A Few Hours at Home

I only had a few hours at home before we would leave on our road trip. But I had plenty to do to occupy the time. First, I had to deal with the mail that had collected in our absence. Luckily, we've had someone bringing the mail in for us and sorting it a bit. If you look closely at this picture, you'll also see that Court had stopped by the house and set up the Easter Egg Hunt for the next morning.

Next, I decided that I would deal with the slight disaster left from the last minute installation of bookshelves in our bedroom. I moved the books onto the shelves and emptied our old night stands into the new drawers. I can't say that anything is particularly organized, but at least it isn't on the floor.

Finally, my big project before leaving on our road trip was putting together Kai's travel journal. I took a short video of it.

I had also made a version for Court, as a surprise for her:

I had ordered dinner in, thinking that waiting for my food would help me stay awake. I eventually ate dinner and worked my way through the DVR, clearing a few shows. I laid out my clothes for our road trip and started putting together the things that I will take back to Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, somewhere in there, I got a second wind and had trouble going to bed. I finally got to bed sometime after midnight.

One Long Day

My flight was schedule to leave Abu Dhabi at 1 am on Saturday. Because it was an international flight to Istanbul, Craig and I left for the airport at 10:30 pm on Friday. We got to the airport at 11 pm and Craig helped me to get checked in. It was very hard to leave him to go through security. Even excited about the road trip with Court and the girls, it was painful to leave.

I'm used to Craig leaving for work travel. And I've traveled without him several times. But usually, I am flying with him or to him. I'm sure the time of day didn't help to make it easier.

My flight was delayed by nearly half an hour. The delay combined with a lack of signs and the gate change for another flight to make me nervous that I was standing in the wrong place. And boarding, as had been my experience with this airline, was a real adventure. They made no effort to control the habit people have, the world over, of standing up the minute that boarding starts and crowding to the entrance despite their assigned spot in the boarding order. In fact, I think that the people who will board last are always the first to crowd up to the gate, impeding the boarding of every other person.

The flight to Istanbul was about five hours long. I was trying to stay awake on this flight, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night, local time. I wanted to get back onto California time as quickly as possible. The flight began with a light meal:

Regardless of my efforts to stay awake, I ended up sleeping for about two hours. I woke up to this offering:

I rarely enjoy eggs when I'm not at home. And eggs made in flight are the worst. So I got off the plane in Istanbul, tired and hungry.

I had a 7.5 hour layover in Istanbul. On the one hand, this great given our trouble making a connection in Istanbul on our flight out. On the other hand, SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS!  I didn't qualify for a sleeping room in the Turkish Airlines lounge because your layover must be more than four but less than seven hours. You also have to be connecting between international flights, with at least one flight being over eight hours. After reading some reviews online, I began to wonder how many sleeping rooms this enormous lounge even has.

I was able to find a locker to secure my suitcase and laptop, so I was only carrying my phone and kindle. In the seven hours that I paced the lounge, I decided that they have devoted an equal amount of space to the sleeping rooms as the shower rooms. This means they have very few rooms, which explains the crazy rules governing them.

Perhaps because I wasn't sick during this visit, I was able to find some food options that I enjoyed. My favorites were this cheese filled flat bread and the lentil soup (which I had enjoyed on our first trip through). I lost count of how many times I got one or the other of these two things. It was, after all, seven hours!

At one point, I did manage to doze for about 45 minutes. But I was soon awoken by a businessman who decided he needed to sit on the sofa opposite me and conduct a loud phone call on his speaker phone.

About half an hour before my boarding time, I glanced up at the board in the lounge that displayed gates for flights to see if the gate had been assigned yet. It had, and there was also a flashing "go to gate" next to my flight. I decided I would do that, even though it seemed early.

It was a long walk to my gate, but I did not make any wrong turns. Maybe I am starting to get familiar with this airport, against my better judgment. At the gate, I encountered a passport check that could not have been further from the passport check in this same airport when we were traveling in the other direction.

For our flight to Abu Dhabi, there was no real announcement that our passports would be checked. Craig and I just happened to find ourselves in a line when we were trying to find a place to stand (because all seating was filled).

