Culture Shock - Israel Day 1

After spending the better part of 5 months in Abu Dhabi (including the previous, consecutive, 48 days), you might expect a post about reverse culture shock as we got back to America. But that was not the direction of our travel. Instead, we made our way to Tel Aviv, Israel.

We had been invited to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter in Israel. Being so close (geographically, at least), we were excited by this opportunity to visit another country and experience another culture. I had visited Israel as a teenager, but Craig had never been before. This was another rare opportunity - to visit someplace I had more familiarity (barely) with than he did.

First, I will point out that it is not possible to fly directly from Abu Dhabi to Israel for reasons that I will not go into here. We had booked our travel on this trip using Turkish Airlines, so our flight to Tel Aviv included a layover in Istanbul. We took a red-eye flight out of Abu Dhabi and arrived in Tel Aviv some 9 hours later.

We had been warned that Israeli passport control may take some time, particularly given our most recent trip and Craig's various passport stamps and visas. I do not clearly recall entering Israel on my previous trip because I had taken a bit too much dramamine on my first international flight. But I do remember the Israeli security in the airport leaving on that trip - in large part because my parents had varied responses to the question of whether our party had been together* throughout our trip, which had rather dramatic effects on the officers until the misunderstanding could be cleared up.

So we were prepared to be honest, direct, and patient. In the event, this proved to be largely unnecessary. When asked about previous trips to Israel, Craig said that I had been before but he had not. When I gave the date of my previous trip, the woman laughed and told me that didn't count because Israel had changed so much since then. Craig was asked whether his multiple trips to the UAE were for business or pleasure, but when he responded "business" there were no additional questions. She did say, in passing,** that she was surprised he had not asked her not to stamp his passport (as this could cause problems returning to certain countries), but Craig simply laughed and said that he "knew that she would not" because we had researched this issue.

Indeed, she did not stamp our passports. We were given instead a small piece of paper to keep with our passports until we left. I'm not sure if the photo is from my passport or from that day, as I put my hair in braids for both my passport picture and travel. I took a picture of my passport and card together:

We collected our multitude of bags and set out into the airport. I did have one moment of relief that we were not questioned about our four day stay in Israel with our accompanying six checked bags, two carry on bags, and two backpacks. Despite the obvious answer that we had recently been living out of our suitcases, I think this might, at least, have raised a few more questions.

It was a bit of a struggle to find a taxi that could accommodate all our bags, but we soon set off for our hotel. Traffic was far more like that in Los Angeles than what we had grown accustomed to in the UAE. That is, until we came upon the reason for the delay - a motorcycle was pulled over, not entirely on the shoulder for reasons that will become obvious in this description, because the driver was attempting to move a full sized refrigerator on the back. To make this scenario even more absurd, the appliance was strapped to the back of the motorcycle sideways, with the result that the vehicle was wider than it was long. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of this insanity as our driver maneuvered around it.

Not unexpectedly, our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel so early in the morning. We checked our bags with the bellhop and made our way to the breakfast buffet. I tried to sample as much as possible:

And I got the first of many wonderful lattes (we were at this hotel for only four breakfasts, but the staff knew our coffee and water orders on the second day):

We were fighting, not jetlag, but simple exhaustion. We had flown through the night, with little opportunity to sleep. We did manage to go out for lunch before collapsing in our room and taking naps.

One of the stories Craig had heard from my previous trip was about the falafel we had in Israel. My parents had taken my little brother and I to visit my sister, who was living and working in Israel at the time. We had arrived in Haifa, gotten checked into our hotel, and someone suggested that we should get something to eat. My sister asked if we would like to try falafel. To our great surprise, my father responded enthusiastically to this suggestion.

For those who don't know, my father is not known as an adventurous eater. As I recall this trip, my mother made and packed sandwiches for lunch each day and my dad frequently picked up something at McDonald's on our way back to the hotel in place of whatever the rest of us had eaten for dinner.

We arrived at the falafel stand and my sister eagerly explained the options available and made suggestions as to what we might like. In my memory, she ordered me a fairly plain version without any vegetables because I was at that point in life where any greenery is objectionable. My father patiently examined the offerings before he complained, "but where are the waffles?"

So, of course, we had to try falafel in Israel. Craig has never enjoyed the fried balls of ground chickpeas that we've tried in the States. But he is rather more adventurous about food than my father, so he was quite excited to give it a try. He found a highly rated falafel stand within easy walking distance of our hotel.

He loved it! So much, that we went back again another day. Pictured above is Craig's, as I enjoyed mine without pickles or peppers. Straying only slightly from my earlier experience, I did have some of the cabbage on mine.

*On one day of our trip, my younger brother had an upset stomach that prompted him and my mother to stay in the hotel while my father and I continued the planned sightseeing with my sister. One of my parents interpreted "been together" quite literally and said we had not been together the entire time. The other parent interpreted "been together" as something more along the lines of "no one disappeared without us knowing where they went" and said that we had been together the entire trip. This inconsistency in answers made us very glad the my sister had sent us to the airport with plenty of time to clear security before our flight.

**Given my previous experience and everything I have read about Israeli security, I do not actually believe that anything is said or asked "in passing" or by chance. Instead, I believe that his answer did not warrant further investigation.

Adventures in People Watching (with Statistics)

I've written about my fascination with women's clothing in this region before, but today I took that to a new level. I set out for the mall this morning with the intention of tallying the number of women I saw dressed in a variety of ways. I've estimated before that I thought about 60% of women covered their hair in public here. I wanted to see how my perception stood against more concrete numbers.*

Trying to ignore the heat, I walked over to the mall. Once there, I ordered a latte at Starbucks and found a table with a decent** view of the mall entrance. I've actually wanted to conduct this experiment since the first time I came out to Dubai. But on that trip, I was too overwhelmed to consider it. Since then, I've been a little nervous about recording these observations. But I decided the worst that might happen is that I'd be asked to stop, so I plunged in.

