I feel like I just skipped Saturday

Whew! We made it. That was fun. It's funny how things have a way of working out. By the time I left the office and got home to wait for our car, the delays into LGA were basically in the red zone to the point that I was not sure we would make our connection. So, when we got to the airport yesterday (I think it was yesterday), I tried to get us on an earlier flight to LGA that might have also been delayed so that we could get there at about the same time as originally planned. The Delta folks were awesome and they actually wound up changing our booking completely to fly direct to JFK (which had no delays, go figure). That obviously relieved all of my stress and I was able to enjoy the start of our long awaited vacation.

The flight to JFK was uneventful and we were able to check into our Emirates flight to Dubai with a couple hours to spare. Plenty of time to find a place to have a bite of dinner. We wound up having some pizza that basically just amounted to a "maintenance meal." After dinner, Michele retired to the business class lounge and we didn't see her until we landed in Dubai (since she had her own jetway).

This was my first time on an A380, and my first on Emirates as well, and the experience was first class. The food was very good (mostly Indian), the plane was roomy and light, the seats were super comfortable, the entertainment system was fantastic, and the crying babies were super annoying.

Angela sat next to a very interesting man named Max who worked for the U.N. and who was going to the Congo to work with the UN peacekeepers there who are attempting to calm down tensions between the Congo and Rwanda. His stories were interesting (although I couldn't really hear him too well because airplanes are just loud); especially the ones that involved RPG's and machine guns.

Arriving in Dubai was pretty painless. I had allowed myself to get a little stressed out over the medications that we were taking, especially the Ambien, since the UAE has very harsh penalties for bringing in certain pharmaceuticals (even if you have a prescription) without a whole bunch of supporting documentation. Well, those fears were completely unfounded since we breezed through customs with nary a sideways glance. I wish we hadn't left all that Ambien at home now. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad.

Unfortunately, we've experienced the first downer of the trip: our desert safari was cancelled because of a bad sand storm here the last couple days. We'll have to find something else to do tomorrow morning before our Burj Khalifa experience.

The flight was so long and the time zone difference so great that it feels like we completely skipped today. Usually, our international flights land in the morning and we have all day to do stuff and start working off some of the jet lag. Not so much this time; since it was already 9pm when we got to our hotel. It's basically going to be straight to bed for us. I think we're going to go to the "Madinat Jumeirah," a sort of modern day take on a traditional "souk" experience, in the morning.