But for this flight to Los Angeles, the passport check was essentially a second security check. First, I made my way through a winding queue. At three points in this queue, a person checked my passport and ticket. I must have been early, because I was the only person in this queue, making it all the more unusual. Each person checked something and wrote something different on my boarding pass.

Once through there, I was directed into another queue, where I walked to a table and set all my bags on the table. They asked me to remove my shoes, empty my pockets, and stand with my arms out. One person swiped my hands, my arms, my shoe laces, and the inside of my shoes and walked away. Two other people went through my bags, removing my kindle and laptop. They asked me to remove the cover from my kindle and they swiped everything, from the inside of my bag to my keyboard to my kindle case. One of the pair took those samples away. No one actually ever told me I was clear to continue, I just moved on after putting everything back together.

At the gate, which was a bus gate, I overheard some people who were confused about why we had been told to come to the gate so early. I can't imagine how anyone going through that level of security would think that the number of people expected on our flight would go through there quickly. It wasn't long before we started boarding - though this meant that we boarded a bus, drove out to the airplane, and walked up steps to board the plane.

I found my seat and settled in for the fourteen hour flight home. For some reason, I failed to take pictures of my meals on this flight. I actually watched a movie. Or rather, I rewatched a movie that I've seen before - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. After eating dinner, I managed to sleep for about eight hours. I woke up with enough time to finish my movie before breakfast was served.

Global Entry took me through LAX quickly. I caught an Uber home. I'd declined several offers for a ride home. I'm glad I did, as I'm sure that I was not entirely coherent by this point. I arrived home at 6:35 pm, California time. That's 5:35 am in Abu Dhabi. I think that's 31 hours, door to door.

March 31 (Craig's perspective)

[A guest post from Craig]

Friday night I took Laura to the airport to fly back to LA in order to join Courtney and the grandgirls for an “adventure” up to the Bay Area for a week or so. Her flight was at 1:30 am (technically, Saturday) and after seeing her to security I went home and slept fitfully. It’s strange to have had her with me and then for her to be gone. I mean, I’m used to traveling alone for business, but I’ve gotten used to her in our apartment in Abu Dhabi.

Saturday morning I woke up and made coffee and my favorite breakfast: left over taco meat and scrambled eggs with sour cream, fresh diced tomato, and taco sauce. I got dressed and headed to Nation Towers, a new office and retail development on the Corniche (actually, Laura and I had just been to the St. Regis there the day before for brunch, but that’s an entirely different post and I don’t want to steal Laura’s thunder on that one). I had decided to go see <i>Ready Player One</i> at the cinema. I’d been forewarned that the locals don’t follow norms for behavior in the cinema by talking at full volume, texting, and answering phone calls. I was schooled that I should go to the movies in the morning to avoid such frustration.

Further, I decided my lack-of-frustration strategy should include seats to one of the premium cinemas. Most chains here have the “regular” theater then they have a reserved seat theater that costs a little more and may have moving or reclining seats, like some chains do in the States. The cinema closest to our apartment also had a super premium option: a small, 18-seat cinema with motorized recliners, reserved seating, an exclusive menu of food from a celebrity chef, and in-theater table service. I splurged and bought the USD$40 ticket.

I got to the multiplex and the place was empty. Evidently NO ONE goes to the movies at 10:45 am. I was ushered to a separate, exclusive lobby just for people visiting the super premium cinemas where there was a bar and appetizers for purchase. Made me want to come back at night to try it out! I hung out for a little bit in this lounge until I was informed it was almost showtime and I was taken up stairs to the exclusive screening room-style theater.

Seated in my reserved, plush seat I was handed a menu. Again I wished it were later because the food looked really good, but I’d just had breakfast and asked for an espresso and a bottle of water. I reclined my seat and watched the ads before the movie. Unlike theaters in the states, the ads were for new real estate developments in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. There was a PSA about the social change going on in Saudi Arabia and a PSA that may have been about social programs or about electrical utility relief, I couldn’t tell.  The server came back with my coffee and water and the real movie previews began. Finally, the show started. I think I liked the cinema experience a lot more than the movie, and I’m eager to bring Laura to experience it because she’s not a fan of going to the movies, but I think she’d like this a lot.

