November 23rd and 24th: Hello, Dubai! (And Megan and Marcus and Rupert!)

The reason my last post ended at Thanksgiving was because...

...it was time for our big trip! (And if it starts with an Emirates A380, you know it's a big trip.) The day after Thanksgiving, we had coffee and breakfast at home, finished packing, said goodbye to my brother and the doggies, and drove up to Dulles. A quick check in and trip through security later, we were hanging out in the Etihad lounge (which a few airlines, including Emirates, share), grabbing a small snack and waiting for our flight to board. The reason we were hanging out in the Etihad lounge instead of killing time at the gate was...

...I had splurged and upgraded us to business class as an early birthday present to myself. And man, it was worth every penny! This was my home for 13 hours as we flew to Dubai.  :)

Flying business class on a long haul flight was a bucket list item for me, and man, what a cool experience. I had my own little mini bar, an iPad to play with (in case the giant screen on the entertainment system wasn't enough, I guess?), free in-flight wifi since I was a rewards member...

...and multiple menus to page through as we settled in. We also got a Fast Track pass for Customs in Dubai. And this was before we even pushed back from the gate!

I did take a minute to look out the window and away from all the crazy things inside. I always like seeing all of the planes that float across my scope every day.

We eventually pushed back, taxied out, and departed. Bye, Dulles...see you in a couple weeks!

I didn't waste any time settling in to enjoy the flight. Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants came around with mattress pads for our seats. With the push of a couple buttons, the seat unfolds and you can lie completely flat; the cubby under the big screen is where your feet go. We had comfy blankets and pillows waiting for us, too.

I figured I might as well take advantage of all of the fancy things that I could, so I certainly didn't turn down a bowl of warm nuts and a glass of wine.

I spent most of my waking time binge watching movies that I'd normally never actually sit down and watch at home (one of my favorite things to do on any flight, really). Eventually it was time for dinner; the tomato salad was really good...

...as was the Thanksgiving dinner option that they had.

I finished up with a fruit plate and some Godiva chocolates for dessert. This may have been the nicest meal I've ever had on a flight!

I spent a bit of time chatting with Mark once in a while; he was sitting behind me in his own window seat, and we had almost the entire section of the plane to ourselves. I went back to check out the inflight bar, too (which I unfortunately didn't get a picture of), then went back to my seat and got comfy so I could try to get some sleep.

I couldn't really get a good picture of the seat all flat and set up for sleeping, but man, what a difference it made. It probably helped that I'm short, but I could lay completely stretched out and flat. Thanks to the comfy setup and a sleep mask, I was actually able to get a decent bit of comfortable sleep on the flight. When I wasn't actually sleeping, I still kept the seat mostly reclined and watched movies, so I was able to get quite a bit of rest on the flight. What a nice change of pace!

I eventually finished trying to sleep, so I used my phone to talk to Zach online for a bit while we were flying over Saudi Arabia, which was crazy.

After a little while, it was time to start the day (even though it was basically bedtime back home). I inhaled my sausage and biscuits; it was really good.

I watched the sun slowly start to shine on the bottom of the plane as we said goodbye to Saudi Arabia...

...and had my stuff all packed up and ready to go by the time we were on final in the UAE. Good morning, Dubai!!   :)

We landed just fine and made it through Customs pretty quickly (thanks in part to our Fast Track passes). After picking up our bags, we met up with Marcus for the drive back to their house. He had worked the overnight shift and came right to the airport from work to pick us up.

I always love the architecture here.  :)

Even with a decent bit of sleep on the flight, we were still a bit sleepy from jet lag. We had some coffee, hung out with Marcus and Rupert (and eventually Megan, too, when she woke up), then eventually split up to take naps since we were all pretty sleepy.

Marcus had the mid again that night, so he stayed home and slept while Mark, Megan, and I went to get some lunch after grabbing naps and showers. Megan took us to a nearby cafe with really good food; this was fattoush, which is basically salad with pita chips. It was really good...

...as was the hummus with lamb.

After stuffing ourselves, we drove back to their house in time to catch a pretty sunset.

I had mentioned to Megan that I like baking, so she had a recipe lined up for us to try. A bit of mixing and rolling and shaping later...

...we had a batch of gluten-free pumpkin cinnamon rolls ready to go in the oven.

They turned out really well!

We spent the rest of the night catching up, eating fish that they'd caught on a recent fishing trip...

...and some steak, too, while sipping drinks and watching the Formula 1 qualifying rounds. Mark and I hung in there pretty well for being a bit jet-lagged, then eventually made our way upstairs and promptly passed out. It had been a nice low key start to our trip!