July 16, 2022 – Home at last

My trip home was long. My first flight from Oslo to London was on time. Of course, the gate was very far from security in Oslo. In London, I had to change terminals and go through security again. When I finally got to the correct terminal, I found that my flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours. I tried not to worry about my connecting flight. We landed in Paris at 2:50pm. I had until 3:30pm to get to my flight. I, once again, had to go through security. I finally made it to the M area to find that gate M48 was at the very end of the terminal. I took off running. I got to the gate at 325pm. Oh no, I was selected for a random security check. Ten minutes later, I was the last person to get on the plane.
We arrived at SFO a half hour late at 645pm. I have never been happier to see my bag come out. I took LYFT to my brother-in-law’s house to spend the night. My sister-in-law Marny drove me home this morning. I tested again at home and am still negative. I’ll be tested again on Wednesday and then can roam freely in the community where I live.
This trip had its challenges but also had many high points. I found that I enjoyed the Ocean Explorer and its crew just as much as I did in December. Our tour guide, Kopi, was excellent. He was great at keeping me from over reacting both when my luggage was missing and when my flights home were canceled. He made each of us feel like we were the most important guest. With 128 of us to deal with and 21 cases of Covid, he kept everything running smoothly. I was surprised to find crew who remembered me from Antarctica.
My next trip starts the end of October. I’ll be flying to Boston where I’ll be on a 5 day land portion before boarding the Ocean Explorer once again. We’ll be traveling down the U.S. East coast ending in Nassau, Bahamas. Please join me when I set sail again.