The busiest I ever flew into was probably Boeing Field. Sea-Tac and Renton are nearby, so there are only a couple corridors to Boeing. From the west I had to be over the West Seattle hills, under the airspace for Sea-Tac, and make a 135-degree turn to enter downwind; tricky, but gratifying to get right.
I flew into Everett once; big airport (they make 747s there), but not super crowded. You’re right about the lights; from Cessna-height, it looks like just a scattered field of blue.
One thing I remember from back in the day is that the maps you had to carry for visual flight rules did not include diagrams of the taxiways at the airports you might go to. There’s no rule that says you can’t carry them, of course, but as a VFR pilot I wasn’t sure where to get that info. Maybe it’s changed since I flew; is there a good source for VFR pilots to get airport diagrams without having to get all the approach plates and charts needed for instrument flying?
Assuming north is at the top, aren’t the runway designators backwards? The pic has 27 on the left, seen when you’re on a 90-degree heading and 9 on the right, when you’re flying due west.
The first bit is correct, the second bit sounds confusing. You fly a heading (approximately) of 270 to land on runway 27. The numbers are at the start of the runway, not the end.
And, for further clarity in reply to Desert Dog - you are correct, north must be down in the diagram linked in the second post, since you’d be flying left-to-right to head west and land on 27. It might have been more intuitive if they had done it the other way around.