WYD Day 1

Somewhere over the East Sea (aka Sea of Japan), about an hour from Seoul. (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Well, we arrived in Seoul, South Korea, around 6:45 p.m. July 11 (after leaving around 8:30 a.m. July 10). Didn't actually get to the hostel until around 10:30 p.m., as our buses went from the airport to a restaurant for a late dinner. To say it was a long flight is an understatement, but at least our Colorado Springs and Las Vegas pilgrim team have a couple of days here in Seoul to adjust. We also flew to Seoul with a group from Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Northglenn (easy to pick out with their yellow shirts), but they along with several C.S. seminarians continued the journey to Sydney after a short layover. They've got to be hurting right now... at least surviving on adrenaline.

Not much to report at this point other than that we've made it and will be spending Saturday (Friday in Colorado) attending Mass in the morning with Bishop Joseph Pepe and Bishop Michael Sheridan concelebrating. After that, it's a laid-back day sightseeing and shopping around Seoul before dinner and rest. On Sunday, we'll attend Mass again with the bishops concelebrating and then we have about 3-4 hours more to check out Seoul before heading to the airport around 3 p.m. for a red eye flight to Sydney.

Throughout the pilgrimage, expect some guest bloggers to pop up. Several pilgrims have said they'll jump on to post some thoughts on their experience. You'll see the blogger's name in the header of the post.

Please keep us in your prayers! Say a prayer for Father Jaeger, whose bag didn't make it.

And one last bit of advice. If you ask for an exit row seat on a 747, make sure it's an aisle and not a window. Otherwise you'll get boxed in by the enormous exit door jutting out about a foot.