Day 17, October 11 Heading Home
Today was self evident is its description. We had breakfast, returned to the room to pack up, then waited two hours for our guide and driver to arrive. We had a different driver than the past two days, but Grace was there, as always. I took a number of pictures on our way to the airport -- our last fleeting looks at Seoul and South Korea. Here are some of them...
When we arrived at Incheon International Airport, about 12:40pm, we found the Delta ticket counter would not open open until 13:20 (1:20pm). We stood in the place where the line would eventually form, but no one else was there initially. After about twenty minutes, a Delta employee came up to us and through Grace she made it known that the information board was wrong. One flight had been cancelled and the ticket counter for the latter flight, our 7pm flight, would not open until 15:30 (3:30pm). Oh brother! We had a 2-1/2 hour wait on our hands. We could not access the Korean Air lounge, since it was behind the security zone. We waited in the terminal entryway for two hours, then lined up waiting for the ticket counter to open. While waiting there, we met a young doctor named Scott, from Boulder, CO . We had a great conversation, learning about our respective backgrounds. Finally the ticket counter opened; being first in line, we were processed first at the Delta One counter.
Afterwards we made our way to the Korean Air lounge. Korean Air is a partner with Delta Airlines, so we had access to this lounge in lieu of there being a dedicated Delta lounge. We snacked a bit and worked on yesterday's blog entry and read, waiting for boarding time. Time to board arrived. We went to the gate, and soon thereafter, went aboard, found our seats and settled in.
On the flight home, there some significant turbulence as we approached, but not yet flew over, the North American coast near Vancouver. Other than that, the flight was smooth going. Patrise slept for a couple of hours at two different interludes; I tried, but could not sleep at all. Oh well, we said goodbye to a blessed trip to two of the world's more remarkable countries -- Japan and South Korea. To think of how much these countries and their peoples have forged new political traditions with democracy amd forged highly competitive, burgeoning economies, all in the aftermath of devastating wars: WW2 and the atomic bombs for Japan, and the Korean Conflict/War for South Korea.
We would soon be in Atlanta, and we would begin to reset our body clocks, muddling through jet lag, and get back into an everyday rhythm for our bodies and our lives.
The BUCKET LIST has now been reduced by two special places!
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