On the way over to the USA we always live a day twice. We lose that day on the way back.
We flew for another 10 or so hours from Seoul to Los Angeles. Most of this was flying over the Pacific having left Korea, and flying just to the right of Vladivostok. This trip went a little quicker as I managed to get some sleep on this leg. When I wasn't sleeping I was watching documentaries in a variety of languages. It was a bit like trying to read a book but ending up only looking at the pictures. I never knew that Koreans could throw themselves so enthusiastically into scaling anchovies! Even though we were now on board the larger 747 the bathrooms were still the side of a bedside drawer and it's floor seemed to have a constant supply of water on it. Well....we hope it was water. :-S
Once we had reached the American coast, we followed the coastline downwards just south of San Francisco and I was stoked to realise that I had recognised many places from the air. The "marine layer" (the layer of cloud/fog that envelopes LA most mornings) had "burned off" (as they call it) by the time we flew in, so that gave us a clear view of the city. We landed close to an hour late into L.A but hell I was thrilled to be there. For some reason we were unable to pull up to a terminal. Instead we parked out on the tarmac and were attached to a little aerobridge which we walked down in order to get on a bus that was parked on the tarmac. It would drive us to the main terminal where we could continue to clear customs and immigration. I felt a little like I was in the movie "Speed" where Sandra and Keanu tear around the tarmac at 50 MPH in order to prevent a bomb going off. The main differences being that I was squashed into the bus with standing room only, with my nose sticking into an old Korean mans ear (fortunately me and all of the Koreans were at a similar height and therefore I was prevented from having the trauma of my nose being squashed into someone's armpit which would have been ridiculously ripe after such a long flight); there was no Keanu Reeves or Sandra Bullock; and to my knowledge, there was no bomb.
It was a pleasure to learn that the guys at immigration had not found their sense of humour since we last visited and were still gruff and overly serious. We managed to clear both immigration and customs in a reasonable length of time and caught the shuttle to Hertz where we collected our Chevy Equinox (which the Bear LOVES) and were on our way. I find it amazing that I had absolutely no concerns about being on the other side of the road, like I did on our first trip. Last year I was completely at ease with it after the first couple of days however worried that I would have to go through that breaking in period again. Apparently not.
We booked into our hotel in Pasadena and I was overwhelmed at how pretty the suburb is. I have absolutely NO idea where I got the impression that it would be the opposite however it is just beautiful. It is maybe a little like Beverly Hills but more "yuppy". Just as we did last time, we had our first meal of the visit at Denny's Diner. It is cheap, the food is plentiful (albeit smothered in cheese that looks as though it has a bad tan); and the service is usually amazing.
I am majorly confused as to what time it is at home, because we have been travelling forever with very little night time and a few different time zones. I think I am going to suffer jet lag worse this time.
We are glad to be back!!
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