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"a magic [carp]EmiraTes ride" to a "whole new world"

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Emirates flies directly from Seattle to Dubai. We spent around 15 hours on the plane, but Emirates makes it nice. Complimentary newspapers upon boarding; headphones, pillows, blankets, and a device (I watched some of "The Middle," TD!), music, news, TV & movies--plus kids' versions of all of those. They gave us each a zippered travel pack: sleeping mask, a fresh change of socks, and a collapsible toothbrush complete with a cute & tiny toothpaste tube. They had separate packages for the kids. Wowed by his blue zippered & insulated pack, L declared, "We could put our school lunches in these!" The cute, young flight attendants offered hot towels and later snapped Polaroids of us w/ our kiddos (the latter: something that didn't happen when we flew Emirates w/out children) and one made a special clay-art commemoration take-away for K. They fed us 2 meals, 1 snack that could easily be counted as a 3rd meal, & gave us lots of bevs & snacks. Anyone that enjoys what Emirates offers cannot possibly leave the plane feeling dissatisfied or hungry. It's long, but it's pampered & enjoyable ("Mister Aladdin, sir, have a wish, or 2 or 3!" They were, "on the job!") and we flew economy. When B flew in December he was bumped to business class (mid--it's between coach & 1st) on Emirates. He was offered a mattress--the seat folded down into a divided space and they provided him a mattress (after he had them clarify--he wasn't sure he heard correctly the first couple of times) and his little zippered pack was much bigger & included a razor, shaving cream, deodorant & cologne. Soooo nice! Mabye someday we'll be blessed to discover what business passenger kids & ladies receive.

We left Seattle in the evening on the 23rd (my beautiful sister's birthday!) around dinner time. We flew over the North Pole--in November a flight attendant pointed out the Northern Lights and we gazed out the window together. The in-flight screens are cool. There are 2 cameras to pick from: one that is stationed below the plane and one is like a pilots' view. At any time during the flight one can pick one of these cameras. There are also in-flight shows which mark the cities we fly over and state facts: altitude, speed, the number of hours to the destination, etc. We flew through an "endless diamond sky" to "a whole new world" and though we were in a middle row we could still view the "diamonds," because the aisle ceilings were sparkling with them. We arrived in Dubai about 8pm on the 24th. 

Dubai is in the Northern Hemisphere, so it's winter here, just like it's winter in Whatcom County (where we used to live). It's 12 hours ahead of of Whatcom, and it's on the Arabian Gulf (right by the built up Palm & the World Islands) and it's a desert, so it's warm here (locals say Dec-March is the nicest time of year). 

P.S. Thanks for "let[ting] me share this whole new world with you!"

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