Misc. Pictures - September 26,2009

Some fun days at the park: Getting wet, spinning, climbing, watching the fire show (very cool), watching the kids (NOT). The bottom two are: a night out on the town and one of the many neat shaped buildings (Aldar HQ).

I think we have some budding photographers. The final batch of pictures are the kid's. They have been taking pictures like crazy. Some of them are quite good. :)

Dubai Mall Aquarium - September 19, 2009

After we finished at the Mosque we headed to Dubai for the afternoon. On the way to Dubai we saw wild camels (at least we think they were wild). I got Wayne to stop so that we could get some pictures. :)

I know this sounds silly but we headed to the Dubai Mall. At the mall they have this huge aquarium. One of the largest aquariums in the world, housed in the world's largest mall right next to the world's largest building. Hmmmm- do you see a pattern here?

This aquarium was COOL. They had all kinds of fish: big, little, huge, colourful, plain, silver, etc. They had sharks, rays, eels, again in different sizes and shapes. Once you look at the outside and have paid your ticket you get to walk up closer to them and then get to go in a glass tunnel, where you can see them swimming at you, around you and over you. Way, Way cool. It is long enough but not really long in the grand scheme of things but we spent over an hour just walking through the tunnel and watching everything swim by. There were so many different fish that everytime you looked you found a new one.

We finally made it through the tunnel and headed up to the underwater zoo. Yes we are still in the mall. Here they had otters, turtles, pirhanas, jelly fish, sea horses, dragon fish, razor fish, seals, penguins, alot of different rays, small sharks, poison dart frogs, crocs, Nemo, Dory, Puffer from Finding Nemo. The kids had a blast. So did Wayne and I. The kids even got to feed the fish that were in the huge aquarium. It was an amazing day.

The kids and I have seven more days to our holiday. I don't know how we are going to even come close to today in the wow factor.

Grand Mosque - September 19, 2009

We visited the Grand Mosque today, with Stephanne (the teacher I'm TAing for). WOW!! It was breathtaking. All the pillars made of marble with inlay of different stones, was amazing. The floors were also marble with inlay of different stones making lovely floral patterns. There were pools of water with the Mosque reflecting in them. Part of the floor, if you looked closely, were tiny tiles of marble in a pattern all joined together to make larger tiles. There were painted mosaics on different tiles through out. It was all just amazing to walk around and look at the workmanship that went into making it - and this was just the outside.

To go into the actual Mosque you have to take off your shoes and make sure you are dressed properly: Men/boys in long pants, long shirts; Women in long skirts so you can't see your ancles, long sleeve shirts and then we were given our own abaya to wear when we got there. We also had to have our heads covered inside. It was very bright outside with all the white marble and the sun, so we were happy to go inside for a while.

The inside of the Mosque was absolutely beautiful. Again the workmanship of the stone work, the huge crystal chandalairs were staggering. The largest hand-woven Persian carpet in the world. The glass work on the windows, the stone work with lights shining through on the walls and floors, just made it one of those places that you are constantly gauking at everything trying to take it all in and still only seeing part of it. It is definately one of those places that anyone coming over will want to see, and we would be more than happy to go again and again, to try and take it all in.

The kids were awesome in the Mosque because they were also trying to see everything and taking pictures of everything. Take a look at our pictures, but you should also check out this site: http://www.visitabudhabi.ae/en/what.to.do/mosques.and.other.places.of.worship/sh.zayed.mosque.aspx

The first part is of information for times open and stuff, but go the bottom and it gives some stats about the Mosque. It really is impressive to see and read about. We had a wonderful time exploring it.

More on Jebel Hafeet - September 7, 2009

I just wanted to share a few more photos of Jebel Hafeet. It was a really neat drive going up the mountain, and sometimes the pictures just don't do it justice. But you try anyway.

The first one is an outcrop while driving up the mountain. The rock was neat because you could see the bands of sediment and there were even bands of the reddish color of rock. The kids found a few really neat ones with multicolour bands of beige, red and yellow. We even found some fossils, which was cool.

The next picture was taken in Oman. It was neat the way they cut through the rock for the road. The kids thought that it was cool that there were these steps.

And finally, a picture of our hotel at sunset. The entrance way into it was neat because from the road you have to drive down to it. The really cool thing is that in the hotel lobby they have actual living walls. There were only five floors to the hotel but on the top floor they had flower boxes full of vine plants that grew right to the ground floor. On that note.... Good Night!

