Hong Kong to Seattle via Tokyo. That’s today. Up at 6:30am, checkout and check-in at the desk… which didn’t open for 15 minutes after I got there. The good news? My boarding pass now says Star Alliance Gold (on the way out it said Silver) which gets me into the Club Lounge.
Picked up some cheap Chinese cigarettes for the freezer at duty free – have to wait for booze until Tokyo where I won’t have a connecting flight.
As I’ve said, the Chinese are wild about buffets. I’ve never seen a lounge buffet with shumai (little dumplings), spring rolls, sausage, sushi, all those breakfast pastry type things, cereal, all which morphed into lunch items including hot dogs (odd choice), curry chicken, more sushi.
Lucked out on the flight to Tokyo – exit row with reclining seats with the middle seat empty after the window seat didn’t show up. Sweet.
The Club Lounge at Narita was huge and packed, and the food not nearly as good. Maybe I should have tried the ANA lounge.
The one thing the United lounge did have was a shower:
Nice to have a break, get out of painful socks – never again will I wear tight socks on long flights.
Watched one movie, washed down an Ambien with Chivas (out of a real bottle, not a mini), the joys of flying another nation’s carrier slept for four hours or so, woke up had another meal, watched another movie.
Global Entry made it easy to get back into the US, but Sparky the USDA dog got a scent off my bag so I was off to ag (agricultural) inspection – the guess by the officer was that it was the scent from the sandwiches I grabbed in Hong Kong that I disposed on the flight from Tokyo to Seattle. Hopefully this won’t affect my status.
Even with the delay out of Tokyo, we were almost on time getting back which is good since I’m meeting Alicia at baggage claim. She’s going to see her father in Idaho, and leaving in an hour or so, so it’s a quick visit.
Alicia leaves, I take a quick nap, and Patrick is knocking on the door – he’s in town for two nights for a green building conference… no rest for me. Well, yes, rest for both of us – he hadn’t slept last night (flew in from DC) and I could use a little more sleep for dinner at Swandas, well, dinner and package delivery.
Dinner, oddly enough was sushi from downstairs – how much sushi in two days….
And for our last picture… shadows on Swandas wall.
Long damn day.
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