I thought it would be easiest to divide my count into two broad categories - those who were covering their hair and those who were not. Within each category, I had a few subcategories. For those who were covering their hair, I divided them into (1) those who were completely covered, including those with only eyes visible; (2) those wearing the typical local dress - an abaya and headscarf, with faces showing; (3) those wearing a headscarf and modest western dress; and (4) those wearing another "national costume." For those women not wearing a hijab, I made several categories going from the most modest (covering knees, elbows, and everything between) to the least (showing arms, shoulders, and knees). I also made separate note of anyone wearing leggings without a dress/shirt reaching the top of the knees, for...*reasons.

Over 50 minutes, starting just after 11 and continuing until noon, I took note of 366 women entering or passing me in the mall. Of them, 160 wore a hijab and modest clothing - 44%. Another 95 wore modest clothing covering their knees, shoulders, elbows and everything in between - 26%. An additional 88 had only their elbows showing - 24%. I saw only 3 women wearing leggings without a top that reached the knee - 0.82%.

Of those wearing a hijab, the overwhelming majority wore what I think of as "local" attire - an abaya and a headscarf that leaves their full face showing. Next most common was modest western attire. I'm sure I could have divided this into more categories, but I stuck with the things I could determine quickly and easily.

For the last 30 minutes, I also made note of those women who were not wearing a hijab but wore or carried a scarf large enough for such a purpose. Of the 112 women who entered, 8 of them (7.14%) had a scarf with them. I wish I had tracked this the entire time.

Because I made minor changes to my tracking, I made a second chart for my tallies after 11:30 AM. This lead me to another interesting observation. Before 11:30, 36% of the women I saw were wearing a hijab. After 11:30, 49% of the women I saw were wearing a hijab. I would like to track another day to see if this trend holds. Either way, it was not quite the 60% I had estimated.

*I also may have been motivated by an "argument" that Craig and I had, yesterday, over whether it was appropriate for me to go out in leggings.

**If I repeat this experiment, I might choose a different location. I was not able to see the entire entrance and my view was hindered by an enormous column.

Jet Lag or Migraine

I woke early on Monday. The combination of the early morning call to prayer and my jet lag has not been pretty. I know that I will be able to sleep through the call to prayer when I've adjusted, but that time has not yet arrived. I settled in on my "window seat" with a book and my tea and watched the sun come up.

When Craig left for work, I had a busy day planned for myself in the apartment. I started laundry - a chore that takes a disproportionate amount of my time here due to the small machine and lack of a functioning dryer. I planned to write my blog and do some other things, but I felt like everything was strangely challenging.

I thought that I was still struggling with the jet lag. I alternated between thinking that I was tired and believing that I was starving. I had a headache that prevented me from reading or writing. I put this down to the combination of jet lag and possible dehydration. I drank more water and made tea, but I should have known better.

It wasn't until after lunch and a swim that I finally gave in to the idea that a nap might help. I hate taking naps before I'm fully adjusted to the time because it seems to do more harm than good. I tried the window seat but couldn't get comfortable. I curled up on one of the beds in our guest room, but didn't like that either. I finally went into our bedroom, closed the black out curtains, and crawled into bed with my tshirt over my eyes. Only in that moment, having gotten myself into complete darkness and near silence, did I realize that my problem was not jet lag, but a migraine.

It's hard to explain (and honestly, somewhat had to comprehend myself), the lengths of self-delusion that I will go to when I have a migraine, particularly when I am alone. In the presence of anyone else, or even with a commitment to go and meet someone, I will know that I am fighting a migraine.

But alone, I can engage in a series of things that mitigate the pain and complications just enough that I can convince myself it is not a migraine but something else. I will position myself in such a way to avoid the most direct light. I will avoid turning on lights out of sheer "laziness" and because there is plenty of light for me to see what I'm doing. I will stay motionless to avoid the dizziness and help mitigate the nausea. I'll decide that any neck pain I'm having comes from the uncomfortable place I've chosen to sit for so long. I'll avoid anything that requires concentration for any reason I can think of. Without even the mundane sounds of another person to upset me, I won't notice how quiet I am taking care to be.

At best, this means that I lose an entire day to the migraine instead of terminating it with my rescue meds. But my rescue meds put me out for the day anyway. No, the real problem is that my rescue meds don't work as well if I let the migraine set in before I take them.

So after spending Monday in a migraine haze, taking my rescue medicine after dinner and spending the evening and night in a medicine induced near-coma, I woke up in a post-migraine daze on Tuesday just to have the migraine come roaring back. Another pill and another day lost. It's almost evening on Wednesday and I'm only just recovering from the migraine hangover that follows most of my migraines.

I really should know better.

Back to the Routine

I managed to stay awake Saturday afternoon, mostly by playing Sims 4. Craig claims that he never fell asleep, but I will say that he spent a remarkable amount of time laying on the sofa with his eyes closed. When he decided that he was done "resting his eyes", we ran some errands which gave us both a bit of a second wind. That carried us about through dinner to a respectable bedtime.

Sunday was Craig's first real day back to work, as that's the first day of the work week here. I decided that I would make my first trek over to the mall. Craig had agreed on an amount that I might spend on things for the apartment that, while not absolutely necessary, would make this stay more enjoyable. As I've discussed before, the apartment has everything we really need, so this amounts to things like a lemon juicer, a wooden spoon and a plastic spatula. (For reasons we cannot comprehend, the apartment is furnished with some nonstick pans, but all metal cooking utensils.)

At 10 AM, it was 97 degrees out, with a real feel of 110. I braved the heat and headed out. Perhaps because I was expecting pure misery, my walk over to the mall was not as bad as I had feared. But inside the mall, I started shivering. Those who know me, know that I do not get cold. Perhaps the air conditioning is really powerful...or perhaps it was simply the abrupt change in temperature.

Because I had braved such temperatures to get to the mall, I decided I would stay awhile. I wandered through a LUSH store, which had very similar products to those back home. A few of the scents were different, I think, at least compared to the last time I looked in the States.

