Who brings pork rinds on a 14 hour flight?

Only one lovely lady I know...my mother-in-law. Honestly, I've never been that into pork rinds...until this trip. Pork rinds in the northern mountains of Thailand are DELICIOUS. Maybe that's what she was recalling on that day of anticipation, as we awaited our 14 hour flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi.

(*note to the reader of this blog: I will hereafter refer to my mother-in-law as Niam, which is what I call her, the Hmong word for "mother")

Packed like sardines into our huge Etihad Airways jumbo jet!

Just look at how huge that engine is!!!

Our flight path display screen showing the route from Chicago to Abu Dhabi...I checked this periodically to see where we were at, but mostly I just watched movies. I discovered that it's really hard for me to sleep on a plane, even with ear plugs! So, I occupied my time with catching up on books and movies. Favorite books from the loooooooooong flights ( to Thailand and back!): The Song Poet (2016) by Kao Kalia Yang, Another Brooklyn (2016) by Jacqueline Woodson, The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian (2007) by Sherman Alexie.

Great reads!

Txi and Niam slept most of the way...

Finally made it to Abu Dhabi where we had a 9 hour layover, which was not quite enough time to get through all the security checkpoints and do some sightseeing before our next flight so we all just passed out in the comfortable lounge chairs! Can you spy the uniquely shaped control tower in this photo?

Air traffic control tower rising from the desert sands...