The Sen. Larry Craig Bathroom at the Minneapolis Airport: ‘It’s Become a Tourist Attraction’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 09.17.07 | 4:53 PM ET
This was inevitable. “When tourists ask for the bathroom in the Minneapolis airport lately, it’s usually not because they have to go,” reports the AP. “It’s because they want to see the stall made famous by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest in a sex sting.” Karen Evans, information specialist at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, says it’s become a tourist attraction and that “People are taking pictures.”
Some, like the one above, are taken from the exterior by professional news photographers. Others are taken inside by strangely giddy travelers.
How popular has the bathroom become with tourists? From the AP story:
Just 15 minutes into her shift on Friday, Evans said she had been asked directions to the new tourist attraction four times. Other airport workers field the same question.
“It’s by the Lottery shop, right next to the shoeshine shop,” said newsstand worker Abdalla Said, adding he gets the question daily.
The Royal Zino Shoeshine shop owner’s grandson, Royal Zino, said it has been hectic.
“People have been going inside, taking pictures of the stall, taking pictures outside the bathroom door—man, it’s been crazy,” he said.
Related on World Hum:
* The Death of the Mile-High Club
* The Case of the Disappearing $1 Million Hotel Bathtub
Photo by AP.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Elsie Enquist 09.18.07 | 11:48 AM ET
Last week my husband and I had to drive down to the Minneapolis Airport to pick up our son, who had been at a Bible Camp in Norway. Our son’s plane was delayed and at some point my husband had to visit the facilities. We’d heard all about what goes on in the “facilities” in Minneapolis, so you can imagine how scared both of us were. My husband was raised as a good Lutheran. He’s incapable of saying no. So what do think would happen if “respectable looking” gentlemen, as Sen. Craig certainly seems, were to proposition my husband in a bathroom stall?
Fortuntately, my husband had picked out his own clothes for our trip to Minneapolis. So no one in their right mind would want to solicit him.
But, as far as I’m concerned, it just isn’t right when a God fearing person has to fear for the sanctity of his privates when answering the call of nature.
foxnomad 12.04.07 | 9:14 AM ET
Currently having spent the night here, I can’t imagine why someone would intentionally seek out that particular bathroom.
There are hundreds that all look the same in this airport.
Groomsmen 04.24.08 | 7:51 AM ET
This is hilarious! I always thought that almost anything can be transformed in a tourist attraction. But never thought about… you know… a toilet! :)) OMG! After reading this post I have to check out, no matter what!