I also browsed the Sephora. While the Sephora in the Dubai mall was about "normal" sized to my recollection, this one was rather tiny in comparison to those in the States. They had one full wall of fragrances and what appeared to be the complete collection of Sephora brand basic makeup - foundation and such. But from other brands, they only carried eye makeup - eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and more. In fact, I saw a range of brow products that I've never seen before - from eyebrow pomades to special brushes and other tools (granted, I don't spend that much time in Sephora, but how much makeup do you put on your eyebrows?).

Eventually, I decided that I would splurge and visit the pedicure place that I had gone to before. I was able to get right in and get my toenails painted, which was great. The only thing I didn't think about was how the lotion they put on would interact with my flip flops. So I slipped and slid my way down to Lulu to find a few cooking utensils and some groceries we had forgotten.

When I arrived at Lulu, it was just starting to get busy. There were still plenty of carts and I didn't have any trouble navigating the aisles (excepting that caused by my lotion covered shoes, that is). But I must have spent too much time comparing lemon juicers - as you would only expect in this store, the five different types were not actually displayed in the same location - because by the time I went to check out the lines were as long as I have seen. Given the number of school age children, either summer vacation had started or it was a school holiday for Eid.

Stepping outside with my bags, I discovered the true magnitude of my mistake with the pedicure. It had not gotten any cooler outside. The heat, combined with the lotion, made me fear losing my shoes with every step. And these temperatures do not create a place you want to lose a flipflop and step on the asphalt. Even after I was safely back in the hotel, I wondered if I should have gotten a taxi. In the future, I will at least wear sandals that have a heel strap!

I made dinner and Craig got home at a reasonable time to eat. We struggled a bit to stay awake. I gave in earlier than Craig. I haven't been able to shake waking up at the first call to prayer.

Adventures in Jet Lag

I did my best to stay up last night, managing to stay up until about 9:30. Even so, I woke up just after midnight, again at 1:30, again around 3:15, and one final time at the 4:02 call to prayer. This last time, I woke up so hungry that I knew I would not be able to fall asleep again.

I decided to get up and make a snack. I made my herbal tea, without caffeine, hoping that I would be able to go back to sleep. But neither the snack nor the tea made me sleepy and before long I heard Craig was up as well.

He was planning to go to work for a few hours this morning. Finding himself awake with no chance of going back to sleep, he decided to go in earlier than he had planned. I made him coffee and attempted to find him something to eat for breakfast. (He spent the week after I left eating the rest of his food, so more of my shelf stable goods were in our storage bins.)

I switched to my English breakfast tea and settled in on my window seat with my computer. I spent the morning writing blog posts and responding to emails related to my ancestry research. I've had such good luck with that here and making discoveries can be such a joy. I think there's something about knowing that everyone I am writing to is probably asleep that makes me more patient while waiting for a response. And we are planning a combined ancestry search and cruise trip with my parents next year, so I have a couple areas to focus my research.

Around 8:30, Craig texted complaining that he wasn't sure if he was hungry or wanted a nap. I told him that I felt the same but had decided I was hungry because that was something I could fix. I made myself some chicken alphabet soup. By the time it was ready, I wasn't even sure that I was hungry, but I ate it just in case.

I took a bath and got dressed. I felt like I was very busy this morning, but in retrospect, I don't think that I actually did that much.

At 11:00, Craig texted to say that he was on his way home. We debated whether I would change - I was wearing jeans and a tshirt - and I decided that I would just moments before the housekeeping staff came and changed my mind. They were remarkably quick, however, so I did end up changing before I went downstairs to meet Craig at the car.

I'm still not used to this new rental car. I hesitated some before going outside because I couldn't see Craig well enough to be sure that it was him and I didn't recognize the car. But also, have I mentioned the heat? It was hot when we left, but it's only hotter now. I really don't appreciate these temperatures.

Craig drove over to the mall. We had already discussed how his work schedule had destroyed our plan to go to Lulu earlier today. Traffic seemed lighter, but we refused to discuss it for fear of jinxing it. Instead, we discussed how hungry we were and how it felt like we had already been awake for an entire day and we should be going to dinner.

We hadn't discussed meals or made a real grocery list, so we decided to start that as we walked through the mall. Craig was adding things to the list and I had no idea where the Starbucks was, so I'll leave you to imagine how we looked walking through the mall.

I finally told Craig that I didn't know where the Starbucks was and I needed him to look up from his phone and help me find it. He looked up and exclaimed, "It's right here. Or this is where I thought it was."

It was not visible from where we stood. He pointed to a pastry shop, claiming it had been there before. I mentioned that this was the entrance I had used when walking over from the apartment and that particular pastry shop had always been there. I remembered there being a coffee shop around the corner, but I wasn't sure it was Starbucks. We walked around the corner to check - it was the Starbucks. Jet-lag has left the two of us wandering around like two people sharing half a brain.

We took Craig's coffee to the counter and asked them to grind it for a metal cone filter.  They started on that and then asked where we had gotten it because the packaging was unfamiliar. We had brought it from Los Angeles because the type Craig prefers isn't sold here. We decided to order coffee as well, hoping that the caffeine would help.

With the coffee in hand and something of a grocery list, we made our way back to Lulu. There were shopping carts available, which we took as a good sign (when it gets busy, they run out of carts and sometimes even baskets). We made our way through the grocery store as if we didn't have a list (we did) and had never been in this store before (we've been here many times) - two people, half a brain. We finally made our way to the checkout. The lines had gotten fairly long, but not as long as we've seen them in the past. Leaving, we had to push our way through crowds coming in and I noticed that they had run out of shopping carts. We had made it just in time!

