A long travel day, but we made it!

Traveling Emirates business class on the A380 was nothing short of amazing! The configuration on the plane was 1-2-1 so Ajali was near one window, the girls in the middle separated by a partition and then me near the other window On the other side of the plane. Ajali was across from Sanaa and me across from Jasmine. He accidentally sat in my seat at first while I was hanging my dress in a first class closet and chatting with the flight attendants. Looking back I should’ve let him stay there lol. Ajali slept the most on this flight out of all of us. This leg from DC to Dubai was 13 hours. While getting settled in our seats we were offered water, juice or champagne and to that I happily accepted water, as I knew the drink menu would be coming soon! The personal kits were then distributed and both girls were excited to not only receive that with toiletries in them but also a kid version with cool socks (Sanaa got cool Dubai socks that are actually my favorite color) activities and other things to do on the plane. After that our lunch order was taken, followed by warm wash cloths to clean our hands, warm nuts and or olives to enjoy while waiting for our food. The girls were sitting comfy in their seats figuring out what movie to watch on their screen and what game to play on the tablet in their seats. Jasmine had already laid out her chair to a bed and I had to tell her multiple times that she needed to wait for that- she was so excited. Homegirl was saying ”yes please” and ”no thank you ” so often I had to turn my head to see if they were handing out free money or something!

Before lunch was served, the cabin crew cam around to place a “mattress” on your chair so when you decided to sleep it would be more comfy. To me it was a slightly thick mattress thingy that provided a little extra support, but it wasn’t anything over the top (Yep I’m being boogie lol). Everyone except Jasmine ate, as she is really picky. I wasn’t concerned, as I knew during the flight she would find something she liked. Her meal was the kids meal and they gave her nuggets and pasta- two things she likes BUT the nuggets weren’t McDonalds so…go figure! After our bellies were full we went back to the sky lounge. It honestly looked bigger in pictures we had seen online, but it was still a site to see! At the bar there were tiny pastries packed in little see through boxes, and a cake. Across from that were different chips, candy and other snacks as well as cold sandwiches, hot sandwiches and two other hot “snacks” to pick from during the flight. The girls even got the choice of pizza, which they chose later in the flight.

First class was pretty empty, which the flight attendants said was very unusual for a DC flight. There were 2 passengers there and 3 flight attendants. Two of them insisted we come take pics in first class before leaving, so we did. All the flight attendants were amazing, but a few stood out to us. It was so cool learning about where they are from, how they love traveling to different countries and staying for a couple days and exploring, etc. There was a Kenyan woman who was talking to the girls when Ajali and I both were sleeping. The girls told her all about our trip and she was so excited for us. She also happened to be Kikuyu, so in her mind we were all family! She later told me that Ellen was currently in East Africa and had always goes to Giraffe Manor. First I was thinking- Ellen? Do I know her? Do WE have a mutual friend named Ellen and how and when did we figure that out??? Then it dawned on me that she was talking about Ellen Ellen! You know- Degeneress! Sucks we missed her at Giraffe Manor, bit I honestly would’ve been stoked if I saw her there. One thing we do have in common is that she had a dress made by a designer that I’m having a dress made by. I thought that was cool. This designer is somewhat of a big deal in Kenya and she was referred to us by one of Ajali’s cousins. We plan to see her tomorrow.

Prior to our flight ending one of the first class flight attendants came to me with a bag and a note and a flower congratulating us on our upcoming wedding vow renewal. She handed me a bag and said here are 2 sets of first class PJs and slippers and we hope you join us one day in first class. Wow, how sweet of her! I told Ajali and he looked at me and said-oh that was nice, did she say she was giving us first class tix as well LOL. A man can always wish, right?

Our gate to deplane was occupied and when we finally got to get off theplane our flight to Nairobi was already boarding. Us, along with about 30+ people literally rushed through security, hoped on a bus and took a moderate length ride over to the terminal were we were to board. I swear I have not walked that fast since I had hin surgery inSeptember 2021 LOL. We made it on time and so did our luggage…well 10 of the 11 pieces did! The sad thing about it is that the bag that didn’t arrive has our soap, me and the girls deodorant in it and other things I won’t realize we need until we will need them. I guess we shall be using the hotel provided soap tomorrow and hope we smell delicious…if not, I guess we will smell like…well I’ll leave that up to you to decide! The suitcase is in Dubai and should arrive.

As to not damper the mood I will say going through the airport wasn’t bad, although I was given a hard time at customs. It made me sad on top of already being physically warn our from 24 hours of travel, missing a bag and having a tired and cranky kid. Thank goodness for our amazing driver who is known to a friend back home, who waited a couple hours for us to come out of the airport. It was a breath of fresh or to get in the van and know I was heading to the hotel.

Random (or not so random) things we experienced/learned today:

-Nairobi traffic: OMG I thought NYC and DC traffic was bad lol

- Kenyans don’t stop when a vehicle is going in reverse and may drive into them…they just pound on the car lol. Well, us four Americans stopped and then it dawned on me lol- that’s an obvious sign we aren’t from here.

-When in the customs line at the airport, stay on top of the person in front of you because someone will squeeze their way in between you lol. NO JOKE lol. Never mind social distancing, or using manner lol. Being polite in that situation will get you no where but at the end of the line lol

- Cold Stone Creamery is here, so we will need to check them out. KFC, Burger King and Dominos are here as well and supposedly KFC on the continent is much better than in the states. We will need to check them out.

-I forgot my AirPods at home

-The nebulizer machine we brought with was to strong for the outlet and got fried. RIP neb machine lol. I’m hoping to find out if the pharmacy has one I can buy tomorrow.