You can read all about the theater experience at the cinema’s website here: https://uae.voxcinemas.com/ways-to-watch/theatre-by-rhodes

After the movie I grabbed lunch near the apartment and took it home, spending the day relaxing and playing video games and catching up on shows I usually don’t watch with Laura. 

Friday Brunch

Because my last day in Abu Dhabi was a Friday, Craig and I decided that we would take on a Friday Brunch. These lengthy, all you can eat and drink, events are really an endurance challenge. I'm not going to post all the pictures here, because Craig posted 39 picture on Facebook here. But I will include a few highlights.

The brunch started with a "welcome drink" which we were allowed to select from a variety of prepared drinks. It may not be obvious from the picture, but nearly half of these drinks are mocktails (cocktail style drinks made without alcohol). 

There was an incredible variety of food presented. The chef came out and walked through all the stations with me, pointing out the items that were made with cilantro (there were only half a dozen things). Most of those, he offered to make without cilantro if I wanted to try them. But in the end, my favorite things came from this display of appetizers, mostly served in shot glasses.

This cheese fountain is only included because I have serious questions about it. The cheese is not hot. I repeat, this fountain has COLD cheese flowing through it. First, I would like to know how cold cheese is flowing like this. But more importantly, why is cold cheese being served like fondue? Who wants this?

After our brunch, I was texting a friend who was confused about the time we finished brunch (about 4 pm, local time). In response, I took these two pictures of signs in our hotel elevator. Each is advertising a different "bunch". You'll note that one is a Thursday Night Brunch, running from 6:30 to 10:30 pm. The second is a traditional Friday Brunch, available from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm. I suppose "brunch" is a term of art in the UAE.

Road Trip Prep - Kai's Activity Pages

In addition to the bullet journal like travel journal I was making for Kai, I wanted to include some activity pages. I spent a couple days scouring Pinterest for printables. I found some dot-to-dot puzzles, including a crazy symbol style dot-to-dot, which I've also printed out for myself and Court. I found a set of alphabet mazes. I also found a variety of logic puzzles, which were my favorite as a kid. And I found different versions of road trip bingo and road trip scavenger hunts.

But I wanted to make a few pages of my own, of course. I love puzzles, so that was my basic theme for these pages. I had seen some A to Z bullet journal spreads and decided to use that as my starting point for this A to Z: About Me puzzle.

I made another page that was inspired by the sort of "introduce yourself" pages that you complete at the start of the school year.

Continuing on that theme, I made another page that focused just on "favorites".

Finally, I made another puzzle with larger pieces that can be filled out with information about the people in her family.

After all the work I put into these pages, I decided that I would like to duplicate all this for my little brother's girls. I only had to make a five-piece family puzzle, because he has three girls. I don't think it's quite as picturesque, but the pieces would fit together if they were cut out.

As an added bonus, I have another project for when I get home! Making two more journals to send to my brother!

Road Trip Prep - Kai's Travel Journal

At the first of April, I'm going back to California to take a road trip with Court and her girls. I'd made the girls binders for this trip, which you can read about here. But in my last week in Abu Dhabi, I was focussing on a second, computer-based project. I wanted to make a journal / activity book for Kai.

I've always kept a travel journal. I started with spiral bound notebooks and bound journals, but none of those stuck around. After law school, I found that I loved using notebook sized legal pads - special bonus if they were punched for a three ring binder. (Most of the pages are tucked into the back of photo albums from those early trips, or stashed in file folders in a box of memories from childhood.) I've kept journals in computer files and you could say I keep a travel journal here.

But two years ago, I decided I wanted to try something else. I kept seeing bullet journals on Pinterest, but I don't have the patience or handwriting to create the spreads I really enjoyed. But I did have a new set of Illustrator skills, thanks to my fashion classes. I'm on my second binder system (proving that I really cannot settle on a single thing), but I've kept many of my original pages. And I still love using Illustrator to create and print my pages. I wanted to create something like this for Kai.

My journal begins with a page where I record my travels for the year. I write the date of the trip and color in the state. I decided to make a more generic map for Kai, so that she could track all her trips in one place.