We came home and debated whether we should have lunch or take a nap. We decided on lunch. We made up a plate of charcuterie and cheese:

Craig had even found grilling cheese! We decided against having wine with our meal because of the potential that it would put us both to sleep. Craig kept debating taking a nap. I am anti-nap because I haven't had good luck with naps and jet-lag here. No matter how many alarms I set, if I take a nap, my body decides it is night time and refuses to wake up.

I settled in to write this post while Craig was working on his computer. It's almost 3:00 and he's laying on the sofa doing his best impression of a person who is asleep. I refuse, so I'm going to try playing a game for awhile. Wish me luck!

Back to Abu Dhabi (Home Again, Home Again)

Packing for Abu Dhabi did not take long this time. We had a small collection of things on the desk in my craft room - primarily vitamins and specific toiletries we had ordered - waiting to be packed. And we had a small list of items we wanted to remember to bring with us. We had left two medium sized bags and Craig's carry on bag in Abu Dhabi, filled with clothing.

We had a few oversized toiletry items, so we packed my carry on bag to check. We packed Craig's international carry on bag (a tiny, four-wheeled spinner that meets international carry on size requirements) as an overnight bag in case we missed our connection in Istanbul again. My first packing attempt included a few extras, but those had to be removed to get the bag under the 7kg weight limit imposed by Turkish Airlines. With all the pill bottles and things, I had to pack a small duffle bag, which we checked as well. I hope that we will have used enough of those things that I can pack everything, including the duffle, into the suitcases for our return.

While Craig and I were busy preparing the house to leave, Mallarie brought over lunch from Spitz. She remarked upon how little we had packed for a two month trip. But, of course, we had left so much in Abu Dhabi that we didn't need to take much with us. After emptying the fridge and taking out the trash one last time, we called a Lyft to go to the airport.

We'd had some trouble checking in for our flight online (no great surprise there, in the four roundtrips we've taken, I don't think a single leg has allowed us to check in online without any problems) so we didn't have seats together for our flight to Istanbul. When we checked in at the airport, we were told to check at the gate for seats together. When we asked at the gate, we were told we should have done that during check in.

Turkish Airlines - where customer service is not really a thing.

After the typical (for Turkish Airlines) curfluffle of boarding, we were able to switch seats with another passenger so that we were able to sit together. Some highlights of Turkish Airlines service:

• Craig asked for champagne to celebrate our anniversary. (Yes, we spent our anniversary on a 13 hour flight, why do you ask?) You might have thought no one had ever asked for champagne before.
• The switch for the cabin lights must have been in an awkward location - there's no other explanation for how often the lights were dimmed, brought up, dimmed again, and changed...all before dinner service began.
• We "enjoyed" the longest dinner service I've ever experienced on a plane. Honestly, I don't know what was happening in the galley. Food kept appearing, but in far more courses that described in the menu. But drinks, even water, were nearly impossible to get.
• At some point in the middle of dinner, they suddenly decided to offer us more champagne. We had both switched to different drinks and they had already removed our glasses.
• But in the theme of removing glasses, my glass of port was not picked up until landing. The half filled glass sat between us while we slept, remained through breakfast service and clean up, and miraculously managed not to spill during some turbulence that woke me after I'd gone back to sleep.
• Upon landing, they announced that we should remain in our seats to allow a medical team to remove the "person having medical issues." But it soon became obvious that they wanted business class passengers to get off before they dealt with this medical issue, whatever that was. I can only hope they did manage that.
• Another passenger asked how far his gate was from our gate and was told "the ground crew will help you with that."
• Another passenger was hoping to make a tight connection to Berlin, but she was also told that "the ground crew will handle that."
• We didn't bother to ask about our tight connection - we merely hit the terminal at a run.

The ground crew provided no information about our flight or others. This is our third time making this particular connection - the first resulted in a 24 hour stay in Istanbul and I made it the second time because an employee took me back on the bus and drove me to another part of the airport. This time, we got off the bus and ran while trying to follow the signs. Luckily, we've now spent enough time in the Istanbul airport to make sense of the signs. Or maybe that's just me - the arrows aren't quite right, but I have figured them out to a certain degree.

As it turned out, we made it to our gate before boarding began. They were taking tickets, but the jetway wasn't actually open. We milled about for some time after having our tickets scanned, waiting for the door to open. 

Business class on this flight was practically empty - just us and one other lady. Perhaps because of this, the flight attendants took several "breaks" during dinner service. Or perhaps that's just the Turkish Airlines customer service we have come to expect. Oddly, they did not ask us for our choice of entrees before service began, but somehow they were able to serve hot entrees immediately after we made our selection. Lucky guess? Or had they heated up a few of each because they had extras?

Other than a touch of excitement during take off - we must have hit turbulence or a microburst, because the plane wobbled most distressingly just as we left the ground - the flight was uneventful. We did end up switching seats when my wine glass leapt off the tray and landed upright on the floor. The flight attendant stopped by to ask if everything was alright and did bring us a single wash cloth to deal with the spill. Then he suggested we move to another aisle because business class was so empty. It wasn't until some time later (Craig was asleep) that he finally returned to clean up any wine that hadn't evaporated.

We did not have high hopes of getting our checked bags in Abu Dhabi, given the tight connection in Istanbul, but we had to wait and see. Both our bags actually made it! So we collected our things and made our way to the rental car counter. With our bags in the car, we were on our way to our "temporary third home" - our apartment at the Marriott Downtown.

We arrived to find that we had already been checked in by someone from the office. He had also brought over the suitcases and storage containers left there. (Most likely because we arrived on a holiday weekend and this saved him having to go into the office the following day to meet us, but I don't appreciate the effort any less.) With all the suitcases and bins, it did appear that we were actually moving in here.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to us, we have a two bedroom apartment this time around. It is very similar to our previous apartment here, except that it's on the other side of the building. So I don't have a view of the mall and the busy intersection from my "window seat". But we do have more furniture, including a chaise longue in front of the window - so I didn't have to take apart the sectional to create my window seat. We've also got a table and chairs both in the living room area and in the kitchen. And, of course, we have a second bedroom with its own full bathroom, which will be great because we have guests coming a couple times during this trip. It'll be nice to offer them something more than a sofa and half-bath in the living room.

