Bob and Jamie's Adventures in Hong Kong, Day 7

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel. The concierge offered to hail a taxi for us, and made sure the driver knew where we wanted to go (Hong Kong Station, to catch the Airport Express).

We only had to wait a couple minutes before the train was on its way toward the airport. On the way, we passed by Tung Chung and saw the waterfront where we'd walked around as well as the Ngong Ping cable car. It was a lot more meaningful to me this time (I'd seen them going the other way the first day, too), since now I knew what the buildings were and where the cable car went.

When we got to the airport, we got our boarding passes and checked our bags (we had already checked in online back at the hotel), and then went to our third Burger King (which Bob says was the first one established of the four) for breakfast. Then we stopped by the Disney store so he could buy his cousin a toy and proceeded to our gate.

Before long it was time to board, and I fell asleep almost right away. I woke up for the meals and made it through a couple movies, but I slept far more on the return flight than I had on the flight there. This time we must have been riding in the jet stream, because rather than fly north over the Pole, we took a more easterly route over Japan and along the coast of Alaska.

When we were descending into New York, I marveled at the blue sky and all the houses in Queens and Nassau County; you just don't see anything like that in Hong Kong, which is predominantly smog-grey skies and apartment buildings. I was glad to be back in America.

We got through Customs without incident, rechecked our bags with American Airlines, and got through security with time to spare before our final flights back to Boston and Washington, so we grabbed lunch at the Brooklyn Deli (there was an ad saying "we'll make you a sandwich you won't refuse") and ate it by the gate. Before too long, it was time for me to board (10 minutes before Bob), so we parted ways and I found my seat on the plane. I started to read a book, but as soon as we'd taken off, I fell asleep again and didn't wake up again until we were flying over Great Falls on our final approach into National.

When the plane stopped at the gate, I could see the Jefferson Memorial from my window, and directly behind it, the Washington Monument.

Home at last.