Yes, we're home - physically - but still in Lebanon in our heads!

Hi All,

Many thanks to ALL of you who have e-mailed this past week asking if we've made it home safely. Yes, we have!!!! My best intentions were to write this blog last Friday, just after we arrived home from Lebanon, but frankly, my brain still isn't quite sure what time it is and my body is just following along. I might still be recovering from jet lag, or at least that strange mixture of euphoria and malaise that follows a long, wonderful trip. Can't seem to focus, and the fact that we are leaving for California in 10 days doesn't help. The CA trip was planned before the Lebanon opportunity surfaced and staying the extra 3 weeks in Lebanon definitely made the trips pile up on each other - but NO complaints, mind you!

Flying back Business Class made a world of difference! It was so comfortable and roomy; we could sleep, move around the aircraft and the flight seemed about half as long. Being treated like royalty is addictive! Of course, the last leg on Jet Blue from JFK to Tampa snapped us right back into sardine flight reality! Ah well.

We had a great layover in Dubai and being in Business Class, Emirates provides a chauffeur from the airport to the snazzy Le Meridien Hotel where our comp room and a voucher for dinner in our choice of 8 restaurants was waiting. We had enough time to take a tour of Dubai, which is a fascinating city that has literally risen from the sand over the past 15 years or so. You may have read about the developments here that have been created just off the coast where land has been pumped from the sea and formed into the shape of palm trees, crustaceans and an entire replica of the world (!!!!) connected to each other by tunnels, not bridges - bridges would ruin the design, you see - and upon which mega hotels and resorts, huge multi-million dollar villas and snazzy malls are built. At the tip of the first Palm Tree, there is a massive Atlantis Resort which looks exactly like the one on Nassau's Paradise Island, except on steroids!

In the past 3 years, more than 600 skyscrapers of 50 stories or more have been constructed in Dubai - many of them still empty due to the economic downturn and the declining oil prices. The world's tallest building -a spire that soars over 300 stories!!! - is here along with some of the most intriguing and exciting architecture we've ever seen. We wondered though whether Dubai would become a ghost town if the world's economy continues to be depressed. Remains to be seen, I suppose. Some of the coolest things they've done involve infrastructure - terrific roads, light rail, air-conditioned bus and train stops, a monorail system. This must have been so much fun for the engineers, architects, planners and construction firms, where else can you design and build an entire city from scratch with what appears to be endless financial resources? After 6 weeks of chaotic traffic, terrible roads and no public transportation whatsoever in Lebanon, Dubai looked like Disney World!

After our tour, we returned to the hotel, had a nice dinner, showered and were picked up by the chauffeur for the short drive to the airport. At the curb, we were met by a lovely Emirates ground hostess who escorted us to check in and then on to the lounge. I LOVED IT! In Dubai, Emirates has a brand new, humongous, ultra-modern terminal all to itself with the world's largest Duty Free shop - the entire 2nd level is a huge mall of duty free shops - and travelers in First or Business class have a separate entrance, we board the plane from a special gate, the lounge has a full service spa, 4 or 5 buffets, several bars, etc. etc. Certainly a nice way to travel - thanks again, Huda and James!

Once on the flight, which left at 2 a.m., our seats, which were separated by these cool dividers that could be moved up and down for privacy, either reclined into a comfortable easy chair position with full foot rest and a zillion different settings - which the seat would remember! - or reclined completely flat into a bed. We were given a nice foam mattress for added comfort, full size pillow, bedding, mask, socks, toiletries, noise canceling headphones, 7 gazillion channels of music, TV or movies, more food and drink than we could consume and just about anything else we wanted. Oh, and the entire seat is a massage chair as well...oh my!

Once we landed in New York, reality returned, although the wait at immigration wasn't too bad and we breezed through Customs with a cheery "Welcome Home" from the Inspector. Then on to Jet Blue where I am convinced they determine who gets the employee bonuses based on how many passengers can be ticked off each day, who scowls the most and how many bags get damaged. It was night and day from Emirates! After managing to make it all the way from Lebanon, via Dubai, to NYC and through US Customs without a second look, our checked bags were opened, pawed through and damaged by TSA at JFK on their way to Tampa! Guess all those TSA folks standing around JFK needed something to do.

All was well at home, thanks to my super terrific neighbor, Jean, who kept my plants happy and healthy and kept an eye on the house for us. Charlie had a struggle when we returned to get his computer repaired and back on line. It needed a new hard drive and that meant reloading all the software, but fortunately all his data was backed up and able to be reloaded. Whew!

My brand new Canon PowerShot A1100IS died after less than 60 days, with all the photos still on the memory card which my computer can't read!!!!! So I spent three days communicating with Canon, Dell and Microsoft this past week trying to solve these issues, but to no avail. The camera, which had great ratings and was highly touted as being reliable and easy to use, is neither. It has been sent back to Canon for repair, with no guarantee it will be fixed in time for the Ca trip, and although I've been a Canon camera devotee for years, I will no longer buy Canon or recommend either this camera or any other Canon to anyone after the way I was treated this past week. Amazing how little customer service there is these days. Fortunately, I downloaded almost all the photos onto James' laptop before we left Lebanon so I know they exist in another format. I promise you will see them eventually!

Well, I just realized this blog is getting snarky - sorry. It's late, but I want to write so much more about the trip, which I will this week. I had a lovely phone chat with Huda today from Yemen and got all excited again about going there for our next adventure to the Middle East! Also dragged out my stack of Lebanese cookbooks - I will blog about the two really neat days I spent in Lebanon cooking -- first with Huda learning some wonderful Yemeni dishes, then with Hilda to cook some Lebanese dishes I haven't had in years. Anyway, I perused the cookbooks and found all the recipes I remember my Mom making when I was a kid. So my goal is to start making those yummy dishes again! Tonight we had a Fattoush salad and I used my new mortar and pestle to blend the garlic, lemon, mint and spices for the dressing. It was fun. We also saw the movie Julia & Julie about Julia Child, which we loved! If you haven't seen it, do. It's funny, warm, and delicious! All of this has really inspired me to cook all this wonderful food again!

One last tale on myself - I brought home some fabulous spices used in Lebanese and Yemeni recipes - zaatah (a spice made from thyme, sumac and sesame seeds), sumac, allspice, cardomon, saffron, etc. and was making room in the pantry. Now, I do tend to keep food around longer than is wise,(as many of you know), but what I found in the back of the spice shelf really takes the prize. There, way back in the back was a little Mason jar marked "Zaatah, 3/85" I swear to heaven, it was 24 year old spice. I'm pretty sure my friend Kathy Ehrlich found it for me in LA and brought it to San Diego when we lived there in the '80's.

Now, since 3/85, we have moved from San Diego to DC, then to the boat, then me back to San Diego for a year, then back to the boat, traveled all around the Caribbean, back to the US and St. Pete, then moved off the boat and into this house - and this silly jar of zaatah has gone with me every step of the way. So, you might be asking, 1) Why didn't I use it?.....I have no idea, I'm sure I was saving it for "something", 2) How did it look, smell and taste after 24 years?.....looked fine, smelled amazingly good, tasted a little bitter, and, 3) Where is it now?....oh yes, of course I was tempted to save it, (I'm still Lari, after all), but since I have yummy new zaatah that is so much better and I needed the jar, I reluctantly tossed it. And then I got really crazy and threw away lots of other herbs and spices hiding out in my pantry which no longer resembled what they once were in any way, smell or taste! It was empowering!

So confession is over, I am signing off. Stay tuned for more Lebanon adventures and hopefully those elusive photos!

Love to all, thanks for keeping us in your thoughts!
Lari