We ordered room service for our first meal here, because we had arrived at the apartment sometime after two a.m. Not being very hungry, we decided we would split an order of butter chicken. Being very thirsty and unsure when we would get a water dispenser, we ordered two liters of still water and one liter of sparkling water.

When our order arrived, Craig had just finished his shower (so the water was off, but he was hidden). The man took a long look around the apartment, taking in the fact that it is a two bedroom apartment, with enough suitcases and boxes for an entire family, then looking back at the single service on his cart. After a moment, he asked, "You are traveling alone?"

I could only laugh, though I did manage to tell him that my husband and I were planning to split the meal as we weren't that hungry. He set out the single set of silverware with one glass...and three liters of water. The rice and butter chicken are in serving containers, but they did not send up a plate. But, we have a full kitchen so we were able to easily make up for the lack.

I am a little disappointed, though, that I didn't think to order appropriately to provide certain "extras" that I had taken for granted in our last apartment. It will take a bit to collect such things again.

Home Again - Kansas edition

After a week in Los Angeles, Dani and I were heading to Kansas. That, of course, is my second home. Dani and I had moved our flight so that we didn't miss Craig entirely. With our original schedule, we would have flown out Thursday morning when Craig arrived Thursday afternoon. Instead, we had a couple of days together before we went to Kansas.

My mom and my sister, Ann, picked us up at the airport. We had lunch together in Kansas City, then we dropped Ann and Dani off at their house. Mom and I made our way to her house, where Dave and family were waiting for us. I stayed one night at my mom's house before braving the construction dust and moving into my own house. After so many nights away from home, I just wanted my bed.

Craig and I, perhaps ridiculously, have the same bed in Los Angeles and Kansas. We recently found a perfect pillow* and Craig had sent one of those to the house in Kansas as well. We've fallen in love with the bamboo sheets my sister-in-law recommended, so Craig sent a set of those to the farmhouse while I was there. Now I only need to find the perfect comforter** solution and my bedroom will be finished.

Of course, the best part of visiting the farmhouse is that it is always Christmas there. In addition to the items Craig sent, I found a number of things we had ordered for the house after our last trip. (We have a habit of doing this - ordering the things we've missed just as we leave.) Given the length of time between trips, we often forget what we've ordered, so opening the boxes is something of a Christmas surprise every time.

The first surprise - a box cutting knife (shown here with the knife I had used to open all the boxes):

Next up, a small strainer (purpose still unclear).

Finally, a gift from friends:

I was thrilled to see the progress on my den turned playroom, though it isn't as close to finished as I would like. But mom and I went to Toys R Us, shopping for a birthday party, so I picked up a couple things on sale for my new playroom. It will have a lego theme, so I got this storage bin (you can also see the markers I picked up on sale, because, well...sale...markers...).

My trip was a little short, but it always feels that way. I was able to catch up with several friends, but I missed some others. There's never quite enough time for everything and everyone that I want to see. But we are going back for a longer stay in August, which I am very much looking forward to.

*The perfect pillow for Craig and I is, in fact, a single Casper pillow taken apart. Craig likes to sleep with only the inner pillow, while I prefer only the outer pillow.

**In Los Angeles, we switch between a summer-weight down comforter (for winter) and a light quilt (for summer). Given the difference in weather between Kansas and Los Angeles, I doubt the same solution will work both places.

Home Again - Los Angeles

My trip from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles was about as uneventful as you might expect some thirty hours of travel to be. Craig dropped me off at the airport. Turkish Airlines provided the expected level of customer service (that is, primarily, figure it out yourself and take care of it yourself). The lounge in Istanbul was crowded when I arrived, but it cleared out some during my seven hour layover. A few highlights:

When we landed in Istanbul, the woman sitting across the aisle from me took off her seatbelt before the seatbelt light went off. We had not yet reached the gate; I could see that we were still some distance away. When the plane jolted forward to the gate, the woman literally fell out of her seat. We were in business class, so there was some actual legroom. And this lady fell completely out of her seat and ended up on the floor. I've never seen such a thing, but I guess there's a reason they tell you not to remove your seatbelt before the light goes out!

Walking through the airport in Istanbul, I noticed a number of people who seemed to be walking very quickly. While I vaguely wondered where they were off to in such a rush - "were they late for a flight? I thought the gates were in the other direction" - I suddenly realized they weren't pulling ahead of me. They weren't actually walking any faster than I was, as I meandered toward the lounge. This was my first moment of reverse culture shock - I had become so accustomed to how slowly most people walk in the UAE.

Arriving in Los Angeles, I had my second moment of reverse culture shock. So many of the people I saw outside the airport were practically naked! Perhaps we were having a warm spell or maybe everyone was dressed for summer vacation, but I haven't seen that much uncovered skin in months!

I also found myself a little bemused by the sameness of attire in Los Angeles. That might seem odd, if you imagine people in this region clothed in identical black abayas. But the reality in the UAE is actually far more varied. There are plenty of women in black abayas (and men in white dishdashas), but even among those there is as much variety in detail as you will see among jeans and t-shirts in the States.  More striking, though, is the variety of national costumes people wear in this region. There is similarity in the level of modesty, but not the color or even general shape of the clothing here. Perhaps it is merely familiarity with the clothing in the States, but everything looked so similar.

It was nice to be home, but the week ahead was quite full. Dani flew out to join me for a couple of concerts. We were able to go to a few of our favorite restaurants, as well. There were plenty of household chores to keep me busy - the mail, even with Mal going through it as it came in, was incredible. But I was able to find some time to catch up with friends and family before it was time for my next trip...

Adventures in Packing - Preparing to Leave

Craig and I had planned to leave Abu Dhabi on May 16 to spend about a month at home before returning. Because we would be coming back, we had planned to pack up the majority of our clothing and all of our household goods, to be stored for our return. On our return, however, we will need to be able to pack everything into suitcases for a trip home that includes a several day stop in Tel Aviv. I had some complicated suitcase-management planned.

