Trip 1 - Day 2

Daddy and I got very little sleep on the plane that night.  We both took Advil PM and tried to get comfy, but this is very difficult to do, even when we were lucky enough to have three seats to the two of us.  I was able to doze off and on a bit, but Daddy had a harder time until he curled up with his head on my lap and his body accordioned between me and the window.  It seemed like an eternity before the lights were turned back on and breakfast was served.

Breakfast:

Orange Juice
Fresh seasonal fruit

Scrambled eggs with mixed peppers and onions, golden friend potato cubes, baked beans, and grilled tomato half with herbs. (Chosen over American pancakes with poached apples and Idli Wada Sambar.)

Tea or Coffee

Breakfast was decent. 

So this is where it gets kind of crazy.  We left San Francisco on Wednesday, March 9 at 3:45 p.m. and we flew almost 16 hours to Dubai, which would be 7:45 a.m. on March 10th California time.  However, Dubai is 12 hours ahead of California, which means we landed in Dubai at 7:45 p.m. on March 10th.  Follow me?  Amazing if you did.  I can't seem to grasp it for the life of me.

We landed in Dubai and walked into the largest (by floor space) building in the world - Dubai International Airport Terminal 3.  That's right.  Terminal 3 in and of itself has the largest floor space of any building in the world.  This place was incredible!

Airport staff uniform.



We were intimidated, to say the least.  This place was huge and no one spoke English and we had no idea where we were supposed to go.  We were surprised by the prayer rooms (men and women separate of course) and the uniforms of the hotel workers.  We were also a bit taken aback by the "coldness" of the passport control workers.  There were definitely no pleasantries exchanged.  By the grace of God, we made our way through passport control, through the airport, and outside to find our shuttle to the hotel.

Oh snap.  We forgot our luggage. 

Just kidding.  Our luggage was sent all the way through to Addis Ababa.  This was great, except we didn't know this was going to be the case until we checked our luggage in San Francisco.  Luckily we had an extra pair of chonies in our carry on, but that was about it.  Daddy had to pick up some pit rub from the hotel store.  I had packed mine via the 3-1-1 method.

We found the Capthorne Hotel shuttle (again, by the grace of God) and rode wide-eyed the five minutes it took to get to the hotel.  The staff at the hotel was incredibly friendly and we got checked into our room quickly.  The room was very simple, but nice, clean, and had a hot shower - I Love Lucy style with twin beds.  There were also prayer rooms in the hotel, as well as a sticker on the ceiling of our room with an arrow pointing toward Mecca.

Although we were exhausted, the night was still quite young in Dubai.  We went downstairs to check out the English pub, but quickly backed out when we realized that smoking was allowed inside the restaurant.  Wow.  Not used to that.  So, we went Tex-Mex instead.  Nothing like date night in Dubai at a Tex-Mex restaurant - margarita, chips and salsa, and a beer on the patio.  Nice.  This was completely surreal.  We had just flown OVER the North Pole and were sitting in Dubai eating chips and salsa.  WHAT??

After the conclusion of date night, we retired to our twin beds - each to his own - and tried to get a good night of sleep.  This was easier said than done though because apparently our room was positioned nicely over Club Dubai and Dynamite played over and over again until about 3:00 a.m.

I throw my hands up in the air sometimes

Saying AYO!

Gotta let go!

I wanna celebrate and live my life

Saying AYO!

Baby, let's go!

Ugh.