Dubai part 1!

  We spent about one week in Dubai at the beginning of Caitlin's summer vacation this year and it was awwwwesome!  We did a lot each day, so I'll put the break down of what we did each day.

Tuesday May 27th
We left after my shift at work on Tuesday morning, May 27th, and drove to Jenny and Jason's house in Brea.  They let us stay the night and Jenny drove us to the airport the next day. 

Wednesday May 28th Caitlin and I went on a run in Brea in the morning.  It was supposed to be just about a 3 mile run from Jenny's house to our old house and back, but it turned into a Tour de Brea.  Not really, it was just about 5 miles with the added area we ran.  It was fun though.  California temperature is amazing!  We had fun at Jenny's house playing with Sierra, Whitney, and Carter.  It was a bit stressful getting to the airport, because there was tons of traffic at the airport going to the international flight terminal.  We got to our flight on time though, early actually.  Our flight to Dubai was 15 hours long!  They served us two meals and a snack which were pretty good!  We all had a TV screen on the back of the seat in front of us, and we watched lots of movies on the way there.  I also played lots of Pacman.  We sat on the right side of the plane, Caitlin in the window seat, me in the middle and a stranger in the isle seat.  The stranger just slept the whole time.  He didn't even watch any movies or anything.  We also didn't want to disturb him to get up and walk around, so we only got up once resulting in our ankles getting swollen.  Our flight was at 4 something on the 28th so we got dinner and breakfast on the flight.  We weren't able to sleep very much so when we got there at 7 pm on the 29th we were super tired and adjusted pretty well to the time change.  Here are some pictures -

The girls love Queen Aunt Caitlin.

They love looking at pictures on my phone too.

I like to play these silly games with the kids.

Arriving at LAX.

Waiting at the terminal.

I sat with the bags and Caitlin got us a snack while we waited to board our flight. She got me Cookies and Cream froyo with double brownies and cookie dough! :)

On the plane getting ready for our 15 hour flight!

Our flight path over the North Pole.

 
Wednesday May 29th
We arrived at the Dubai airport on the 29th! Jody, Maddison and Ceci picked us up.  Maddison remembered us and was happy to see us, but Ceci was a little hesitant to be herself around us at first, especially me.  She was really quiet and would hide behind Jody a lot.  She warmed up to Caitlin on the drive out of the airport and she warmed up to me by the next day. 

Thursday May 30th (this is Caitlin stepping in now to blog)

Billy and I woke up at like 5:30 so we watched some TV until everyone got up.  We ate breakfast and then went to this fancy resort that Jody and Dieter have passes to called the Habtoor.  We had to buy guest passes for $50 each, but it was worth it because we got to use them at all the resorts for the week!  We went to the private beach first for a bit.  The water was really warm and not too refreshing.  A guy with some camels came along the beach selling rides so we got to go pet them.  That was so funky!  Then we went to hang out at the resort pool.  There is a water slide and stuff that Maddison loves so we hung out there for a long time.  We ordered lunch and the people brought it strait to our chairs which was fancy.  I got so sunburned its ridiculous.  I don't know why I think it's ok not to reapply sunscreen.  Billy and my new motto is "Remember Dubai and reapply!"  It sucks especially that it was our first day! Oh well.  After we hung out for a while there we walked to a market to buy some water bottles and then went and got ice cream.  Ceci was so tired on our walk.  I was holding her and she kept saying "What's that ting?" and I'd say "That's a car" "A car?" "Yep!"  "Oh", over and over.  It was pretty hilarious.  After dinner we went to the polo club for a movie night at the pool.  It is this fancy pool and they play a movie and kids eat popcorn and watch and swim.  It was fun but we were all tired, so we didn't stay too long.  Here's some pics--

Camels on the beach

The delicious sandwich we ordered at the Habtoor.  It came with that mini ketchup jar.  So cute!  And whenever we ordered soda they always came in those baby cans and no refills :(  We're so American.

Cuties eating some pizza

At the beach we saw this girl getting a photo shoot done.  It was super weird and awkward but funny.

Petting the camel

BFF.  One of my fav pics ever.

Chatting up the camel guy.  Looks like the camel is in on the convo also.

I guess I don't have any pictures from the movie at the polo club...sorry!  I didn't take very many from the Habtoor pool either.  Bummer.


Friday May 30th

Today we left at like 9 am to go to the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi, which was like an hour and a half drive. It was super cool.  On the drive out we saw lots of camels on the side of the road, which was fun.  Girls can't show too much skin or their hair so we had to wear these black robe things so I felt like I was in Harry potter, but sweaty version of Harry potter.  It was around 108 with humidity.  We walked around the mosque for a while and took lots of pics.  We also got to experience getting gas here which was kind of cool.  They won't let you get your own gas, they fill it up for you.  

After the mosque we drove to the mall of emirates and ate at the shake shack.  It was really yummy.  Then we walked around the mall a bit.  We saw the indoor skiing and even got to see penguins!  That was pretty dang wild.  We went to this huge toy store where they had life size giraffe stuffed animals that were amazing.

Then we went to old Dubai and got to see the textile souk, the spice souk and the gold souk.  It was a bit of walking but really fun.  The people at the souks are super aggressive and want you to buy stuff.  They are all up in your face which was super annoying and kind of scary.  A guy actually grabbed Billy to being him into his shop.  We saw this cute pillow case there so we bought one.  It has a camel on it.  After the textile souk we rode a little boat to the spice souk.  Then we walked around town for a bit looking for a place to buy a water bottle, then headed to the gold souk.  That one was my favorite!  There was so much fun and ornate jewelry, it was awesome.  And no one was trying to haggle you so that was nice.  Then we rode the boat back and came home!  We showered, ate dinner and walked to the store to buy aloe because my sunburn was very painful!  We also bought ice cream :)  Some pics from day 2--

We got in trouble for taking this pic because I wasn't covered up.

 

 

Awesome chandelier in the front entrance to the mosque.  It felt so good to take off our shoes and walk barefoot on the cold tile!

Girls and boys aren't allowed to touch once inside the mosque

Had to include this because look at how sweaty that guy is!  It was freakin' hot.

Mosque selfies

Trying to pose with grumpy faces like a lot of other people were doing

Success!

Penguins in Ski Dubai!

We <3 Shake Shack

The ski slope from outside in the parking lot



I want this

They had a camel too

And a rhino

And an even bigger giraffe!

Textile souk

The salesmen kept calling out to us, trying to get us to come to their shops.  They would call out random names like "John!  Shakira!  Jessica!  Jack Sparrow!"  (yes, they did call Jack Sparrow).  It was pretty funny hearing them try to guess our names ;)

Boat to the gold souk

Ridin the boat--creepy guy's eye in between our heads :)

Walking around trying to find a place to buy water.  This part of town reminded me of New York.  Dirty and old.

GOLD

Me and Jody loved looking at the rings

 

As we were driving home from the souks I got this pic of the Dubai skyline.  See how tall the Burj Kalifa is?  Wow.

Ok I actually think I'm going to post this one and then continue in Dubai part 2 :)  If it feels a lot like journal entries, it's because it is haha.  I copied and pasted from emails I was sending to my mom while we were there so I could remember what we did.  I'm glad I did that!  Alright onto part 2!  And I will hopefully catch up with the rest of summer too eventually...