Time to Go Home

It's our final half day of our vacation. Before leaving for the airport, we met with friends from New York for brunch. It was special for us to be able to meet with them because we had not seen one friend for 4 years and the other Alexis had not seen in 9 years (This was my first time meeting her). We met in the French district, so we expected to have a western style brunch, but instead we went to a Korean restaurant. We had a dish with rice cakes and beef, a kimchi pancake, and steamed short ribs. They were all very tasty, especially the beef short ribs. We finished the meal with pan fried mochi squares. To eat the mochi squares, we dipped the mochi into a dark honey to give it some sweetness. It was all very good and a nice way to end our trip. It was nice catching up with friends who we have not seen in a long time, and we were fortunate that they had flexibility in their schedule to meet with us.

After lunch, we rushed back to Bori's place and finished packing. Bori escorted us to the subway station, and helped us find our way to the airport. We got to the airport without any problems, and we made it through security very quickly. Very similar to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Incheon Airport had zoris (slippers) to wear when you walk through security. Alexis was very impressed with that, and she was happy that she didn't have to smell smelly feet while waiting in the security area. Now, we're on the flight back home to San Francisco, and as we fly back , I wanted to spend some time to reflect on our 2 week vacation. This has been an incredible journey, and we had a fantastic time. From eating great food to visiting with old friends, this has been a vacation unlike any other vacation we have ever taken. There was so much variety and special activities we participated in including hiking in Inari, volunteering in Tokyo, and staying overnight in a ryokan. As we sign off on this blog, we wanted to give a special thanks to our friend Bori who let us stay with her in Seoul. She was a wonderful hostess, and she organized our activities in Seoul. Her personal touch on everything made our stay here very smooth, and it was nice to have a local expert introduce us to South Korea.

Alexis and I hope you enjoyed reading our blog, and we look forward to our next adventure!