Every trip in my book begins with a page that describes the trip. Kai's would be no different. I always include a route map - this one shows her house, my house, and our eventual destination. At the top, I list where I am going, who is going along with me and where I will be staying. I changed the labels on hers and added a "how I will get there" field. Like I do on my own, I filled in a few things when I made the page.

In my book, I have pages that I can fill out for each day. I made two simplified versions for Kai. The first has space to draw about her day. The second has lines so she can write about what she did that day. Both have spots to show the weather, write about her favorite thing about the day, write something that she wants to tell her dad about the day, and write something she learned that day.

I remember reading road maps on trips when I was a kid. So I put together a page with an old-style road map with places to make notes.

Since we are on a road trip, I thought it might also be fun for her to think about other trips that she might like to make. In my journal, I have a version of this page where I can write notes about future trips, before I make my final journal page. This is basically a blank version of her intro page.

In my journal, I keep track of the books that I've read. I made a slightly larger version for Kai, to accommodate her larger handwriting.

Finishing out the bullet journal aspect of her journal, I made her a habit tracking page (using a list of "habits" that her mother provided).

Qasr al Sarab

I mentioned that other people did not seem to have a problem with driving off the road. This picture Craig took of the road shows this a little more clearly. I didn't manage to get a picture of the signs advising against driving in the sand, but obviously people don't take those signs very seriously.

We did stop (on the road, we didn't risk driving off into the sand) at one point driving into the resort. Craig took a picture of me standing on the side of the road with the setting sun in the background.

And he took a selfie of us at our first sunset at Qasr al Sarab:

He also took a picture of the sunset that first night.

After watching the sunset and completing our check in, we were taken to our room. Craig took a video of our room (I appear in this one!), which is cut into two parts so that I could post it here.

For dinner our first night, Craig had made a reservation to eat at Al Falaj, an outdoor restaurant at Qasr al Sarab that serves an Arabic BBQ. They've got rugs spread out on the sand, with tables and benches for people to eat at. They served a wide range of foods, buffet style. But before we got our food, we took a minute to visit the animals. We didn't take a picture with the camel, but we did take some photos with the falcon.

The next morning, I woke up fairly early. I had a text from my little brother, so I got on Skype to talk to him for a bit. It's very strange to talk to someone who is going to bed just as you are waking up, and this is even more obvious on video chat.

Craig and I eventually managed to get ourselves to the breakfast buffet. The food was really good and there were so many things to try! We had decided to eat inside, because of the heat. When we saw the flocks of birds descend upon even briefly abandoned tables, we knew we had made the right decision!

After breakfast, we made our way out to the pool. The only shady spots left were near the children's area of the pool - which was also the only area of the pool that had a shade structure over it. We read our books and relaxed by the pool for awhile. Then it was time to head over to the spa for a couple's massage.

We had decided to try the "Arabian Ritual". Like all massages, this experience started with a dressing room. But in addition to the usual robes, they provided us both with paper underwear. One size fits most, I suppose, but we found it rather humorous that one size and style was expected to fit both of us. We had both left our phones in our room, or we would have had some rather indecent pictures. But we we both giggling when our massage started.

This two hour experience included a foot bath, a date/coffee scrub, a massage, and a scalp massage. Craig was asleep just seconds into the scalp massage. I had far too much oil poured into my hair to fall asleep. In fact, after our massage, I believe I washed my hair four times...and never got all the oil out. I'm not sure what hair type that oil was intended for, but I'm sure that my hair did not appreciate it.

After showers (several for me), we made our way outside to see the sunset again. We had considered walking up the dunes for a better view, but by the time we were ready to go out, we didn't think we'd have time to walk that far. Instead, we walked down on the sand. Of course, Craig took a selfie of us with the sunset.

We had our final dinner at the steakhouse. We were not impressed. The next morning, we returned to the buffet. Knowing what we wanted meant that we tried fewer things, which made it not quite as much fun. We returned to the room, where I washed my hair yet again and packed up our things. Then we set off on our drive back "home" to our apartment.

It's odd, when I compare this resort experience to the one we visited when we were staying in Dubai. I'm sure that this was a nicer resort than the other one. But my experience in Abu Dhabi has been so much better, that the escape wasn't as much of a treat. We had a really good time, but it was nice to return to our apartment.