People will always surprise you - Monday Sept. 7, 2009

The kids and I just got home from school. We had a snack and Patrick and Samantha are doing a bit of homework and I thought I would share this wonderful story with you.

Wayne dropped us off at school this morning as he needed the car for some meetings with Masdar (hopefully things will be finalized this week). So the kids and I had to take the taxi home, which is alright, we've done it before. So after school we headed out and did a bit of walking to the next street down, where I thought it would be easier to catch a taxi. I thought wrong! By the time they got to us they were all taken. We must have been out there for about 15 minutes waiting. (I know that doesn't seem like much, but the kids were soaked and so was I) The kids were really good considering how hot it was. They suggested that we maybe walk a bit farther down and try there. So off we went. We were maybe another 5 minutes and then this car pulls up close and rolls down its window to talk to us. This nice Sri Lankan lady asked me where we are going. After much describing and hand waving of where abouts we were going, we hopped in and they brought us home. What a nice drive. It made my day and I thought I would share this story. See there are still some people out there that will always surprise you with their thoughtfulness.

Visa Run - Sept. 5, 2009

This weekend went very well considering we had to leave the country and then come back in again. The way to renew your visa for 30 more days is to leave the UAE (quickest is to cross the Oman boarder) and then come back. So off we went to Al Ain, which is on the Oman boarder. We left after Patrick and I were done on Thursday. It is not really that far of a drive to Al Ain (about 1hr and a half).

We stayed at this really cool hotel at the peak of Jebel Hafeet. What a view. Lots of switch backs to get to the top; Wayne was alright going up, coming down was a different story :). There was a look out that we stopped at that was a bit unnerving - check it out!!! The road just stopped, and there were no guard rails or anything- BUT the view was fantastic.

Once we were at the top and checked in we headed to the pool for our daily swim. The kids had a great surprise when they got there - waterslides! We all got our exercise going up the stairs every time. It was a lot of fun!

The temperature overall was cooler at the top of the mountain, and the water was amazing. It was my kind of swimming temperature :)

That night we had an Iftar supper (breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan) at the hotel. The food was quite good and we all tried a lot of new things. Some we are happy to have again and there were a few things - not so much.

Friday was our visa run across the boarder. We had talked to our neighbours about it and researched on the Internet and somehow we still went to the wrong crossing. We were hoping to go to the one were we just had to walk across and do some paperwork and then walk back. We ended up at the one where we had to drive 50 km into Oman, do some paperwork, and then drive back. That was a bummer but the real kicker is that you need special insurance to go into Oman and we didn't have it, hence the hoping for the walking cross over. In the end we made it and everything was okay. We got a few cool pics while driving through Oman and are really looking forward to going back when we have all the right paperwork.

Once we got back to the hotel and after all the "boring" things were done, we enjoyed another afternoon at the pool. That evening before supper we went for a little walk to catch a good view of the sunset. It was beautiful. Wayne and Patrick even got in some fossil/rock hunting. Yes, we have more rocks to bring home and add to the ever growing rock collection.

This morning after breakfast we headed to the pool for a few more slides before we had to check out. The kids were disappointed to be leaving and are hoping to go back again soon.

On the whole, a very lovely weekend and a good first exersion from the city. There are lots more photos to show, and I will post some more later as I sort through them. Oh - the other cool things we saw were some falcons flying over head; gliding on the thermals. I was hoping to see some camels but all we saw were some camel crossing signs on the highway in Oman (and Wayne was too wigged out to stop the car for photos).

First Days of school - September 1, 2009

We have all had our first days now at work and school. Patrick is totally into the swing of things now. Samantha... we are still working on that. The first couple of days have been rough so far, but hopefully things will get better for her. I'm doing fine at work. Starting to get the hang of everyone's name in my class. There are kids from all over in my class (Egypt, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, USA, Canada, UAE, Turkey, and South Korea). It has been neat talking to them. The teacher that I'm working with seems pretty cool.

Wayne is getting back into work. He has been helping out with Samantha (she is done at 12 and with Ramadan there is no Kids Kare for her), so she has daughter/Daddy dates for the afternoon.

We are off to Al Ain this weekend to do the border crossing for our visitors visa. The place we are booked into looks nice, right in the mountains. Wayne says that there is a zoo there that is open at night so hoping to take the kids there. The drive is suppose to be pretty cool too. It is through the desert but the sand changes colour through out. We are getting some tips from our neighbours who have done the cross over three times. It should be fun. Our first venture out of the city.