Seattle to Dubai

Checked my bag at Emirates and headed for the TSA security line.  Was wearing my trekking boots because they are critical to a successful trip and didn't want to chance losing them in checked luggage. They are big and heavy so I expected to remove them even though I usually leave my shoes on since I'm over 75.

There was a new procedure in place at the TSA terminal line. When I finally got to the checkpoint, everyone left their shoes on. There were no totes to put things in and the guy with loudest voice was shouting for everyone to empty their pockets and put everything into their bag. We left our liquids in the bags and didn't remove laptops  (those who had them). Reminded me of the days before 9/11.

I wear a travel vest, so carry my phone and other odds and ends in that. I put it on top of my backpack and sent that stack and my walking umbrella through the scanner.

The new procedure made it much faster but a drug sniffing dog and his handler actually walked through the queu inside the guide pylons. Been awhile since I've seen that.

((What you see, above, is what I wrote while sitting in the plane at the terminal. I saved it as a draft and then later while we were in the air I added to it, several times. In fact, I'm sure I wrote too much. In any case, before we landed I was preparing my phone for sleep and closed  that page. Saved it first, or so said blogger.

We have a layover in Dubai tonight so after we got checked into the hotel I checked into blogger. What you see above is all there was. Lesson learned. I'll be more careful how I handle drafts when not connected to the internet. Now I'll written a condensed version. ))

We pushed back at 1749 , one minute ahead of schedule. Our route was a modified Great Circle route. From Seattle we headed Northeast over British Columbia, Alberta and Ft McMurray.  North of Hudson's Bay we ran into the edge of darkness. This time of year 24-hour daylight creeps South so we flew through Twilight for a couple hours until just west of Greenland we found full daylight again.

Not long after we took off an attendant came through handing out amenity packages consisting of travel socks, toothbrush and paste, ear plugs, and an eye mask. They were all in a stylish zippered fabric pouch with Emirates logo Etc.

Our tasty dinner was served on melamine-like dishes and there was stainless cutlery.

The seats even back in steerage had ample legroom and reclined 12 inches or so. There was a new doily on my headrest and the reading material was in a plastic bag.

I'm impressed with Emirates Airline. They compare favorably with Singapore, Korean, and Japan Airlines. Of course they're a five star Airline so they should treat their customers right.

I was sitting way in the back on the starboard side in a window seat. The young lady sitting next to me talked to the attendant as soon as the door closed and moved to another seat. I think she didn't like being so close to the lavatory. I ended up with a window seat and room to spread out and relax.

I slept for about 4 hours until we got near Norway where it was late morning. Thought I'd better stay awake to prepare for the coming evening in Dubai., so tracked flight on the seatback navigation system

We crossed the upper part of the Scandinavian peninsula, crossed Finland well north of Helsinki, passed just to the west of Petersburg and Moscow, flew over Tbilisi, then into Iran, where we passed a little southwest of Tehran and on  into Dubai, landing at 1915 local time.

Incidentally, it's a pleasure to be using 24-hour time again. I wonder when the United States is going to join the rest of the world and use world time and the metric system?

We are laying over here in Dubai about 12 hours. Time we got unloaded, through customs, arranged our transportation and checked into the hotel we'll be able to catch a few hours sleep before we leave at 0600 in the morning for the airport again.

No photos on this on this entry. Perhaps tomorrow.