The Grand Tour (Day 20): Home

We got up this morning and redeemed our free breakfast with our Hilton pass towards a full buffet breakfast in the atrium of the hotel.  I *almost* tried blood pudding just to say I tried it, but as I picked up the tongs to pick up a piece, I chickened out, thinking it would be very difficult to get it down.  Instead, I stuck with the pastries, croissants, sausages and eggs.

The airport was a short walk on a pedestrian sky bridge.  The airport was quite busy, and there was fairly heavy security.  The airport was beginning to put the decoration and signage up for the London Olympic Games to be held in a little over two weeks.  We made it through security, and spent 30-40 minutes in the airport gift shop buying some souvenirs (including a big box of real allsorts licorice!) to use up our remain British Pounds.

The flight to Houston was about 10 hours.  Fortunately, we had several meals served, and we had a personal video monitor that allowed us to watch a selection of movies they had available.  It even had a few video games like solitaire and mah-jongg.  It was enough to keep us occupied, but the flight to and from Europe is not something that I would look forward to again (unless I could swing some of the nice first-class seats that convert into an actual bed).  Ahh, I can dream.

In Houston, it took us quite a while to go through immigration and customs and then get re-checked through security to catch our flight back to Salt Lake City.  Our layover was 5+ hours, so our passes to the United Club came in very handy.  It was an extremely comfortable place to sit back in comfortable leather chairs, connect to wifi, grab some snacks and some juice and fruit, and pass the time until our next flight.  Definitely the way to travel!

When we arrived in Salt Lake around 11 pm, the kids picked us up at the airport.  We were exhausted, but it was fun to see the kids.  Unfortunately, I don't think they really missed us as much as we missed them.  I had to be back to work the following morning, and it took several days to get back on Utah time.

This trip was in many ways the trip of a lifetime and one that we will always cherish and look back on with fond memories.  But most of all, I learned again how much I enjoy being with Becky and exploring things together.  This is going to be a great eternity!