Well! The time finally came after having the tickets booked for 8 months! The kids were more than excited and we were too...we could not wait to visit "the Dubai cousins". :-) We were not sure how the kids would do on the flight...which it turns out they did good on. We flew DEN to Heathrow and then Heathrow to Dubai. It was about 9 hrs then 6.5 hours. The break was good and kids flew well. They did not sleep a whole lot on the flights but they did get in a lot of movie watching! I think I slept about 1 1/2 hrs on the whole flight east. We left here on the 19th at 5pm and arrived at 1130pm on the 20th...long day. We had a welcome arrival as Lana picked us up at the airport...took us two hours to clear customs and a short drive to the house...so was about 3 a.m.before we settled. I won't bore you with the details of sleep...I had zero jet lag from the get go but Ehren and kids took a couple days. :-)
Our first day there was actually Gabe's bday so Lana had organized a bit of a party with a big bbq to help keep us awake. We met a few of their friends including a wonderful family from Australia that they used to live next door to. We ate great...Samuel was home...so we ate great and lots!! :-)
Our first bit of sight seeing was the Miracle Gardens. You can see pics on our site and is an amazing display of flowers organized in several different ways. We went to the Burj Khalifa...tallest building in the world which boasts 828 m (905yards, 2722 ft or just over 1/2 mile high). The stats on the building were phenomenal including longest elevator in the world. It was amazingly smooth.The building can house 35,000 people at any time and has 57 elevators and 8 escalators and the spire at the top can be seen from 95km away. Pretty cool! The view from the observation deck was phenomenal!
What else did we see? Well, we went to the Sheikh Zayed Grande Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is yet another site to be seen. It is one of the few that they have open for tourists and use to educate people on the religion. It is actively used for prayer so there is limited access to many parts of the building...when I was there before we had "free roaming", however it wasn't open for prayer at that time. It's stats...82 domes and minorettes, 12 chandeliers the largest weighing 12 tons, can house 40 000 people outside for prayer and 7 000 inside...total cost >545 million. It was beautiful. Lana and I wore the traditional abaya and khimar. Women in the mosque must have their hair covered and their arms covered to the wrists and legs to the ankles. No shoes allowed for anyone. Outside the mosque the general population dresses how they so desire...based on their religious belief...there is no "rule" set by the country for dress. This same day we went to the Royal Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. It is a beautiful hotel with many people with too much money. We also saw the gold ATM's...forgot to take a picture but you can buy gold pendants, earrings, etc. just as you would take money out of an ATM!!
We saw several shopping malls in Dubai, including the Mall of the Emerites that has the ski hill in it. We took the kids indoor skydiving at Mirdif mall and they loved it! We drove out to the Palm Jumeriah island to take a quick peak at the Atlantis resort. Last time I was there the islands were still under construction...oh, and if you didn't see the New years eve fireworks from Dubai...you need to check them out on youtube! They set a world record and it was amazing! We saw the fireworks set from the Burj Khalifa from Lana and Samuel's roof and then we went inside to watch the rest of them from the islands on TV.
We spent Christmas day having a picnic on the beach at which time we saw the Burj Al Arab...famous for the pic with Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball off the helipad. We spent New years day at the camel races at Al Marmoon Track. It was very cool and I hadn't seen these before. They only do them a few months of the year b/c of the heat. Boy...do those camels lope along! They come across the finish line frothing at the mouth as they chase the cars that drive along the track beside them...kind of like dog races.:-)
One of our evening adventures took us Dune bashing. Started with 4x4'ing in the dessert (holy crap I almost peed my pants!). Ali (our driver) told us the secret...as long as you have two tires on the sand still...and keep them moving you won't tip over! Great...glad he knows all the secrets!! Once we got to the party site there was camel riding, henna art, hooka pipes, belly dancing and a wonderful evening of entertainment and middle eastern food. We sure did eat well...buffet style!
A second day trip took us on the Dubai bus tours...double decker bus. We went through the city on a hop on hop off. We did a Dhow river cruise, hit the gold and spice soukes, Dubai Museum, Children's city, and drove through old town. It was an eye opening once we got into the bowels of the city and the kids were overwhelmed when we got to the busy streets of the gold souke. You could smell the spice soukes from a block away. It was really cool. We also took a morning to go to La Karama...where the "knock off" goods are purchased. We did a lot of looking around!
We hit a few parks and also went to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. It's an over priced indoor amusement park (surprise) but the kids loved it. Been there done that! The last day we were there we went and got some "real" henna done...at an actual salon for women only! They do amazing body art!
Aside from all the great sites we had an amazing time just visiting, eating, and the kids played a lot...and got along great. From foosball to picnics on Isabelle's balcony...they did it all. Oh, and did I say we ate a lot??? We felt special that Samuel took two weeks off work to hang out with us and help haul us around the city. He is a great cook and fed us well...we caught on to the Lebanese way...offer food and offer more!! :-) We wanted to try and get to Oman but never quite made it work but it would have been awesome. Here's a list of the amazing food we had...Hommos, Kibbeh, Molokhina (like spinach), fish (Sea Bream and Balti)...first time for both, Izmir Kebab, Shish tawuk, Manoushi...jibneh(cheese), shanklish, and zataar (spices), Lahm bajeen (meat pizza), Haloumi, cheese rolls, fattoush, tabbouleh, baba ghanouj, moutabel, vine leaves, cilik leaves, shawarma, beans on toast!!, arayes labnie & zataar, falafels, aniseed tea....and drum roll.....CAMEL milk! The amazing thing...our kids tried everything and liked almost all of it! My favorites were the Kibbeh, Manoushi jibneh, molokhia, hommos of course and the falafels were to die for! And I so wish I could get the air filled "bread" to eat with hommos here! It's to die for!!
It was so nice to be on their "stomping ground" and we had a great time. Tears were shed when we left...and even still at times by the kiddos. Our flight home was the same route as the flight out...everyone did a bit better on the trip back as far as resting and comfort. It was funny cause we left at 2.30 a.m. on sunday morning and arrived at DIA at 3 pm sunday afternoon...wow funny how time flies!! Kids were back to school monday morning! We are having to face reality now and get back into the swing of things. Jet lag has since passed and we are getting there. Thanks Ait's for the great time!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
January 2014
Well November came and went. We had a great Thanksgiving and friends from San Diego came out for the week. Kids played, parents visited...a great time! We took in an archery class for the first time (all 9 of us) and found it fun and challenging!
The kids have kept us busy as many of you have seen from the Christmas letter I sent out. We have a dog which has added more "fun" to the family...her name is Lucy. Evan has started hockey and the girls stayed with their same activities. They will all be picking up new activities in the new year.
We planned a great trip to Dubai for Christmas...all focus was on that for a long while. We only had about 2 1/2 weeks between Thanksgiving and the time we left so not much to report on in that time. Check out my Dubai update!!
The kids have kept us busy as many of you have seen from the Christmas letter I sent out. We have a dog which has added more "fun" to the family...her name is Lucy. Evan has started hockey and the girls stayed with their same activities. They will all be picking up new activities in the new year.
We planned a great trip to Dubai for Christmas...all focus was on that for a long while. We only had about 2 1/2 weeks between Thanksgiving and the time we left so not much to report on in that time. Check out my Dubai update!!
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