Birthday girl - May 22, 2010

I don't know who was more excited - Sam because it was her birthday or Patrick trying to give her her present.  He wanted them to be set out for when she woke up.  :)  Patrick had found her this cute shirt - it describes Samantha to a "T"!!

Today's adventure was another wadi drive and a fort at the end of it to explore.  We went up Wadi Hayl to Fort Hayl.  They are fixing it up - so we only got to go into the tower.  Patrick and I went to the top of it to take a peak at the view.

This was a short drive so we went back to Fujairah to visit the museum and a drive around the Fujairah Fort (still being restored - so we couldn't go in).

The afternoon was spent relaxing once again on the beach.  The kids helped Wayne dig a huge hole and then buried Patrick in it!  They did some more snorkling and saw some zebra fish and hermit crabs crawling on the ocean floor.  We did more sea shell collecting and have brought home loads more shells to add to the ever-growing collection! :)

We found many different types of crabs on this trip.

Since it was Samantha's birthday we let her pick the restaurant.  It turned out to be a nice place to have supper.  The food was awesome and the kids had a good time.  The waiter had put the candle we had brought on her desert, so she had a mini birthday cake.  They had slow chocolate milks - of course I had to have a taste to make sure that they were alright.  :)

We had a wonderful weekend. 

Wadi Madhah - May 21, 2010

Today was a day of geocaching and wadi exploring.  After an awesome breakfast of homemade waffles (made just for you) and fresh fruit we packed up our truck and headed out.  We found some pretty neat caches -  fairly well vegetated because it was along a falaj - "You mean it is in there?".

The wadi was a neat drive.  It was very windy and twisty - I guess that is why it's nickname is "windy wadi" :)  The drive through was different from the other wadi's we have driven through.  This one had steeper banks and narrow paths (left picture) where as the others have been much wider.  There was one off trail that we were going to go on for a cache but part way through it we seemed to have lost the road (middle picture).  I guess with the rains this past winter, it was washed out.  We also saw some caves and old towers on our drive (right picture).

We found a cave to stop and have our picnic lunch (yes we are sitting on a hunter orange blanket - Patrick picked it out :) ).  There were some goats and birds who joined us.  :)  The kids are trying to hold up the cave for us.

 

We finished our little wadi exploring trip shortly after lunch and decided to head back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon on the beach and at the pool.  The water in the Indian Ocean is amazing!!  Sooo warm - my kinda water! :)  I don't know how I'm going to come home and swim in the cold lake...  The beach sand was a dark sand and very soft but very hot on your feet.  The kids (even the big kids) had fun playing in the sand, searching for sea shells, snorkling, learning how to body surf, and playing in the waves.

After our fun afternoon in the sun we went for supper in Fujairah.  We picked up a shawarma and walked around the market.  After exploring Fujairah we went back to the hotel for a late night dip before bed.

Fujairah - May 20,2010

We left Abu Dhabi on the Thursday after school to go to Fujairah.  It is on the east coast (Indian Ocean) of the UAE.  We just powered through the drive and arrived at the hotel at around 6:30pm.  We took a tour of the beach and of course the kids got wet.  That was ok because we had supper at the beach restraurant of the hotel.  Afterwards we went for a swim in the pool.  The kids had fun using Wayne as a taxi and a diving board.  :)