My precious son Augustine turns five today. Rather than buy him a gift he does not need, I took him to Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday for a father-son day. It was a fabulous day and made me stop and think how fast he is growing up and how fast time is passing us by.
Augustine’s Fifth Birthday At LAX
Since my primary business failed last year, I wouldn’t say I’ve twiddled my thumbs, but I’ve found myself far less productive than I was when running a company. These days, it feels like I do half the work I did before, but that may be an unfair characterization. Embracing my stay-at-home dad role, I’m also now the maid, cook, and gardener as my wife pursues another degree. I figure this is for a season, but we all know how fast weeks turn into months and months turn into years.
But the good news is that despite all my travel this year, I’ve spent a lot of time with my children. I’ve seen my 16-month-old daughter grow up in ways I never saw Augustine did. We spend most days together. And while Augustine spends most of the day in kindergarten, I take him to school in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon. We celebrate the end of his day with a cappuccino for me and a special “cappuccino” (foamed milk) for Augustine. I love sitting with him in our garden after school over coffee and hearing about his day.
It has been a long time since we’ve been to the airport together on a plane spotting day…the last visit was a year ago for his fourth birthday. It still strikes me as incredible that another year has flown by.
We left the house early and parked near In-N-Out again on Sepulveda Boulevard. We then walked into LAX and headed to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Once past security, we headed to the Star Alliance Lounge where we enjoyed a nice breakfast.
We followed that by walking around the terminal, though there were not that many airplanes present.
Returning to the lounge, we settled on the patio where I got a bit of work done and I let Augustine watch his favorite German program, Die Sendung mit der Maus. This is an educational program and I’m happy to let Augustine watch this once in a while (we have no TV at home).
That was followed by lunch and more plane spotting. We took advantage of the lounge’s noodle bar and I introduced Augustine to chop sticks for the first time – he made a noble effort at using them.
We then walked back to the car and just like when he was two, he fell asleep in the car…
For parents out there, I strongly recommend little trips like this, even if you just watch the planes landing. It’s a fabulous bonding opportunity and creates the sort of memories that will far outlast any material objects. I hope to take Augustine on more airport trips, but this was a fun day. I will treasure the memories and photos for the rest of my life.
And to you, dear Augustine, happy birthday son. I love you so much and am so proud of you.
Ok, I’ll be the idiot who asks…
How did you get through security and into a lounge without a boarding pass?
Or did you pull what that one guy did who lived on free lounge food and whatnot by buying and canx’ing refundable plane tix all the time?
Not a stupid question. I have friends at LAX…I’ll just leave it at that. But for other airports, I would have to do something like that.
I was thinking the same.
Thank you for asking, I reread the article thinking I had skipped over this bit of information.
Best post of the year!
He is SO cute! What a fun day
Not only a wonderful story but a chance for us, the audience, to “visit” the airport during these pandemic days.
Happy birthday!
Nice idea, and always amazing to spend time with family.
Happy birthday Augustine! Hope your family is doing well and this was such a great post. I did this same thing when my son was 4, now he’s 14. Time flies! Back then he was amazed by the Emirates a380 at LAX and now we went to DXB this year.
So cute. Love it. He looks exactly like you. He’s wearing the same mask that we bought for our son. But he’s going to be 2 next week and he’s still learning how to keep his mask on.
tour making a 2 year old wear a mask ?
you are crazy
Happy birthday to Augustine! I don’t think I realized he and Ashok (8/7) are just 2 months apart. Even more reason to bring the family to mom’s house for dinner!
I look forward to it!
I’ve made little avgeeks of my 5 and 2 year olds by exploring everything pre-security at IAH (they love seeing the few European widebodies arrive and depart) and HOU…..they also like the ATC chatter and monitoring the radars from FlightRadar24 and Flightaware apps!
We love the Flightradar24 app – we frequently hold it up above our house to see what airplane is flying over. The TK flight to IST always seems to fly a bit lower than others over our house during its approach to LAX.
TK, for some reason, loves to be down around 3 to 4,000 ft 30+ miles to the airport.
Before I retired at Atlanta TRACON they would whine about descending via the STAR, which optimizes aircraft performance, and instead want to be down as low as the MVA would allow 40 miles from the airport.
On the plus side, during my 4 trips through IST the past 6 weeks, I’ve seen a lot of interesting architecture buzzing the rooftops.
Very cool!
When I was a kid in New Orleans my dad would take my brother and me on Saturday outings. Mom worked 6 days a week so Sat with dad included trips to Schwegmann’s, a giant grocery store, trips to the Miss River docks, and trips to the airport which in the 1950s was a WW 2 Quonset building – you walked out on the apron to board planes and felt the wind when the propellers started turning. Thanks for bringing back good memories.
Cherish that blog! Always fun to hang out at airport and I do really hope to meet you in person someday. Thanks for put good stories since we need that!
Time with your son is the best birthday present a parent can give.
Wait until Augustine writes articles for Live and Let’s Fly. That will happen sooner than you think.
