Goodbye Iceland

Since we don't have to fly out until 5pm, we slept in, and had a late breakfast.  It was a great meal.  BTW, if you ever need to stay a night when flying into our out of Iceland, the White House Bed and Breakfast is a winner.  The host is awesome and the home is very nice (though, wait for the 3rd bathroom - it is worth it).We had to fuel the rental car before returning it, so we found the closest fuel station.  The airport is super close, so we were there in no time. I dropped off everyone at the terminal, and took the car back.  I guess the driving conditions in Iceland are so, that they were nonplussed by the condition of the car.  Really, it was just dirty, but....REALLY dirty.  I walked back to the terminal (pro tip, don't wait for the shuttle, the rental area is just 3 minutes to walk to the terminal).  Catching up with the rest of the gang, I took care of the tax-free refunds.  If you don't already know, in many countries, if you purchase items to bring back to the US, you can get a refund of the taxes that are embedded in every item's price.  As expensive as Iceland is, this is very important.We checked in to drop our bags, and the awesome icelandair staff helped to remedy a seat-assignment problem that made the flight much more enjoyable.  We got through security in no time, and we shopped for some last minute gifts in the duty free.  I got some of the Black Death that came with the shark tasting.We were all through security with about 4 hours to kill before boarding.  Carrie and I got some tea and coffee, and Les and Pat had one last Icelandic hot dog.  We occupied a table in the coffee shop area, and had a rousing game of spades (Carrie and I were winning, by the way).  We were going to deal another round, and I realized that we were going to have to go to another building for our flight.  It was 30 minutes prior to boarding, so if there were any complications, we could be in trouble (and, playing cards is not a smiled-on reason for missing your flight).  To add insult to injury, we were going to have to go through passport control to get in the new building.  It ended up only taking a few minutes, and we all had time to hit the head before boarding.As it turned out, we had PLENTY OF TIME, as the flight was 30 minutes late in boarding.  As the bus took us to the plane, we realized they were changing a tire on the plane.  I guess I would rather not have a flat tire when trying to land.  We're on the plane, and enjoying the 7 hour flight.  Apparently, they are planning on making up the time, which is good - we have a connecting flight in Seattle.  We just flew over Greenland, and it was cool seeing sea ice.  I'm glad we're flying instead of sailing :).After a long flight to Seattle, we had to do the customs dance and re-enter security.  It was at this point we discovered that the duty-free in Reykjavik didn't follow protocol, and so, when re-entering security in the US, our liquid purchases suddenly became an issue.  We were given the choice of throwing away a couple hundred dollars worth of gifts, or we could go back out to the ticket counter, check the bag, re-enter security and then get on our plane.  Oh, and the flight was boarding in 5 minutes.  The unhelpful staff directed us in the wrong direction, causing us to end up in the terminal.  At this point, I realized we could simply just walk to our gate and board.  However, with the sword of Damocles from TSA hanging over our head, we asked another unhelpful person which way to the counter.  We did a full-on OJ (and not the bad OJ, but the good, 80s commercials OJ), and ran to the counter, got the bag checked, ran to security, and ran to the gate.  We made it just in time to board, and got under way for our last flight of the trip.The flight went well, and I must say, both Alaska Air flights were great.  There was plenty of room, and the crew was very nice.  As we started our descent, we could see the approaching dark.  DARK, I tell you!  It was all I could do not to fall asleep immediately.  After we de-planed, Carrie started singing "Hello Darkness, my old friend".  It was great to be back.  We retrieved our bags (all of them made it!), and loaded up in the car that Emma and Gabino helpfully drove.  We drove home, through all the fireworks, and once we got unloaded, said Hi to my folks who had arrived earlier in the day.  After chatting for a bit, it was time to crash.  Once the lights went out, the darkness was glorious.  It is great to be home!