Weekend Adventure

Before we left Los Angeles, Craig told me he had planned a surprise weekend trip. I asked him if we were going to the Empty Quarter. When he said yes, I asked if we were going to the resort he'd wanted to take me to when we were in Dubai. I couldn't remember the name of the place, but I knew he had gone on a previous business trip and been disappointed that I hadn't been along to enjoy it with him. He came home from work as early as he could on Thursday, and we headed out for our weekend.

We did manage to leave town before the traffic got too bad. I helped navigate until we escaped the city. We had a long drive through the desert on a wide, two lane road. The shoulders are very wide, allowing slower vehicles to move over to allow faster vehicles to pass. As we drove, we noticed that many of the trucks drove with only one set of tires within the road lines, with the other tires and the majority of the vehicle traveling on the shoulder. I'm not sure if this is for convenience, or if it's a habit, or if there's some legal reason. We merely moved over when another vehicle was willing to fly past the speed monitoring cameras.

A view of the two lane road. The shoulders are much
wider than they appear in the picture.

Along this road, we noticed a variety of sand mitigation methods varying from rows of vegetation to a variety of fences. Some of it was familiar, looking like the hedge rows between fields or the snow fences along the highway in the winter. But having no idea how sand behaves, the use of these methods provided us with plenty of discussion.

We were talking about something else entirely, when this suddenly appeared on my side of the road:

From here, we turned off the main road onto a private two lane road, without shoulders.

It turns out that I haven't completely conquered my fear of twisting roads. Though to some extent I blame the variety of signs warning about the danger of driving off the road into the sand. Something I don't understand, given the wheel tracks that crisscrossed the road - no one else seemed to have a problem driving right off the road! But we did stop to take a few pictures:

This panorama shows the sun, which was nearly setting
as we arrived.

When we arrived at the check in desk, we were escorted outside onto a terrace to watch the setting sun. We were also given cool wash clothes, dates, and a yogurt and date drink:

The next morning, I took this picture out of the window in our room. I think it looks like a painting; it's almost unreal.

But speaking of art, I took this picture of the sand on our second night when we walked out to watch the sunset. One hallway in the resort was decorated with 3D art that looked very similar to this.

Weekend Away (Craig's perspective)

[A guest post from Craig]

Like our month in Dubai, I’d planned for a few weekend getaways. After all, we’re in the Middle East! There’s a lot of fascinating places to explore that aren’t that far away. Eight years ago I spent a weekend in Abu Dhabi doing some research for a client, visiting a few resorts. One of those resorts was so amazing I made a note that I’d have to go back some day. That’s where we went!

I got off work early Thursday afternoon, got gas on my way home, and picked up Laura and our overnight bag, and we headed out for a 2 ½ hour drive to the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, located in the UAE, parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen. You can read about it here.

We drove through the desert and watched the landscape change from typical Arabian desert to small sand dunes and then to larger and larger dunes that got progressively redder in color. We drove near the Liwa Oasis, a small town covering a large area in the state of Abu Dhabi that produces dates. Liwa is the start of the agricultural belt of the UAE, an area that runs through the interior desert through a belt of oases, to Al Ain, the second largest city in Abu Dhabi (and home of the local bottled water).

Once off the highway, we passed through a security gate and onto a two-lane road that went out into “no man’s land” into the dunes. The road was a little harrowing, but we stopped a couple times to take photos of the beautiful dunes. We finally arrived at the resort, literally out in the Empty Quarter and only a couple kilometers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The resort is called Qasr al Sarab, or Castle of Mirage. It’s designed to look like an ancient castle in the dunes. Driving across a “draw bridge” to the main entrance, we parked, registered, dropped off our bags, and valeted the car before being whisked to our room with a huge tub and a terrace larger than our room itself.

I’ll let Laura fill you in on her experiences at the resort, but for me it was a dream come true—being able to take her to a place I had experienced on my own (what a waste!) and then having a chance to bring her to experience it with me.

