Day 21 (Feb 2 and Feb 3 and Feb 2 (again) 2020) – Crystal Symphony – San Diego to Guam – Traveling to Seattle

Our Korean Air 787 flight from Guam was uneventful (which is exactly what you want when flying).  We were in “Prestige Class” which is essentially business class.  Leaving Guam at 2:30 am, we were very happy to have lay flat seats.  The flight attendants were incredibly nice and very service oriented (but they were ALL wearing masks).  We arrived in Seoul 30 minutes early – at 6:00 am with a one hour earlier time change.  We slept until they turned up the lights at 4:30 am to serve breakfast.  The food was on par with US airlines – not great, a few items (like yogurt, roll were edible).  Our luggage was checked through to Seattle (our next stop), so no need to claim.  We made it through security and entered Terminal 2.  The Seoul airport is absolutely beautiful.  Abundant trees, live plants, orchids, etc make it really pleasant.  It almost seems like an upscale shopping mall with designer stores (Gucci, Chanel, etc) as well as a plethora of Duty Free Shops.  There are kid’s zone playing areas, IT and virtual reality experiences to spend your time, and robots wandering around to interact with.  As we walked through the airport, we noted that easily 90% of people were wearing masks – presumably as protection from the coronavirus.

Wow, how can you go wrong with Giant cats and Dragons!

Tech everywhere - this is a long film strip shaped screen curling around on itself

Yes, Robots!

Sunrise at Incheon Airport

We have a 12.5 hour layover.  Yes, 12 hours.  Sounds absolutely miserable?  Actually, it was very pleasant.  We walked a little over 2 miles exploring the airport and then went to the Transit Hotel and checked in for 8 hours.  They rent rooms by the hour and it was small, but spotless and perfect.  We slept until 1:15 pm, then got up showered, changed into clean clothes, and watched a little TV (they had CNN and BBC World in English).  We actually felt human again. 

Looks inviting and it was.

By the way - no comments from anyone about checking into a hotel that you pay per hour. It was obviously not THAT kind of hotel. 😀

We checked out at 4 pm and went to the Korean Air Lounge (our flight to Seattle is on Delta but they don’t have a lounge in Seoul).  There are the usual bar items along with nice food offerings including salads, garlic rice, corn soup, chicken in gravy, shitake mushroom meatballs, shrimp balls, and all sorts of bread items.  A great way to get some snacks before boarding our 6:30 pm flight.

Our Delta flight to Seattle left on time at 6:30 pm.  We had dinner and then went to sleep.  The lay flat seats were fine, and we each had a door to our “compartment.” Another uneventful flight.  We landed in Seattle early.  YIPPPEEE.  Not so much. We waited on the tarmac for 90 minutes, first problem was getting a gate, next problem was not being able to get through the airport due to (airplane) bridge construction.  Sigh.  It’s pretty frustrating to arrive early after a 10 hour flight and then wait another hour and half before you can actually get off the plane. That was a total of 35 hours from when the taxi picked us up in Guam to when we got to our hotel in Seattle.

We’re in Seattle for two days for a medical treatment for Bob and then back to Utah to prepare for our next adventure.  It’s been a great trip.

By the way, congrats to the Chiefs and their fans. Coach Reid has Utah roots and we are happy to see him finally get his Super Bowl win.

Our total trip distance, both air and sea was 15,614 statute miles.