four-day trip and I’d much rather be sitting at home than sitting in airports and hotel rooms. As a whole I’ve been pretty lucky with my schedules and disruptions, but thats’s all part of being in this industry. It could be worse. I could be flying in and out of Newark.