Days 1 & 2 (Postings from our trip)

Day 1

(Packed and ready to go: 4 suitcases, 2 rubbermaid bins, 2 backpacks, laptop case & my purse- Whew!)

(Ready for the trip of a lifetime!)

(Captain slept soundly most of the flight. He loved the eye mask and socks Emirates provided him)
Day 2

(View from our hotel room of the Burj Al Arab Hotel)
(The beach at our Hotel)
At breakfast (which was hard to find in Dubai) our Hotel in the background(Captain and Hubby having fun in the water -Arabian Gulf)
(These camels were all around the property painted in different colors)
(Captain testing out the Flow Rider at Wild Wadi's)
(Another pic at Wild Wadi's)

Okay... I am going to try and get caught up here little by little. The day we left for Ethiopia was bittersweet. I had to leave Cuddlebear and Belle and that was extremely hard. I am also a very nervous flyer (I always think that the worst might happen) and that day was no different. I remember feeling relieved that the luggage was packed and we were finally going to meet our son, and at the same time wishing I had stayed home and just let Hubby pick him up b/c I was so nervous about being away from Belle and Cuddlebear for 2 WHOLE weeks.

The plane ride was great. We flew Emirates and I highly recommend them. Their in flight entertainment was fantastic, they had wonderful customer service, and they catered to kids (giving Captain backpacks with activities and toys and serving kids meals before the regular adult menu items). The food was good as far as plane food goes too. The flight was long- 16 hours... but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Something that surprised me was the route they took. We went up and over Canada, over the North Pole, over Greenland and then over Iran. Captain thought that us going over the North Pole was the coolest thing ever!
When we finally arrived in Dubai I was SO EXCITED!!! The airport was elaborate... it was huge, new and beautiful. It was night time and the drive to our hotel was neat b/c of all the lights along the beach area.
We stayed at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel and they had beautiful rooms (ours even had a view of the famous Burj Al Arab Hotel), a beach, pools, and they were connected to Wild Wadi's Waterpark. You actually received free admission with your room, and Captain had a blast there as you can see from the pictures above. Captain also thought it was cool that the beach he stood in was connected to the same waters his grandfather would have waded in as a child living in Iran.