Dubai

I thought about coming up with a clever title to this post but then I decided Dubai is pretty interesting all by itself. In a recent post I mentioned we had taken a trip there one February and I said I would write about it one day. Today's the day. Lucky you. Oh, and its long and photo heavy because hey, it's Dubai.

Dubai is not a place I ever imagined I'd visit. Or want to visit. In fact, its entirely possible that when we began making plans with friends to spend a February school break there I might have had to look at a map to see exactly where Dubai is located. I'll save you a trip to wiki and tell you that Dubai is situated on the Persian Gulf coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is bordered by Abu Dhabi and Oman. Course I didn't know where those countries were located either so whatever. I did know that even though Dubai is plopped down in the Arabian Desert it has wonderful beaches and I'm all about a great beach, especially in mid February. Keep in mind we were all coming from England where the weather in February leaves a little something to be desired.

Our trip to Dubai was also our first family vacation with one child absent. Daughter1 was in her first year of university and daughter2 missed her a lot. We took this trip with several other families from our school so there were 6 or 7 other teenagers traveling with us which made it more fun for Daughter2. And maybe caused Daughter1 to turn green with envy and say, "No fair going to Dubai without me!!!"

Most long haul British Airways flights have tv monitors in the seat backs so you can view the map as you fly. At one point hubs nudged me and said, "Hey look, we're flying right over Iran now" but I plugged my ears and sang lalala and prayed the pilot was not asleep at the wheel.

Dubai is unlike anywhere else I've ever been and I'm not sure my description is going to do it justice. Our hotel was absolutely beautiful and was known for its amazing service. Upon stepping outside for the first time we saw lovely gardens and the gorgeous Arabian Gulf sitting right there in front of us...

A beautiful beach complete with a camel or two...

Then we turned around and saw this...

Seriously, it was like Manhattan was being constructed right before our eyes.

The amount of building that was occurring at that time was staggering although I hear things are not quite so rosy there now.

You couldn't help but wonder how in the world they had enough people to fill all those buildings.

We had the most wonderful week.

We planted ourselves on the beach and laughed and talked and had serious discussions too, about the lives of women who must wear a burqa even while riding on a banana boat.

There was more than a little of this...

There was also some beach volleyball...

and some
soccer futbol...

and some forgot their fear of heights for a minute...

and para sailed over this crazy beach/sea/city.

Like any beach trip, there was much digging and sand castle building...

hubs is like the Pied Piper and he had fun with all the kids on this trip.

We shopped in the Gold Souk,

ate wonderful meals,

one family even visited the indoor ski resort because

why not snow ski when you're in the desert?

One member of our group organized a catamaran tour for all of us around the coast which was a lot of fun.

He had been in a business meeting that morning and joined us by speed boat partway thru the trip.

It was a total James Bond moment.

No, he is not a spy.

Everywhere you go you can see the Burg Al Arab hotel, supposedly the only 7 star hotel in the world.

No, we did not stay there.

And yes, it does look like a ginormous cross sitting in the middle of the UAE.

In fact we were told they changed the lighting after it was built because at night that is particularly obvious.

And completely accidental.

But its an interesting accident don't you think?

One day we took the
dads kids to Dubai's famous water park known as Wild Wadi.

We felt like the park creators must have made a trip or two to Disney because it had a similar feel...beautiful and clean and cleverly designed.

Hubs, along with another dad and that dad's son, spent a big chunk of their days getting their Scuba certification which is something my hubs has always wanted to do.

He is part fish so he loved this.

One evening most of the group trekked out to the desert for a 'desert adventure'...

This involved a jeep ride across mucho sand...

camels and henna and dinner...

and a pretty amazing sunset sky.

This post is all over the place but that's what happens when you don't have a blog to record memories as they are made.

I'm glad I've put it here now though.

Because it was worth remembering.

Partly because of the location...

but mostly...

because of the people with whom it was shared...