It’s probably a first world complaint, but coming home certainly seems harder than leaving. Both directions took roughly the same amount of time. Eastbound had two plane changes, westbound only one. So why did the latter wear us down so much?

We started the day with a 5:30 AM wake up call to get ready for our scheduled time leaving the ship of 7:30 AM. We boarded the bus for the airport and arrived there at about 8:45, in plenty of time for a 4:30 PM flight. But wait…Iceland Air would not check in our luggage for a late flight until 1 PM, leaving us to hang out in the ticketing area for four hours in a metal chair (we were lucky to find a seat, there was a limited supply and there were more than a few of us in the same situation).

Afternoon came, and with our luggage checked in we headed for security, then to passport control, then to our gate. But, oh wait again, the gates in this airport have nearly no seating areas. So we spent the next two hours wandering around; we looked through the duty-free shops and a bookstore. Ah at last, boarding time came and we took off for Seattle, arriving there about 6 PM PDT after an eight hour flight.

But we weren’t done…we had to collect our luggage in order to clear customs, but the bags took an hour to arrive on the carousel. Then it was off through customs, and to an Alaska Air counter where they were having computer problems. They could print luggage tags, but not boarding passes and the folks in front of us in line needed both. Finally with the luggage checked in again we cleared TSA and were reminded why we dislike SeaTac airport so much…it’s a blessed long ways from the international gates to the north remote terminal our Alaska flight was scheduled for.

Two subway rides later we were on the plane, and finally reached our front porch at about midnight MDT. Our sleep cycles are still adjusting (I woke up this morning at 4 AM!). Complaining aside, we had a wonderful time on this trip. Fortunately our next adventure stays in the mountain time zone…we’ll see you again here in July!