Crew Cuts
SEATTLE
Travis Tangen, an AirTran Airways Crew Member, talks about a place that is close to his heart.
You can take the boy out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the boy. For AirTran Airways pilot Travis Tangen, the city that’s embedded into his soul is his hometown of Seattle. The 31 year old has traveled all over the country, but there’s never been another place that’s felt like “home” to the avid outdoorsman.
Learning to Fly
Tangen, who’s been flying with AirTran Airways for two years, got the bug to be a pilot when he did an exploratory flight with a local flight school. Within an hour of getting into the plane, he was hooked. “The sense of being completely free and able to go anywhere is addictive,” he says. After receiving his pilot’s license in 1995 and a bachelor’s degree in aviation and flight technology at Central Washington University, he spent the next few years as a flight instructor.
See, Do and Eat
“Seattle’s got a number of things that every visitor should see, like the Space Needle (www.spaceneedle.com). If you’re a music lover, the Experience Music Project (www.emplive.org) is not only a glimpse into Seattle’s music scene, but also into the entire history of rock and roll. And no one should come to Seattle without going to the Pike Place Market (www.pikeplacemarket. org), where the fish booth guys throw the fish you’ve chosen back and forth. It’s something that’s really unique to Seattle.” When it comes time to eat, Tangen recommends SkyCity, the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle because of its great views of the city. He also takes guests to Salty’s on Alki (www.saltys.com), where, he says, “If you can get a window seat, the views of the city lights from across the water are pretty romantic.”
The Great Outdoors
“The thing that a lot of visitors don’t realize about Seattle,” Tangen says, “is that within a two-hour drive, or even less, you can be doing nearly any outdoor activity out there. You can be snow skiing in the morning and kayaking the San Juan Islands in the afternoon, or climbing Mt. Rainier one day and fishing the next. The Puget Sound is paradise for the outdoorsman.”
Tangen also praises Seattle’s national parks. “We’ve got two within a few hours of each other,” he says. “Each has opportunities for people to explore completely different environments. Backpacking or hiking in Olympic National Park (www.nps.gov/olym) can be wet—it’s a rainforest—but it’s incredibly beautiful.” There’s also Mount Rainier (www.mount. rainier.national-park.com), which, at more than 14,000 feet, “is covered in snow even in the summer.” —Betsy Model