Unfortunately, some schedule changes meant that Craig would be flying home a week after me. As a result, I would not be able to pack everything for storage. I would not even be here, with all the suitcases, to adjust packing at the last minute. Instead, I packed everything up, took pictures and made detailed lists, and upacked everything again. I left Craig with overly complicated directions to ensure that everything would work.

I packed his suitcase in layers, so he could see where everything would fit. Of course, after doing this, I realized that even if he couldn't make everything fit into the suitcase, he could toss any excess into the bins with the household goods. I had proved that everything would fit into the suitcase, so I was covered for our August trip.

 

Craig had purchased several storage bins for our household goods. I made a checklist of things to put in each bin, so that everything would be organized. Of course, to make this list I had to put all the things into each bin to make sure things would fit...and then I had to unpack everything again so that Craig wasn't forced to live out of boxes. Here's one side of the checklist:

Craig sent me this picture of everything packed up before taking it to storage (only the three suitcases will ultimately return with us):

I probably went to more work than was absolutely necessary. We weren't even gone for a month. And I have confidence in my ability to pack things when we finally return home.

A Quiet Weekend in Muscat

Craig left work early so we could take a late afternoon flight to Muscat. We took a taxi from our hotel here because parking at the airport is rather expensive. We arrived early, considering the flight to Oman to be an international flight.

We needn't have bothered. The Abu Dhabi airport was practically empty when we arrived. Of course, I hadn't thought that our carry on bags might be weighed, so it probably was good that we had the extra time. Our carry on bags were limited to 7kg. I had packed in our typical carry on bags - Craig's Tumi and my TravelPro. My bag was nearly full, because I had tucked several last minute items into it, but Craig's bag still had plenty of space left. I hadn't even packed particularly tightly in either bag, wanting to leave some space in case we did pick up some souvenirs.

Our two bags totaled 23 kg. Because it was just a weekend trip, I had not brought my backpack. Craig had his backpack, but they did not weigh it when we tried to go through security. I had to take a few things out of my bag - my journal, kindle, and medicine - and tuck it into his backpack for the flight. When we checked our two bags at the counter, they did weigh his backpack. With my additions, it now weighed 11kg. The lady kindly tagged his backpack as acceptable to carry on despite the weight.

Given those amounts, I'm not sure that even with my backpack I would have been able to distribute the weight to let us carry everything on. If international flights remain so diligent about carry on weight, I'm going to need to invest in a scale. Craig is a good judge of when a bag weighs more than 50 pounds, but 7 kg? Alternatively, I need to invest in much, much smaller bags.

We got our bags checked and headed to the lounge. That was a blessing because I had eaten a very light lunch earlier and was getting hungry. The snack there was just what I needed.

The flight was very quick. I used the two nose-sprays from my doctor, for both take off and landing, and my ears did not give me any real trouble. Flying into Muscat, we could see the stark difference in building height between Muscat and Abu Dhabi. (Muscat has strict limitations on new construction.)

Once again, the airport felt empty. We decided it must be the time of day we were flying. But in reality, it probably had more to do with the fact that the airport in Muscat is brand new...by which I mean not really finished. We got our bags and set out.

Stepping outside the airport was a bit of a surprise. The transition was an odd one - the architecture lulls you into thinking that you are still inside, but the temperature says otherwise! We easily found a taxi and set out for our hotel. The wide, nearly empty, roads from the airport told the story of its new construction.

Checking into our hotel, we learned that it had been open just a month. It was beautiful, but we did encounter some "new opening" issues - getting the wrong room and such. Craig took this picture of me in the lobby:

We got settled in our room and set out for dinner. We'd decided to eat in the hotel that first night. What we did not anticipate, however, was the challenge of finding the restaurant - a combination of "new opening" and really strange design. We followed the signs toward "restaurants" but we were only able to find the buffet. We finally asked the hostess there for the other restaurants.

She walked us through the buffet - the entire buffet - past all the tables and multiple food stations and open "show" kitchens. Near the end, she pointed past the dessert station and told us to continue on and then make a right. We were joined on this strange venture by another man who was looking for the same restaurant.

But as we followed her directions, we only found the Indian restaurant, not the one we were looking for. The unknown fellow asked the host at the Indian restaurant where the other place was and we tagged along. The host took us further down the hall, outside, past their outside seating, to the restaurant we were looking for. The hostess there was very confused that we were not one single party, but we quickly got that sorted out.

Dinner was good. But who designed a hotel so that you have to walk THROUGH the buffet to reach the other restaurants? Never mind that getting to the buffet requires that you either cross the pool area, which was sweltering even in the evening, or make your way to lobby floor, cross the lobby, and go back down to the buffet level. The architecture is striking, but I'm confused about the design of this place.

The next day, we got a picture of the pool area we crossed to reach the buffet. I love infinity edge pools, especially pretty ones like this that look out into the ocean. But it was so, so hot. Even used to Abu Dhabi temperatures, we were melting. It was too warm to do anything more than take a picture.

Later that afternoon, we did spend some time in a pool on the other side of the hotel. That pool was not nearly as pretty, but it did get shade in the late afternoon. Finally, as the sun went down, we decided to make our way to the Muttrah Souk.

First, a picture of the buildings we saw along the road:

You can see how much smaller and more traditional they are compared to the buildings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These buildings were opposite the corniche, which here would be prime real estate (for all I know, it is in Muscat as well, but they can't build enormous sky scrapers there). Craig also got a picture of the royal yachts. Yes, they almost look like cruise ships. But no, they are not.

Here we are at the Souk:

We spent a fair bit of time there, wandering the side alleys of shops because I'd read that most tourists never made it down those. Craig frequently stopped to take pictures of signs in case we got lost, but every side trip circled back to the main strip. We didn't get lost, but we did walk the same path a few times. I think I held up remarkably well in the heat - we only had to stop once to find a bottle of water. And I tolerated the sales people - that just isn't my thing at all.