Trust me on this one, as someone who has experience in that department…
Nice article and photos, Matthew (you’re a great dad!!).. and, of course, happy birthday, Augustine!
Very inspiring post Matt. Really brings back memories for me, as I used to go to that exact spot to plane watch back in ’97 while at grad school @ UCLA (and Yes the In-N Out was still there).
Now I’m the father of four and have yet to take any of my children to an airport to simply spend time, the way you have. Well, that will change after reading your post. Thanks!
Those beautiful curls of his are gonna win so many hearts as he gets older! I hope they never grow out!
Damn you, Matthew, I cried a little. Just a little!
Happy Birthday, Augustine.
What a sweet post Matthew! 🙂
Great post Matthew, and absolutely agree with you that time with your son is time well spent. If you are ever up in Seattle, you might want to take advantage of the Visit SEA Pass that allows you access past TSA checkpoints to experience the airports amenities. https://www.portseattle.org/page/sea-visitor-pass-program
I took advantage of this privilege this past summer by accompanying my parents all the way to their gate on their international flight. They were grateful for the maximization of our time together…and especially appreciated my photo documentation of their flight being dispatched. It remains one of the most memorable experiences of their visit.
Kids grow up way too fast. Enjoy every minute and build memories. We always take a summer vacation as a family and my kids remember every single one even when they were your son’s age. Happy bday cute guy!!!
Didn’t you need a boarding pass to go airside and access the lounge?
Did you buy refundable tickets?
Important info for those considering accepting your advice.
Uri-
Read the first comment and Matthews reply, that will answer your question 🙂
What was your primary business? The import company you ran with your business partner?
Correct.
How many wardrobe changes did you have that day???
The red shirt is a picture from three years ago!
HaHa! Very cute!
Isn’t that kinda illegal now at LAX? I don’t even mean the way you got through security. It’s the hanging out part. They make announcements that if you are not a passenger traveling you are trespassing and they will call the cops on you. I hear that all the time when I’m the baggage claim area. I guess nobody checks once you are through security.
In a way it’s also kinda unfair, as i had worked at LAX and it is a nightmare to get in. Every other airport i worked on, i can basically drive up to the gate, show my paperwork and get escorted over the runway. Not at LAX.
Either way, i am glad you guys had a great day. Wish i could do that myself. I don’t even need lounge access.
That is the overnight announcement from 10pm – 5am. Would not have applied, anyway.
They play that all day long now, with no mention of when it is illegal to enter. I have been arriving early morning and early afternoons and this message is played through the airport’s PA system. Well, I only heard it in the baggage claim area, I am not sure about the rest of the airport. I think it’s kind of a “corona response”.
Birthday “presents” for little avgeeks are the best. This year, for my son’s fifth birthday we went to the Virgin Islands and flew on a float plane between St Thomas and St Croix with Seaborne Airlines. He loved it (and I did too)!
This is precious. Happy birthday, Augustine!
Beautiful post. Thanks for sharing and happy birthday!
Happy birthday sweet boy! One can see the love and happiness on your adorable face.
Matthew, you are a wonderful father. Thank you for sharing Augustine’s 5th birthday us.
We sit in our backyard and watch planes on approach to SLC. Not the immense widebody experience as somewhere bigger but it’s fun to see my kids checking flight aware on their phones to see who it is. Even better is how often they (16 and 12) guess the correct model plane flying over
When I turned ten in the early 80s, my dad who was a pilot for PSA took me around to all of the terminals at LAX and I grabbed schedules from dozens of airlines. It was a fun and memorable adventure with my father that I will repeat with my son. Which lounge had the outdoor seating?
You should one day take little Augustine to Augustinerkirche in Vienna. Sundays they have full orchestra and choir for their weekly Mass. Franz Schubert conducted his Mass in F Major there and Anton Bruckner wrote his Mass in F Minor for this church (and debuted it there).
First of …A Happy Belated Birthday to Augustine ! What a great and happy article Matthew, so reminiscent to when I first became enthralled by the awesomeness of the Queen of the Sky at MIA (it was a majestic Pan American Clipper 747 ) Thank you for taking the time to share about the ‘quality time’ you spent with Augustine, for you gave him the most precious gift a father can give a son! And those amazing avgeek pics… they’re all simply priceless, well done!
Does Augustine know that Lufthansa even has a “Sendung mit der Maus”-themed A321 (D-AIRY)? There are some episodes on how that plane was bulit and and how it later got its D-check.
Really?! I’ll be looking for that episode.
Airbus assembly:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0BMrOrC32dZ2_JqVkOqmV3KPFxYCfw2u
D-Check:
https://kinder.wdr.de/tv/die-sendung-mit-der-maus/av/video-d-check-100.html
Thanks for sharing him with us. I remember the pics of him in the bassinet – I think on his first UA flight. Seeing him so carefree and happy has been the best part of my day. And, thanks for being a great dad.
Happy Birthday, Augustine! Thank you, daddy Matt for sharing with us!