Philippines, Day 19: The Final Leg2 min read

As we came in sight of the city of Seattle, we tried to find anything that looked familiar to us. We had our best landing of the trip at about 2:15pm PST (5:15am Philippine time, 4:15pm CST) not having found anything familiar. I took a last look at one of my favorite airplanes, the 747 Jumbo Jet, owned by one of my favorite airlines, and then we moved on.

The next step was going through the U.S. Customs. I had expected it to be a difficult and long ordeal based on what others had told me. However, we went through it quite quickly and were surprised when we were directed up some escalators and found nothing at the top. We proceeded to our exit, which was only a few yards away, where we were the first to check-in to our flight, Northwest Airlines flight 172.

We left then, and basically went around to different areas of the airport. We also stopped frequently as Dad called numerous people.

At 5:25pm (7:25pm CST), we boarded an A320 SR on the last flight of our vacation. We were headed for my home and Dad’s third and current home.

It was a good feeling to be heading home but yet I still missed the Philippines and I hope to go back in the near future. As we flew toward the Midwest from the Pacific, we were treated to a beautiful view of the mountains and most remarkably, Mt. Rainier. There it stood in all its majestic beauty while we watched it with awe from an almost cloudless sky. It is a beautiful sight from land, but from the sky it is twice as splendid.

That was one thing I saw that the Philippine mountains couldn’t match. You can’t find a snow-peaked mountain there. It’s a good reminder of how everything is beautiful in its own special way.

Coming into Minneapolis, we saw another wonderful thing from the sky. We were flying in at around 10:00pm CST (8:00pm PST, 11:00am Philippine time) so we got to see fireworks from above in the night sky. It was neat, seeing them from a totally opposite angle than you normally do.

Those were the only firecrackers I saw that weekend, but I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We got off the airplane and were greeted by a deserted hallway in a nearly empty airport. The TVs showed that Northwest was only running about one-eighth of their regular flights.

We met Uncle Don at the only baggage carousel running and he helped us pick up our three pieces of luggage before loading up in their van. We stayed overnight at their house and then left in the morning, officially ending our almost three-week-long vacation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *