We each got some intermittent sleep on the plane.  We got up for the restroom twice, but the seat belt sign came on immediately after each time.  We landed around 19:20 local time on Saturday evening.  It turns out, after 16 hours of not speaking to our seatmate, she was from San Diego.  She, along with a good chunk of the people on the plane, had connections in Dubai, so they had more flying to do.

The Dubai airport was absolutely massive.  Immigration was easy [or so we thought at the time], and because it was so fast, we had to wait a bit for our bag.  We met some people with signs who were waiting to take us to our hotel, The Address Downtown.  We had a Lexus to drive us over to the hotel, just 15-20 minutes away from the airport, but this was fairly low-class in comparison, as at the hotel, the front was full of Bentleys and Rolls Royces.  

When we checked in, the woman told us we had a nice room, one on the corner.  She also said it was our lucky day, as we got a “Club Pass” included in our rate.  This meant that all meals at the Club Lounge during our stay would be included.  We had room 1029, with a huge outdoor deck overlooking some Bellagio-type fountains and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.  We got treated to a fountain show almost immediately, which also included lights all over the Burj Khalifa and the fountains themselves.  The room had a bunch of rose petals and a note to a different guest; we hoped that guest also got the roses in his/her room.

We changed into long pants and shirts and went to the Club Lounge to grab a small dinner.   They were just taking the serving spoons away when we arrived, but brought them right back and we quickly grabbed some food so they could close up dinner for the night.  We ate and drank outdoors on a patio just a few floors underneath our room, and we saw some light shows and heard the accompanying music over some local speakers, which caused a weird echo effect.  

After the 22:00 show, we went up to NEOS, the rooftop bar at The Address, on the 63rd floor.  It was kind of a circuitous route to get up there, but we managed to find our way.  Over half of the skyscrapers in our vicinity had large signs reading “EMAAR,” which we determined was one of the largest real estate developers in Dubai.  We couldn’t help but keep saying “EMAAR” in a long droning voice, like we used to say “Omar” to our pup.  The cocktail menu was interesting, but very pricey, but that was more-or-less expected.  Crystal’s “Tom Yum Collins” was phenomenal - it had gin, lemon grass, kaffir lime, and chilies.  Justin had some sort of rum drink that was good, but paled in comparison.  The second round was a glass of bubbly for Crystal and a Quita Penas for Justin.  Before leaving, Justin got a third, one of the Tom Yum Collins.  On the stereo, it must have been 90s night, as we heard Kris Kross, Spin Doctors, Chris Isaak, Naughty By Nature, Britney Spears, Old Dirty Bastard and Maya, the Macarena song, 90s Heart, Chumbawumba, Arrested Development, and The Divinyls.  We finished right around midnight and went back the circuitous route to our room, where we crashed.