For those who have made it this far, our next cruise blog can be found at www.timmer2018europe2.blogspot.com.

Day 51- Tue-Wed 10/30-31/18 Papeete, French Polynesia to Home

For our last day in Tahiti, for $200, we hired a guide and car to take us to Tahiti-Itti (or the little Tahiti Island. She was informative and drove us to the end of the road on both the west and east sides of the island. The road system on Itti does not circumnavigate the island. At the end of the road on the west side is a beach with a surfing beach (Teahupo'o) where an annual competition is held. At the end of the east road is a black sand beach and a choir was practicing singing and it was beautiful.

On the way back to the hotel we enjoyed some local donuts and ginger drinks. Our guide dropped us off at the Carrefour supermarket near the port and after Angela purchased another bread bag for a friend's ukulele, we walked 2 miles back to the hotel along the waterfront and waited about two hours for our 6pm airport shuttle pickup.

While on the drive to the airport, our driver mentioned that the inaugural incoming United Flight was due in at 6:30pm and she was carrying cold drinking water for the dignitaries arriving on the flight. At the airport, we were number one and two to check in, which went very fast. We then watched the incoming welcoming drummers and dancers for several hours. It was interesting to observe many of the incoming passengers had a look look like they were 'deer in the headlights' at all the attention they were receiving.

Unlike what had previously been reported to me, it was a breeze to clear immigration and security. It might have taken 10 minutes max, and I received a full pat down at security. We promptly boarded the 787 Dreamliner and received special inaugural shell necklaces as memorabilia. At 10:45pm we lifted off into the black night sky for our 7 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco.

I only watched one episode of Jay Leno's garage on the inseat monitor before falling asleep after a mediocre chicken and rice meal. While I was asleep, the video system failed on the flight and was unavailable for the rest of the flight, but we each received an electronic $100 discount for a future flight. Breakfast was served about an hour and a half before touchdown and it was even worse than the first meal. It was a spinach bacon ciche with cold noodles and another super hard roll. Again, for an international flight, these meals were embarrassingly bad!

Touchdown in SFO was on time and we cleared US immigration quickly using our Global Entry status (5 minutes max). It was a bit of a wait for luggage, and Angela remembered that she left her small electronics bag on the airplane. So we checked with an UAL agent who initiated a search for the item. While that was happening we walked the 5 minutes over to Terminal 2 to check in at Alaska. After checking in, Angela retrieved her forgotten item, and we were the last ones to board our not very full flight to Seattle.

The flight to Seattle in Alaska Airlines was wonderful with a chance to rewatch 'Bullit' with its famous car chase scene and enjoy a fruit/cheese snack pack. Landing in Seattle, we flew over our house and noted the fall leaves colors. The cool and damp Pacific Northwest weather was upon us. We were home!

I'll do a wrap up post in a few days. Thanks to all who followed along on our journey. We'll have another one in about a month. It can be found at www.timmer2018europe2.blogspot.com. See you then, and stay tuned.