greetings from Abu Dhabi!

First week:
So, I have an aunt and uncle who live in Abu Dhabi, and they invited us to come stay with them during the easter break, which was amazingly nice… I’ve been looking forward to this trip basically since Christmas… we arrived in Abu Dhabi Sunday night, March 22nd. Monique and Moutaz, the aunt and uncle, picked us up from the airport. I hadn’t seen them since 2006, when we were all together on the west coast, so it was really nice to see them again. Aidan and I were pretty stifled by the heat at first, being that it was abt 40 F on the ground in Germany, and abt 85 F on the ground in Abu Dhabi. We were pretty tired, but stayed up for a bit and talked, and caught up. (and hugged the kiddos, who were already comatose)
The next day, we did a little shopping… Aidan had to buy some flip-flops, and so we went to the mall that’s just around the corner. There are approximately 15 huge shopping malls in the city, so we had plenty of selection… We spent a little time in the sun, (we are still pasty, and didn’t want to send our skins into shock!!)
On Tuesday, after sleeping in a little further than planned, Monique took us on a grand tour through the main part of the city, which is HUGE! It looks relatively tiny on the map, but it’s gigantic. And expanding incredibly quickly… We drove around, took lots of pictures, and decided that, since we hadn’t seen the sun in more than 6 months, we wanted to play on the beach a little bit. We went down to the corniche (the strip of shops and boardwalks along the beach) and got to sit in the sun for a couple hours, a pure luxury for us. We then met up with Monique and the boys, and went for a late lunch at the marina mall, which is gigantic, and has a great view of the city.
Weds, Aidan and I went on the “big bus tour” around AD, which was actually a lot of fun! We got to bee shameless tourists, and take pictures of everything under the sun without feeling embarrassed abt it! We got to see the Iranian souk (market) and the carpet souk, before heading out to the Sheik Khalifa mosque, which is the largest mosque in the world outside of Saudi Arabia. We arrived after evening prayers, so it was basically deserted… the pictures I took turned out amazingly, and will be posted soon!
Thursday, we all hit the road to Dubai. It was about an hour drive, doing abt 160(kmh) :D It seems like everything in Dubai is super-sized, so I felt right at home! Our first stop was the Mall of the Emirates, home of Ski Dubai! We were SUPPOSED to catch another big bus, to go on a tour, but they decided to be uncooperative, so we skipped it, and browsed instead! We wandered around, took some fun pics of the ski resort in the desert, and then made our way downtown. Aidan and I wandered around the area surrounding the Burj Khalifa while Monique checked in, and then we all met up, and went to a water park, Wild Wadi. It is located just inland of the Burj al Arab, so I spent most of my time on the slides oogling the bulding... Later on that night, Aidan and I went out to meet up with one of her old work buddies, who is now living in Dubai. The place we ended up going to was a Japanese grill that is right on the beach, and had an amazing view of the gulf as we snacked and drank, and met new people. We ended up getting back to the hotel at 2 am, and passed out!
Friday, I took the boys to the hotel pool, to wear them out, and to get some more sun in… We had a good time, despite the fact that the only other people at the pool were old. And fat. And wearing speedos. I, of course, got sunburned, because I sat in the sun for more than 15 mintues, but it really hasn’t been all that bad. That evening, Monique and Moutaz took us on a desert safari! We all packed into an SUV, and drove an hour into the desert… Our guide took us dune-bashing, which was so much fun, but didn’t provide many great photo-taking opportunities… We did stop a few times, so that we could take some pics, and I got some amazing photos of the sunset over the desert. For dinner, we went to a camp in the middle of the desert, had some local food, got some henna tattoos, watched belly-dancing, and smoked a little hookah!

hope you are all keeping warm!! if you want postcards, email or facebook me your address!!
-seany