Leg 3: Chicago, IL to Seoul, South Korea

13 hours, 40 minutes, 6,538 miles

Last sighting in America

Now we know what time travel feels like! This flight went surprisingly well. Jack and I had never been on a flight longer than 2 or 3 hours and he's a really nervous flyer, so we were kind of worried about the toll it would take on us. Fortunately, it was a good time. We flew on Korean Air and they just kept giving us meals, drinks, and snacks throughout the flight. I don't think we've ever eaten so much.

Since I requested a vegetarian meals for the flights,
I would always get served before anyone else. (Pro tip!)

We flew on the Boeing 777-300, which had 3 rows of 3 seats each in economy class. By an amazing stroke of luck, we had no passenger next to us and we could spread out over this extra seat. There was a good selection of movies (including Japanese, American, Chinese, and Korean films), music (albums and stations), audio books, a few TV shows, and cameras to watch in front of the plane and below. We could plug in our laptops too but had to take the batteries out so they weren't charging. All in all, the flight seemed long but manageable. I don't think it could have gone any better than it did!

Since we had chased the sun west, it was light the entire flight. Even with the shades drawn and the plane dimmed, neither of us could sleep. We got to Incheon International Airport at 4:25PM Seoul-time (felt like 5:25AM after staying up all night). We had about an hour and 15 minutes to catch our transfer. I thought that would be plenty of time, but it turns out Seoul's airport is humongous! It's almost like a mall with gates between every 6 shops. We also had to go through another round of security, but that went super quick. We got to our gate with about 10 minutes to spare so we grabbed some quick drinks. I got an iced coffee for about 90 cents, which turned out to be unsweetened but still really yummy. Jack got a vanilla shake for the same price. This was so much better than the $5-7 they charge for drinks at O'Hare! ICH airport also had free wifi so I posted a quick note on Facebook and we boarded our next plane.

Next Stop: Bangkok, Thailand!