We returned to the hotel for the evening. We had another adventure getting to the Indian restaurant for dinner. This time, we struck out from the lobby. We stepped outside, into the still fantastic heat, and made our way down a long set of steps (following the directions I'd overheard given to another patron in the lobby). From this side, we walked down the street, past where we had eaten the night before, past the outdoor seating for the Indian restaurant, and inside to the hostess station. Initially, we couldn't get a table inside so the hostess took us to the buffet. But before we had settled in there, she returned to offer us a table. We had a very enjoyable dinner.

The next day, we requested a late check out and lounged about the hotel. Craig had some work to keep him busy, of course. Our options were limited at the hotel, so after a not-at-all satisfying lunch-snack, we decided to go to the airport. But the airport was worse! I mentioned before that it was brand new? There was hardly anything open there. We sat in a coffee shop until we could check our bags. We visited the lounge, but found it disappointing. The only food on offer in the terminal was fast food. We had a second snack and made our way to the gate. It is a pretty airport. Perhaps when more things are open it will be a nice airport.

Preparing for Muscat, Oman

I'm not sure exactly how we ended up in Muscat, Oman for the weekend. We needed to make a "border run" - a trip outside the UAE in order to renew our visas. Many people will drive to the border, park briefly, make a u-turn, and drive home, which takes about five hours, depending on the lines. Others will choose to take a weekend trip outside the country. We decided the one hour flight to Muscat and a weekend getaway sounded like fun.

Craig picked our hotel based on an article he had seen about hotels with striking architecture. He booked our flights and arranged our visas for Oman. Then, he got overwhelmingly busy at work and was unable to do any further planning. He asked me to do some research before the trip.

Perhaps you remember the detailed spreadsheet of activities, including opening times and pricing options, that I created for my trip to London with my sister and company. Or perhaps the more recent, but similarly detailed, optional itinerary I created for my trip to San Francisco with Court and the girls. I do enjoy researching a location or a route, creating lists and spreadsheets, drawing up maps, and making all sorts of plans. 

This probably comes from childhood memories of travel with my family - my mom always got the appropriate AAA guidebook and maps before a trip. She plotted out the journey and any important stops. I have one particularly vivid memory of my mom recalculating and rewriting an entire afternoon of stops on a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon because one of my siblings overstayed the allotted time at a rest stop! With a family of seven, it's a wonder this didn't happen more often.

My plans are never as settled as that. When I travel, I tend to plan with lots of options. I won't do everything that I've researched, of course, but I will have a variety of activities for any possible mood, energy level, or budget situation. 

But if you expect something like that from this trip, you will be sorely disappointed. If you consider those two trips, you might notice one striking similarity - Craig did not take those trips. (You might also notice that both of those trips only had female travelers, but I didn't notice that until just now.) 

When Craig and I travel, our preparation is markedly different. He usually asks me if there is anything in particular that I would like to see at our destination. Sometimes I'll do a bit of research to see if there is something, or I'll tell him if I have something in mind. We will, without fail, visit that place. (See, for example, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which we managed to visit over our accidental 24 hour layover, even with my illness. And that, I was only fascinated by from playing Civilization games years ago.)

Often, I will research a few particular issues before a trip. I might look at weather or dress code for my own packing. I often look at health issues with some interest, as I tend to be more concerned about such things than Craig is with his frequent travels. Sometimes, Craig will ask me to look into a particular issue - such as how much cash one might need in Cuba.

In contrast to my own travels, I typically find myself immersed in more research after a trip I've taken with Craig. I love to pick up random novels when we visit different countries, if I can find them in English. I enjoy that glimpse into another culture that feels more real after visiting. And I'm a sucker for the historical fiction type novels sold in gift shops around the world, though usually Craig will order them for my kindle.

But back to this requested research. I don't think that I fully understood what was needed. I approached it from Craig's typical request of "what would YOU like to see" while we are there. I looked at websites and blogs and reviews. I compiled a short list of "the things to do in Muscat". And it was a short list: visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (the biggest in the world prior to the construction of the Grand Mosque here in Abu Dhabi), visit the Muttrah Souk, stroll the Corniche, tour a fort, and visit two museums. On this list, nothing stood out to me in particular to earmark as a "must see" from my perspective.

I did note that most of the websites I looked at mentioned that if you had more than a day to spend in Muscat, you would want to spend the additional time on day trips outside the city. Those day trips consisting mostly of activities typical in the region, I did not imagine that Craig would be interested. He had suggested that he might enjoy a quiet weekend, recovering from a cold, and it seemed that we were heading in that direction.

I moved on to the hotel website, which listed exactly the same activities I had found in my research. I was a bit frustrated, thinking I could have saved myself the time. But even if I had looked their first, I probably would not have believed there were so few options.

It was only as we were packing Thursday morning that I realized how little research Craig had been able to do of his own. Everything I had read said that Oman was more conservative that Abu Dhabi, specifically that men should not plan to wear shorts. I had read a bit about the currency and taxis and other such things, as well. At Craig's request, I compiled a second email summarizing things of this nature...not that they were entirely accurate to our experience, as you'll see in the next post.

25 Hours

After a very relaxing weekend at home (read that: a weekend during which I did absolutely nothing but binge watch NCIS), I was ready to pack up and head back to Abu Dhabi. I'd spent a couple days gathering things to pack and running last minute errands. Here are my packed bags, waiting by the door:

I might have a favorite color.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, L.A. time, I called an Uber. It was 1:30 in the morning, in Abu Dhabi. Inexplicably, the vehicle that arrived to pick me up was a Toyota Tacoma. I've never had a pickup truck as an Uber before. But the driver was very nice.

