Our Soles are Finally in Seoul

If you ever have the opportunity to fly Asiana Airlines, take it. It's a wonderfully run airline, apparently last year's Airline of the Year, as awarded by Skytrax.

We had a bumpy ride over the Pacific and into Siberia, then we had a few thunderstorms to dodge during the descent into Seoul (ICN), but all in all a very good experience. It looks like we will get some rain showers this week.

Reed, we were flying at 38,000 feet and the temperature was 60 below zero...much colder than you ever felt in Chicago! I have screened 'How to Tame a Dragon' and you're cleared to watch it. Mommy wanted you guys to know that she ate Bibimbap on the plane. She said it was tasty. They served it for dinner while Daddy was snoozing.

I hope our return trip is as smooth...Grace will let us know soon enough. Please pray for her flexibility and rest during that long journey home.

Julie and I are pretty tired, as adrenaline is wearing off and we're gearing up to be tourists for 2 days. We're heading out to the markets in search of pajamas and a few gift boxes. We'll try to nap for a few hours this afternoon.

As to be expected, the upcoming World Cup match against Argentina is very much on everyone's mind here. It's everywhere. The other hot topic here is the increasingly agitated relations with North Korea. We were careful to avoid the airspace coming in on our commercial flight (thank you Kim Jung Il for the extra 45 minutes of jostling about) and our driver from the airport talked about the sanctions for a good part of the drive.

Tip of the morning: for every 10 cars on the drive in from the airport, 6 were Hyundai, 2 were KIA Motors, and 1 was foreign. There have also been a few familiar brand names spotted near our hotel...including our first stop for Starbucks. Seoul is a very developed metropolis, with better technology and urban planning than many of our large cities.