Dubai Fun

We just returned from an amazing week exploring Dubai.  After Ryan spent a month and a half on turnaround, we most definitely needed a family vacation of relaxation and fun.  We left early Thursday morning, arrived in Dubai around lunch, collected our bags and headed to our hotel.  We explored our hotel for a little bit (which was absolutely incredible) and then decided to go explore the city so that Carol could see Dubai as much as possible.  (She had to fly out the next morning to head back to the US, so we wanted her to see as much as possible!)  We saw the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world, measuring 828 meters to the top.  To give you a little perspective, the Empire State Building is 443 meters to the top of the antenna, so the Burj Khalifa measures twice as tall.  To say it was impressive is a complete understatement.  Standing next to the Burj Khalifa makes you feel like the size of an ant.  We also got to see the Dubai fountain show, where they have fountains set to music, similar to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, as well as a light show on the side of the Burj Khalifa.  Both were amazing to watch!  To end our last evening with Carol, we stopped by and got some delicious desserts from a little cafe.

Grandma and Kjerstin!

Burj Khalifa.

Dubai Fountain Show.

Our yummy desserts....the one on the right has the Dubai skyline in chocolate.

Our hotel

The aquarium inside our hotel!

A towel elephant!

They had this huge glass sculpture in the lobby of our hotel.

The beautiful pools at our hotel.

The next morning, Ryan took Carol to the airport so she could catch her long flight back to the states, and when he returned, we headed to the waterpark.  We were so excited because our friends from Budapest met up with us for the weekend!  (If you had told me 5 years ago when Katelyn and I first became friends that we would meet up in Dubai as expats, I think we both would have laughed!)  Back to the waterpark....it was incredible!  There was a baby/toddler area with 4 water slides and lots of splashers, a huge playground structure for school age kids, a "lazy" river which actually included several rapids, and two tall pyramids that had adult/older kid water slide rides and raft rides.  So we spent the day exploring the park and going on water rides!  Ryan, Clark, Emma, and Ransom all took on the "Leap of Faith," which is a 9 story water slide that hurtles you down it's almost vertical drop in just one second and then sends you through a clear tube surrounded by sharks and rays.  They all survived and had an exhilarating time!  After lots of swimming, we decided to find some supper and get the kiddos to bed.

"Leap of Faith"....eek!

Ransom....he was a stud!

Soren with a seal and our hotel in the background.

Getting ready for the lazy river.

On Saturday, we headed to the waterpark first thing to try to beat some of the crowds.  We did a bunch of the family raft rides together and had a blast!  After a little peer pressure from Clark, we decided to try Poisidon's revenge.  You step into a capsule, hear the door lock, and then wait.  A sweet lady comes on and counts down "3....2....1"....and then the floor falls out from beneath your feet, at which point you are just falling through space.  You plummet through the slide at speeds of 60 km/hour and then turn to go upside down.  The slide lasted maybe 10 seconds, but it sure felt like forever.  I'm pretty sure I shook for about half an hour after the ride.  After spending the morning at the waterpark, we showered up and headed down to the Burj Khalifa.  We went up to the 124th and 125th floors, where we got to see the views from the top of the world!  After coming back down to earth, we found a lovely Lebanese restaurant, where we watched the Dubai fountain show as well as the light show on the Burj Khalifa.  It was such a fun day!

Getting ready to go up in the Burj Khalifa.

828 meters to the top!

Little munchkin on top of the world!

The light show on the Burj Khalifa.

We stopped for dessert at the Cereal Killer...a place where they made cereal concoctions....Ryan was in HEAVEN!

They used beds as the benches for each table....so you could eat your cereal in bed.

The Cereal Killer menu.

We spent the majority of Sunday exploring Legoland, where Soren had an absolute blast!  Everything was made out of legos....statues, the rides, lego people...they even had a mini city of Dubai and some major landmarks (like the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the Grand Mosque in Abu Dahbi) all built out of legos.  It was amazing and the kids had a blast!  After finding some food, we headed back to the hotel to go for one more swim with our friends.  Our friends had an early flight the next morning to head home, so we had to say goodbye.  Goodbyes are never easy, but we were so glad they joined us in Dubai for the weekend.

Legoland!

Legoland Dubai!

Elsa in Driving school.

 

Kjerstin playing in the playground.

Soren went to driving school!!

Roar!!!!!

We found a camel...all made out of legos!!!

You can see the Taj Mahal in the background.

The Burj Khalifa....made out of legos!!!

Elsa loved the airplane ride!

Everything is made out of legos!

Katelyn and I went out for sushi on our girl's night!