I arrived at the airport and checked my duffle bag. I proceeded through security with my backpack and my rolling bag. I had a change of clothes and all our refill medications packed in the rolling bag. With all my vitamins, this amounts to quite a few bottles, as you can see:

My flight to Abu Dhabi was the same one we took several weeks ago, with the tight connection in Istanbul. I kept an anxious eye on the clock, hoping that my departure would not be delayed. Soon enough, it was time to go! I made my way to the gate, boarded, and got settled in.

Still watching the clock, I had a new worry when a young couple, with an infant, settled in across the aisle from me. The baby was so little that he wasn't yet holding up his head. I could only hope he would sleep through the flight. Ultimately, the couple swapped places with other passengers so they could sit in seats that had an attachment for a bassinet. As far as I could tell from this new location, the baby did sleep through most of the flight.

We took off a few minutes after our scheduled time. But at this point, all I could do was hope for the best. Dinner began with nuts and a small selection of appetizers:

The second course was appetizers I selected from a cart - soup, artichokes, eggplant, watermelon and cheese. The soup was really good. There were a number of other things on the cart, but I didn't want to ask for everything.

For my main, I had selected the beef option. It was dry enough that I actually smeared some of the butter from my bread plate onto it, but after the butter melted in, it was perfectly fine.

For dessert, I opted for the cheese plate, as I typically do because I'm never sure of the ingredients.

Dinner service took a long time, but I read my book and watched a couple television shows. After dinner, I went to sleep.

I slept for about four hours before waking up. I didn't feel great when I woke up, but I figured I was still fighting the touch of a stomach bug from the weekend. I drank some water and went back to sleep. When I woke up another four hours later, I knew I had a migraine.

With just over two hours left, they began serving breakfast. We had filled out cards selecting our breakfast at the beginning of the flight. Breakfast began with this fruit platter:

But after nibbling on a slice of kiwi, I knew that food wasn't going to be an option. With so little time left in the flight and a tight connection in Istanbul, I couldn't risk taking a migraine pill. Instead, I asked the flight attendant to take my tray away and I curled back up with both my sweatshirt and my blanket covering my eyes. I did fall asleep again, which is unusual for me.

During the last thirty minutes of the flight, I packed up absolutely everything I had out. Usually, I will keep my kindle and a few other things to entertain myself with during landing. But I didn't want to risk leaving anything and I knew my migraine was making things fuzzy. With the headache, I couldn't read anyway.

We landed in Istanbul just ten minutes late. This left me with an hour to make my connection. I was feeling reasonably good about this timeline. But I'd forgotten that we would not taxi to a gate, but to a bus. I got off the plane and onto the bus. At the bus gate, I got off the bus to hear a uniformed employee shouting for "Abu Dhabi passengers".

I skewed out of the crowd over to him. He told me to get back on the bus. I waited until everyone had exited and climbed back onto the bus. He got on with me. We were the only people in the bus. He said something about the Abu Dhabi gate being on the other side of the airport.

The bus drove us around to another gate. I got off, following the employee into the building. We surprised the man working at that gate; he clearly wasn't expecting anyone to enter. The employee I was following shouted something at him that included "Abu Dhabi" and we walked past.

Up two escalators and through several hallways, he deposited me at my gate. The sign was flashing "last call". There were perhaps six people waiting ahead of me to have their boarding passes scanned. Outside, a bus was completely full with another handful of people standing outside the bus. By the time my passport was checked and my boarding pass scanned, that bus had left and the few of us were boarding another bus. We waited for several minutes, but only three more passengers came after me - all of them were out of breath from running.

The bus took us out to our airplane. I boarded and found my seat. Business class on this flight was only about half full. I got a glass of water and took my migraine pill. I'd told Craig my plan. I hoped the five hour flight would be long enough that I could function again by the time I needed to go through customs.

I curled up with the sleeve of my sweatshirt pulled over my eyes. A flight attendant took my water glass and threw a blanket over me. After we took off, another flight attendant tried to show me the menu. I just shook my head at her; the migraine pill was in full effect.

She suggested I move to another seat, "away from the baby," if I wanted to sleep. I groggily agreed and she moved me back two rows, as far from the toddler on this flight as possible. As a bonus, I got two extra pillows because I'd taken the pillows from my row. I curled up and dozed through the entire flight. I can't say that I slept, because I kept starting awake and I frequently had to change position.

With about thirty-five minutes left in the flight, I finally woke up. One of the flight attendants came back and asked me if he could get me anything. I remember staring blankly at him, trying to figure out what exactly he was offering. Finally, I asked for some water so he would go away.

Getting off the plane was a bit of a challenge. Once more, I had to make my way down a set of stairs to a waiting bus. My migraine pill made the stairs even more of a challenge than the full blown migraine had done. But I managed and found my way to passport control.

I'd forgotten to ask Craig which line I was supposed to pick and I only vaguely remembered coming in last time, sick from Istanbul. Naturally, I picked the wrong line. I should have gone through e-gates, but instead went through the normal line. By the time I realized my mistake, the line for e-gates was longer than my current position in the other line.

I knew Craig was waiting for me, which did not make me any more patient. Queue management was sketchy, with security opening new lanes all the time and funneling the waiting people into those lines. It was frustrating, but I kept an eye on the e-gates line. While I'm certain I would have gotten through there quicker if I'd made that choice from the start, I'm also fairly confident that by the time I'd gone back I would have finished at about the same time.

Regardless, I still needed to get my bag. And, as it turned out, that was an even longer wait that passport control had been. I waited at the baggage carousel for over thirty minutes, until the slow trickle of bags stopped. At that point, I had to return to the baggage desk to fill out a form. I was told that my bag was still in Istanbul (no great surprise). It would come on the same flight the following day and they would deliver it to my hotel.

By now, it was 2:00 in the morning. When Craig paid for parking, we discovered that he had been at the airport for over two hours. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 2:30, a full twenty-five hours since I left the house in Los Angeles.

The next day, my much traveled, extra tagged bag arrived at our hotel:

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.

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.