I appreciate your post, and I totally enjoy the entire experience of flying for the same reasons you stated. At one point I flew so often that I had my favorite airports. When I booked flights, I booked the ones that utilized my favorite airports. Each of the airports contained places that I liked to frequent, and I knew where they were located.
Now, I can’t manage to walk those long distances, and I have to have help getting from point A-B, but I still love to fly. I love the takeoffs. It’s fun to feel the speed of the plane before it finally lifts off the ground.
I too like the window seat because I like to guess where we are based on the topography.
There have been a few mishaps through the years like missing luggage so I always carry a bag with meds, clean undies, and pajamas just in case.
I don’t mind being located toward the rear of the plane because it’s so noisy that I can’t hear crying babies, or droning conversations if for some reason I need to nap.
Onetime, the airline messed up causing a three hour delay. We were in Minneapolis so the desk gave us (my little granddaughter and I) free bus passes to the Mall of America as well as a voucher for a free lunch. Therefore, a misshapen became a most memorable occasion when we spent the entire visit to the mall at the indoor carnival rides.
Yep, I do love to fly. Attitude makes a world of difference.
And get this! A few weeks ago my daughter bought me a ticket to where she lives for $25! It was a nonstop flight..only 70 minutes long. It would have taken me 9-10 hours to drive one way depending on road construction, and at 4 times the cost of the plane ticket.
Just a couple days ago, a snowstorm hit my area and it took me 5 1/2 hours to get home. All the next day, I listened to angry people complain about their miserable commute and how horrible it was. To me, it was a surreal and memorable experience. The highways were not moving so I went off the highway and took to the backroads. It was dark and the roads were slick but I had good tires and all-wheel drive so I wasn't worried. I put on some Christmas music and took it slow the whole way. If somebody got up behind me flashing their high beams, I found a spot to pull over to let them by. (Some of them probably ended up in a ditch.)
As I got closer to my house, there were wrecks and the police had roads closed, forcing me to detour several times. Eventually I got on some really remote back roads but roads that I knew pretty well so the last few miles to my house were rather magical, with the snow flying and the car slowly and surely making it up and down the unplowed hills as I listened to Christmas music.
It was definitely a night to remember, probably like the day you ended up unexpectedly at the Mall of America!
Getting back to air travel and the tendency for people to complain about it all the time, it really is a marvel when you think about it. Once of the things I do once in a while is park near an airport and just watch the planes takeoff and land. It is still amazing to me that such huge machines can so gracefully take to the sky and land on a narrow strip of runway with such precision in nearly all kinds of weather.