Monday we joined up with our good friends from Saudi who live on our compound.  They decided to go to Dubai for spring break as well and so we spent the second part of our spring break with them!  They were at the same hotel as us, so we headed down to the waterpark where we spent the majority of the day going on waterslides, the family raft rides, and the lazy river.  My friend Emily and her oldest daughter Libby peer pressured me into doing the "Leap of Faith" water slide...remember the 9 story water slide?  Well, I did it and it was much more enjoyable than the floor dropping out from under you.  By mid afternoon, (and after both Kjerstin and Grant were tossed out of the tubes on the lazy river) we decided to call it a day and head to our apartment that we rented with our friends for the rest of the week.  We ordered some good pizza, got the kids to bed, and had fun hanging out and playing games the rest of the night!

Soren had a blast!

Waterslides!

More waterslides!

Elsa had a blast!

So fun at the water park!

Kjerstin and Daddy on the waterslide.

Refreshing shaved ice after a fun day of swimming!

On Tuesday, our friends headed to Legoland, while we explored more of Dubai.  Our first stop was the Dubai Miracle Garden, where they have huge creations made all out of flowers.  They had a Mickey Mouse, a teddy bear, and they even had an Airbus 380 completely covered in flowers.  It was quite impressive!  After walking around the gardens, we headed to the Dubai Mall (one of the largest malls in the world) to check out the aquarium.  The kids loved seeing all the animals!  We explored the mall for a while and then headed to the other huge mall in Dubai, Mall of the Emirates.  The cool thing at Mall of the Emirates is that they have an indoor ski hill.  We decided to eat supper at the Cheesecake Factory so we could watch all the adventurers on the ski hill.  The kids had fun watching the skiing, tubing, and sledding!  It was a busy and fun day!

Dubai Miracle Garden.

A swan and Mickey Mouse in the background.

A huge teddy bear.

Beautiful clock....and everything was made out of flowers!

My 3 little loves.

Airbus 380....all out of flowers!

The aquarium at the Dubai Mall.

Soren LOVED it!

We found a model of an alligator.....next to the cage of a real one....ick!

The frog outside of the Rainforest Cafe was pretty cool!

Snow in the desert....Ski Dubai!

Wednesday morning brought an early start as we headed out on our safari with our friends.  Our guides took us out to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, where we got to see camels, oryx, and gazelles.  We got to stop for a picnic breakfast and we also saw a lake filled with Tilapia!  Soren had a blast spying for animals throughout the desert.  After washing all the sand away back at the apartment, we headed down to the Dubai mall to find some supper.  We found a TGI Fridays that had awesome views of the Dubai Fountains and the Burj Khalifa.  After a fun day, we headed back to the hotel for some good rest!

Cutie pie!

Camels on our safari!

Soren loved spying for all the animals.

Climbing a sand dune!

By the lake with Tilapia.

Safari Lunch!

Dubai at night....with great friends!

Dubai Fountain show at night.

Thursday was our last full day in Dubai, so we decided to do some of the cultural things.  We started our morning at the Grand Mosque, which was really interesting.  We got to listen to an hour long presentation on Islam and learn more about the religion.  After the Grand Mosque, we met up with our friends to explore all the souks in Dubai.  A souk is a place where several vendors are located trying to sell things.  So we explored the textile souk, the spice souk, and the gold souk (which is the largest gold souk in the world, consisting of 300 vendors all selling gold jewelry).  We also got to take a boat taxi ride to get us from the textile souk to the spice and gold souks.  After exploring, we headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit before venturing out one last time to Global Village.  The best way I can describe Global Village is Epcot on a TON of steroids.  There are over 50 countries represented, all with vendors selling goods from that country. There are famous landmarks showcased from all over the world including the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, Mount Rushmore, Big Ben, and so much more!  They had food from all over the world as well!  We ate a Bosnian meat pocket, mini pancakes with nutella (that was for the kids!), Egyptian pastries with Nutella, Turkish ice cream and Turkish Kanafeh.  We walked inside the Africa building (which was awesome!), the Americas, Bahrain, Lebanon and of course we had to go in KSA, where the were selling dates!  We could have spent much longer there, but the kids were pretty exhausted, and since it was one of the last nights that it was open for the season, it was extremely busy.  We headed back to our apartment after a wonderful last day in Dubai!

Dubai Mosque.

Textile souq.

Textile souq.

Spices in the souq.

Getting ready for the boat ride.

With our friends on the boat taxi.

One of the many vendors in the gold souq.

This is Europe in Global Village...you can see the Colosseum and the famous Gaudi church.

Africa building.

Saudi!!!!

You can see the Eiffel tower, the Burj Khalifa, and the Taj Mahal....all lit up at night.

The Egyptian pyramids lit up.

Sweet friends!

On Friday, we hung out at our apartment, packed up our things, and headed back home to Saudi.  It was an amazing trip filled with fun, much needed family time, exploration, relaxation, and the best of friends.  Thanks for a great week Dubai!!!