Living in Abu Dhabi: February 2013

After just over a year of being in Abu Dhabi, we were very excited to have our first visitors. After spending a couple of days in Athens, Greece, Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) arrived in Abu Dhabi on January 28th, 2013. We treated them to the VIP service at the airport to ensure that the check-in process went well. It went so well we almost missed them arriving through gate. The kids were especially excited as they were told that they would not have to go to school the next day and would be able to show Grandpa and Grandma around the complex while mom and dad went to work. After one day to rest (with the kids) we were off to a small city just outside Abu Dhabi called Al Ain to spend the first weekend. In Al Ain, we spent the afternoon at the local zoo where we saw, a number of unique animals like white lions and white tigers, we took the opportunity to feed the giraffes, had a camel ride and then watched a local bird show. In the evening after a lovely Indian meal (a first for Mom and Dad) we went outside to the lounge area (next to the pool area) in the hotel we were staying at. Although the weather was a little cool for the UAE (i.e. 20 degrees J) it was very pleasant for Mom and Dad. I decided to order some shisha and we all took turns having a toke :)

Trace getting ready to feed giraffe

Lounging at night cafe....Shisha on its way!

Live Falcon and Bird show at Al Ain zoo.

Most important part of the day

Since we only had two weeks to show off Abu Dhabi and UAE we tried to take full advantage of every evening. If Mom and Dad were tired or had jet lag they never showed it often staying up most nights until 11pm. We went for drinks at a fancy hotel, golfed under the lights, played dominos at home (Carmen's favorite), and the ladies went for a massage, just to name a few activities. One of the special evenings was spending the afternoon immediately after school/work on the corniche beach to have supper and collect sea shells. We ended the evening with family races in the sand. I think we were the show of the beach with the six of us running around the sand screaming and laughing...lots of fun was had by all.

Evening beverage at Shangri-La hotel

Night view of Grand Mosque from Shangri-la

Lovely Picnic on Corniche Beach

Barrack boys hanging out

My beautiful Barrack girls!

Getting ready for the sand races...

Goofing around on the beach

The second weekend was spent visiting the city of Dubai. We had a very busy couple of days planned including staying at the newer part of Dubai in a hotel apartment off the Marina area. The first night we did a walk along the marina boardwalk and it was interesting to see all the people sit and enjoy their shisha and non-alcoholic beverage in the local cafes. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the only places you usually can get alcohol are in the licensed hotels. Local restaurants and cafes are not licensed. Never fear as there are tons hotel options pretty much wherever you go.

The next day we all toured Dubai on the hop-on hop-off bus. Traffic can be a little crazy in Dubai and there are a number of areas that I still am not comfortable driving in so we figured this was the best option.

We saw a number of cool things:

Souk Madinat – massive market area that is built for the rich in between two five star hotels and next to Burj Al Arab (the 7 star sailboat hotel). This place has many restaurants and has a traditional market where you can buy souvenirs.

Atlantis hotel / Palm Jumeriah – Palm Jumeriah is an artificial man made island created using land reclamation. The island has been shaped like a large palm tree. The trunk of the tree is filled with residencial apartments and hotels where as the branches of the tree are filled with the private multimillion dollar homes. At the top of the palm tree lies the Atlantis hotel which was designed similar to the Atlantis that exists in the Bahamas. The following utube video gives you a better idea of what was done..AMAZING! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAdGZD6rNTo

Ski-dubai – They have built an indoor ski hill within one of their malls. Its obviously no mountain skiing but its still pretty unique.

Old Dubai – this is where all the traditional souks exist.