Day 29: Tahiti to Seattle: Back Home

We had our fingers crossed that today would be the magical day that we got to go home. We have heard of so many flight challenges lately, and we have already had one cancelled flight. The check-in, car rental return, and security process aren’t for the faint of heart. It was literally hours in the heat and humidity with hundreds of people around us. Somehow despite it taking 2.5 hours to check our bags and get through security, they had the plane pushed back only 30 minutes late. Next stop, San Francisco.

Despite this being a low-cost airline, the airplane was a very new Airbus A350-900. The external cameras were a highlight for all of us, especially during takeoff and landing, but also during the rest of the flight since we were between the aisles, and thus couldn’t see out the window. The flight was painless and seemed quite quick. Somehow we ended up getting food, socks, and a eye mask without paying for it. We had planned to get nothing, so we also had a bunch of snacks.

Our arrival at SFO could not have gone better. As we approached immigration, Rob suggested we try Global Entry, since Cooper just received his Nexus approval a few days earlier and the rest of us already had it. There was no line; we simply took a picture of ourselves at the kiosk, and it printed a slip, which we handed to the officer. It took literally two minutes, and we were able to bypass what looked like a pretty long line.

Then we went to baggage claim assuming we would have to wait because customs went so quick, but nope–all four of our bags were the first ones off. Next up was to recheck our bags: again no line and super simple. Then we had a long walk from the International Terminal to Terminal 2 for the next flight, but as we started the walk there is an abandoned luggage cart. We quickly loaded up our stuff and enjoyed a break from carrying stuff. The final step was security again, with no line at all.

With Rob’s Priority Pass membership, we enjoyed a discounted sit-down dinner and then had two more hours to relax until our final flight home. The flight to Seattle was very empty with maybe ~50 people on the flight; in fact, we ended up having to change seats due weight and balance. Upon arriving in Seattle, we had our first piece of luggage lost: our dirty clothes bag. We took an Uber home and were finally in our own beds again by 2 a.m. The lost bag arrived the next afternoon, and now we are busy getting set up for regular life once again.

What an experience that none of us will ever forget!

Stats from our trip:

• 3160 km (1964 miles) driven on the left side of the road
• 12 different sleeping accommodations
• 30 days away from home
• Six flights (SEA-SFO, SFO-AKL, ZQN-AKL, AKL-PPT, PPT-SFO, SFO-SEA)