Griswold’s Road Trip

[markis10]

Did you try the Blened scotch?

 

[Solid]

Arrival at Seoul went as seamless as it can with two tired Audreys up well past when they normally would and not enjoying standing in lines.

Took a little while to work out the Goods to Declare entries weren’t closed and the signs on the door in Korean must have said something else. In to declare the Ritalin, anxious wait while the customs officer studiously checked the approval paperwork, identification, the drugs themselves, summoned a superior for a look and then a wave through.

Found the STCP desk where our piece of paper said it was, they checked our boarding passes, and a gentlemen walked us to a waiting mini van.

On the way to the Ibis Styles Incheon Airport which took about 15 minutes, checked into our functional but uninspired rooms and kids off to sleep.

The hotel layover program worked seamlessly.

 

[offshore171]

He was wearing a tshirt, shorts and crocs with no other clothes and with an expected arrival temp of -1

Sympathy factor low.

 

[Solid]

Did you try the Blened scotch?

I’m not a scotch drinker sorry,

 

[Solid]

If you ever find yourself thinking about staying at the Ibis Styles Incheon AirPort.

1. It’s in the middle of the carpark for Terminal 2 which is quite possibly the biggest carpark I have ever seen. Unfortunately no photos!
2. They have a buffet restaurant on site.
3. They have a bar which offers a hour hour drinks package of unlimited beer beer for around $15 and wine for $20.
4. The have a 24 hour easy mart on site next to a collection of odd vending machines.
5. Hourly shuttles buses to the terminals.

I didn’t get to try any of the above but if you want a basic place to overnight not bad.

 

[Solid]

In the Asiana lounge waiting our OZ222 chariot. Went to the eastern lounge first, the lounge dragon said there is another central lounge closer to our gate.

After a quick drink and toilet break relocated lounges. They are carbon copies of each other and about 100 metres apart!

 

[Flyfrequently]

If you ever find yourself thinking about staying at the Ibis Styles Incheon AirPort.

1. It’s in the middle of the carpark for Terminal 2 which is quite possibly the biggest carpark I have ever seen. Unfortunately no photos!
2. They have a buffet restaurant on site.
3. They have a bar which offers a hour hour drinks package of unlimited beer beer for around $15 and wine for $20.
4. The have a 24 hour easy mart on site next to a collection of odd vending machines.
5. Hourly shuttles buses to the terminals.

I didn’t get to try any of the above but if you want a basic place to overnight not bad.

Good to know @Solid
Apart from the drinks package, similar to what Ibis Saigon at HCMC airport offers and around ~ $90 flexible with a rooftop pool.

 

[Solid]

OZ222 was another flight where the service made up for any hard product shortcomings. Take off pretty much on time and landed about 50 minutes early. Some minor variations on the drinks list, for food we both chose the western options as the Korean seemed to much work to wrap it yourself

Ellen had the chicken, I had the fish and Rusty had the steak, which he said was the best meal he’s ever had. So good he managed to get a second serving later in the flight. The junior Groswolds travelled well, with Rusty chipping in to keep Audrey Jr entertained when the boredom struck.

Breakfast served about two hours before landing, it doesn’t look appetising but was surprisingly tasty.

 

[Solid]

 

[Solid]

Wine variations

 

[Solid]

The meals, breakfast chosen was the omelette.

 

[Solid]

 

[Solid]

Quickly processed at JFK and none of the “dramas” you hear about during the immigration experience, quite the opposite with a cheery immigration officer. Bags came out relatively quickly (but why do five bags off the same shape checked in at the same time come out in a group of 3 and 2 ten minutes later ).

Rusty’s first experience of American friendliness, we were following the signs to rental car via the airtrain which wants you to walk to another terminal. Just outside the doors putting out coats on we were approached by a cleaner who asked where we were going. They then told us a more efficient way to get to the airtrain via the terminal we were in rather than following the signs.

For his age, Rusty is quite street smart and when we went back into the terminal he asked me whether we were just going to wait a bit and follow the signs again, but I told him to trust the directions. If it was another country I would have been dubious, but we followed the cleaners directions and low and behold were there much quicker.

Hire car collected, we were given a GMC Yukon Denali and it is suitably enormous. Despite that still not a lot of luggage space as passenger space seems to be prioritised with the second row of three rows being individual recliners. Still a lot more room than our car, and five suitcases and five backpacks loaded while still being able to see out the back window!

Took a couple of minutes familiarising myself with the car, mentally went through the different road rules and we were off.

 

[Solid]

The Griswold’s have previously only been to the west coast of the USA. I must admit it was a little surreal driving out of JFK seeing the signs for places / suburbs you see so much in tv and movies. More of that to come no doubt.

We’ve done road trips in the US and Europe before, always takes a little time adjusting and only four flagrant traffic violations on the way due to the change of side of the road .

We made our way to our Airbnb, a farmhouse on a small farm in the Pocono Mountains. We couldn’t check in until 3 and as we were early landing and its only a couple of hours we stopped in Bethlehem to have something to eat and a nearby Walmart to get some starter groceries.

Audrey Sr and Jr unravelled a bit at this stage, I can’t blame them it had been a long trip and they had done so well up until this point. We got stuck in the Walmart carpark for a bit getting out which had a ridiculous pinch point on exit causing traffic chaos and got to the farm shortly after 3.

The owners live on the farm in another house and one of them met us at the house to show us through. It’s the original farmhouse from 1881 which they gutted and completely redid, very nicely done.

More exciting for Audrey Sr and Jr the barn is about fifty metres away and contains two Nigerian dwarf goats (Benny and Jett) and three cats. The Airbnb owner took the junior Griswalds over to check them out, and has offered for them to come tomorrow when they walk the goats, which they happily agreed to.

There are a couple of patches of snow so the obligatory snowball fight commenced.

I calculated it was about 46 hours after we left our home that we arrived at the Airbnb. All in all the kids travelled really well, it couldn’t have been easy for them.

Some heavy duty relaxing before dinner and off to bed to try and reset the body clock after a couple of these