The dunes are beautiful and magical. It’s hard to imagine that “piles of sand” could be so gorgeous, but it is. It’s desolate and incredible. It’s hard to imagine people on foot (or even camel) navigating the Empty Quarter. It covers 650,000 sq./m. The daytime is hotter than the city of Abu Dhabi because it’s so far away from the water, but the nights are much, much cooler than the city. The stars and night sky were magical, too.

On Saturday (the end of our weekend) we packed up, checked out, and drove back “home” to Abu Dhabi, stopping at two grocery stores on the way (Waitrose, an expat grocery store from the UK, and Lulu, the hypermarket in our neighborhood mall).

It was a beautiful, relaxing, and amazing weekend.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

Getting groceries at a new store is always a bit of an adventure. We have a huge grocery store nearby, which carries plenty of familiar, international brands. The biggest struggle there is, well, finding what you are looking for. On my last trip, I took a few pictures to demonstrate.

Suppose you were looking for cough drops. You would, naturally, start in the candy aisle, right?

Perhaps you wanted sugar-free cough drops? Oh, those are next to the chocolate.

And avocados? You'll find those by the mangos, guava, and pomegranates. But I'm sure you knew that.

How about broccoli? In a bin by the watermelon and cantaloupe, of course!

The other difference in buying groceries here is, of course, the lack of pork. Our nearest store doesn't have a pork room. But we went across town to another store. I took a few pictures in the pork room, just to point out the things you probably wouldn't expect.

I'm sure you were expecting the chicharron (pork rinds). But why are the Pop Tarts in here? And why just cherry, strawberry, and hot fudge sundae? You can find other flavors in the ordinary part of the store.

Now here, you'll see more of the canned products you would expect - Spam, Bacon Bits, tinned sausages, pork & beans, refried beans. But also, canned spaghetti?

Taste of Home

You might remember from my adventures in Dubai that I had a few misadventures trying to cook there. So far, I am happy to report, cooking is much easier here. I'm on my own for lunch most days and I don't really like to go out. If I don't have leftovers, I like to have something easy for lunch. In Dubai, I tried several versions of ramen noodles, never really finding the perfect one.

On our first trip to the grocery store, when I was still very ill, we found my favorite brand of bouillon cubes. I wanted chicken bouillon because that's one of my comfort foods. At the time, our only option was to buy a package large enough that it might well last us into the next decade. The cubes we bought were made in Egypt, but I can't tell a difference from what I get in the States.

In addition to the cubes, I found some packaged soups made by the same company. I decided to try a couple when I was sick. These have quickly become my lunchtime staple. Now, I'll just have to find them at home!

For our weekend lunches, one of our favorite things to do at home is make up a cheese and charcuterie plate. We don't have a serving platter here, so we have to make do with a couple of dinner plates. But we were able to find a nice selection - just as good as home! We even found the same kind of crackers I get at home, and Atkins crackers for Craig (he doesn't like them as well as the wide variety of low carb crackers we've found at Whole Foods, but he's making them work).

Whenever Craig returns from an international trip, he craves Mexican food. I love making "taco bowls" at home, because we can customize them to our tastes. Craig's are always more spicy. I cook hamburger with taco seasonings and we put it over a bed of lettuce. We add tomatoes, avocados, onions, green onions, cheese and sour cream. Craig will add jalapeños and serranos. We've actually had this meal several times here already.

Toppings for our taco bowls (ignore the Nado's sauce I had out
for some reason), you can even see that we've found most of
our usual brands.

Another of Craig's favorites at home is something we call "pressed chicken". I sous vide chicken thighs and fry them in a cast iron skillet using a cast iron bacon press to flatten them. Then, I make a pan sauce with red wine and mushrooms. Craig will typically make cauliflower mash in the food processor. I don't have a sous vide, a food processor, or even a cast iron pan here. But I was able to fry chicken and make a pan sauce that we enjoyed over roasted cauliflower.  (For some reason, we didn't take a picture.)

Finally, I decided to make beef stroganoff from scratch, for the first time. After looking at some recipes on Pinterest, I plunged in. Midway through, I did wonder if trying this for the first time here was my best idea. But it turned out amazing! We enjoyed this over roasted cauliflower as well.

This is Craig's - you can see the black pepper on it.