What is Mr. Big Thankful for?

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi

Since we are in Dubai and missing the wonderful smell of turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes...we decided to do something different  (that seems to be our theme this year). I decided that I was not going to try and find a substitute for turkey and cook up a meal that wouldn't taste like anything we remember from holidays past. Instead, when I asked Mr. Big what he was greatful for, he replied, "Well, I am greatful for Ferraris." So that said, after he got off work on Thursday, we headed to Abu Dhabi and its brand new Ferrari World! What better way to pay homage then to go to this new theme park!

Amazing interior of Ferrari Wold

Mr. Big and Big Buddy love fast cars!

Ferrari Kids town

Ferrari World I must say is an amazing experience. At first I had visions of a rinky-dink carnival like park for kids with the Ferrari logo on it. Well, I was completely wrong! First off, the building is an amazing thing to behold all on its own. Besides being humongous, the shape and layout just blows your mind (I bet you can see this thing from outerspace!). Inside, the construction is definitely something to behold. The dome like shape is very open and creates a Ferrari like city. Each ride is displayed in a nice flowing fashion with actual Ferrari cars sprinkled amoung them. Of course there are strategically placed kid stores with toys around every corner along with Ferrari merchandise ...but what can you expect! Right. LOL.

In a nut shell, this place is definitely a place for daddy's to take their little ones to just enjoy and reveal in all things Ferrari. From mini Ferrari towns for kids to drive around in to Formula 1 racing cars, Ferrari themed roller coasters (they have the worlds fastest roller coaster right now), driving simulators, and museums, you quickly become immursed (what a great way to market to the next generation). What I really appreciated about this place is that each ride/simulator is educating the public on Ferrari. We learned the history, how they make them, why they are so fast, all the awards they have won over the years, about their famous drivers and designers and you really build a deep appreciation for all that has gone into the making of the Ferrari (now don't we wish we could all afford one!)

Big Buddy in his element...driving a fast car.

Big Buddy's favorite ride was this little Ferrari kids town where you could pick a little Ferrari of your choice and actually drive around this very cool looking city. Of course they made all of the kiddies watch a driving video first, then they take their picture before turning them loose on the road. The picture was in case you wanted to buy them a Ferrari drivers license while you were there...and yes I could not pass this up. Big Buddy now has his Ferrari drivers license. He must of road on this ride like 10 times before the night was over. :)

Formula 1 simulator...get out of town!

Yes, I actually did drive a real Ferrari! I rocked it!

My favorite ride was the educational simulators. By far I have never experienced anything like these before. The very first one we sat in was amazing! You are strapped into a leather lazyboy type chair that can move from left to right, forward to backward, and can tilt you in any which direction. The movie starts and it is about this kid who dreams of working for the Ferrari company. During the sequence you are sitting next to one of Ferrari's top drivers speeding along in his red Ferrari, when all of a sudden he drives through a puddle. Right at that very moment, I felt water spray me in the face. Immediately, I thought...what the crap is this. It totally took me by surprise.  Next, we were dodging through a crowd of cows on the road when all of a sudden, no kidding...I could smell cow crap. Really. I looked over at Mr. Big and said, "I smell cow crap!" and we both started laughing. All in all we were sprayed a couple of more times and smelled some grass. Fantastic! We also quite enjoyed the Formula 1 simulator. Amazing how they could move the entire vehicle and make it feel like you are really racing one of these cars. Behind, this ride, sat 8 mini ones of these that 8 people could race against each other. Mr. Big really got a kick out of these. He came in third place! He was quite happy about that (the kid who came in first was like 12). I raced in this Ferrari car simulator which felt so real, I actually got sick while driving it! I also re-lived several car accidents as I would wreck into the simulators wall around the track. The car would tilt, jolt and move just like it would on the road as if you were really driving. Mr. Big also drove in this car and also felt sick afterwards (does this mean we are getting old! Yikes!)

Big Buddy enjoying the car puzzle with other kids.

One of the coolest kid things we found was this "Build a Ferrari" car in a kids play area. The kids had to put on the doors, wheels, hood, lights, mirros, tail fin...etc. Big Buddy really had a fun time with this. It was like putting together a 3D puzzle.

Walking around it was really neat to see Ferrari's from the different years and styles. One of my favorite was this blue one. It had the cutest little face on it. :)  It was really fun to see workers wiping the cars down every so often to keep the dust off of them. That might be a really interesting job...so what do you do...I keep the yellow Ferrari clean at Ferrari World. Nice!

Ain't she a cute car! Love the color!

I think that Mr. Big's favorite ride was the roller coaster. It is the world's fastest roller coaster ride right now. Mr. Big road on it three times, once in the front, middle and back of the coaster. Afterward, he could hardly breath due to the large amounts of adrenaline pumping through his veins! When I asked him how it went, he explained that the ride was the most exciting and scary thing all wrapped into one. Wow. I really wish I would of taken a ride on this coaster. I was way to afraid after I saw the look on Mr. Big's face afterward. Here is some info about the coaster.

Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso on the roller coaster.

Another beauty being wiped down by a museum janitor.

The thrill of Rosso
Strap yourself into the F1™ cockpit and hold  onto your soul as you blast away on the fastest roller coaster on the planet. You’ll accelerate up to 240km/h and see what 4.8 Gs really feels like. You’ll scream over the track and 52 meters into the sky before flying through the chicanes, inspired from some of the most famous race tracks in the world, and across the finish line, with an adrenaline kick worthy of the Grand Prix. Needless to say, you’ll have to wear safety goggles for the duration of the ride, just like every other racer that takes on Grand Prix speeds. It’s the world’s fastest roller coaster in all its F1™ glory. Here is a picture of Ferrari's top drivers on the coaster to give you an idea of it's coolness. Click here if you would like to see a video of the coaster in action.  As you can probably imagine, we were all super pooped by the time they closed at Midnight. Big Buddy had the time of his life and we definitely paid homage to the Ferrari. As we went to leave we thought it would be fun to buy some Ferrari hats and shirts for everyone. When we saw the price of such items, we about passed out. A Ferrari hat cost $40 a piece and the t-shirts started at $80 and went up from there. :( I guess if you can afford a Ferrari, then you can afford to wear the clothes! ;)

 

 

Father and son bonding

Walking underwater at the Dubai Aquarium

Happy family at the zoo

We recently walked underwater at the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo. This amazing place can be found in the Dubai Mall (yes, another outragious thing found in the Malls over here). Although the experience didn't last that long, it was totally awesome! One thing to note, is that this aquarium has been awarded the largest acrylic panel in the world by Guinness World Records. Cool hugh! Only in Dubai!

Walking underwater

As you will see in some of the photos, you actually walk through an acrylic tube so that you are walking underwater. It is fun to see how many people can fit in this tube...including people of the cloth. It is kind of funny, but I am starting to get used to seeing the women in their black attire everywhere. (I feel bad for the gals that only have the slits for their eyes to see. In the second picture the gal in the front is adjusting her face mask so she can see. This actually happens a lot with the full face cover up. Personnally, I would be completely annoyed with having to do that. I think that God knew if he put me in a Muslim family, that I wouldn't last long, so I thank him for America everyday).

I absolutely love this photo. Mr. Big is showing Big Buddy
how this fish is see through. Look at it's cute little smiling
face on the glass!

These piranha look hungry!

It was especially interesting to see that sharks like to hide out in the dark part of the tube. Every once in a while, one would shoot out and swim amongst the other fish. Mr. Big and I are still wondering why the sharks don't eat the other fish?  As you can see, the water and lights made the whole experience magical. I think we could of pulled up a lawn chair and stayed in the tube for hours! Once you make it through the tube, you are plopped out into an underwater zoo where you see all sorts of interesting fish. One of our favorites were the piranha. What a strange fish. The very first thing I noticed was that they were all perfectly separated the exact same distance (a designers dream). And they didn't even budge (when Big Buddy placed his little hand on the glass I could of swore that I saw a few of the fish blink in anticipation). The top of the aquarium was open, so someone could of plunked their hand in. It was tempting, I must admit...but all the signs with chewed off fingers deterred me from doing it. ;)

Something else I found interesting were these underwater sand worms. They would just pop up out of the sand and sway in the water. Look at their cute little faces. Almost snake like... I wonder if these are out in the ocean (OMG. That was probably what I had caught between my toes the other day at the beach when I walked out into the ocean...I am starting to feak out now!)?

Underwater sand worms

This aquarium had tons of sting rays floating around. They are so beautiful as they swim and float by. Each one we watched seemed more amazing than the last...that was until we came upon this special sting ray. As you can see, this special one had quite the personality. The face on this little guy actually caused me to pee myself a little from all the laughing. We have officially renamed this one "Dork Ray"! I would go back and pay just to see this guy again!

Aaaahhh! I'm a dork fish!

Upstairs from the underwater zoo are the creepy crawlies. We saw all sorts of snakes and spiders. Have I mentioned that I have yet to see a single spider in Dubai yet! Strange. We did get to see a camel spider. I refuse to put a picture of it on this blog since they give me nightmares. Google it if you like scary!

Next, we hope to swim with some dolphins! I will keep you posted!

Big Buddy gets his fish

Yellow Fin Tuna steak.
Yes, I was taken back when I saw the guts also.

Mr. Big's dinner masterpiece.

In a previous post I mentioned how Big Buddy really wanted to buy a fish from the British Supermarket so that he could eat its eyes, fin and lips. Well, watch what you put out into the Universe...the very next day, Mr. Big met an Arab gentleman named Khalid who loves to fish. The story is that this man used to be a falconer, however,  has given that up and taken on fishing due to the gratification that comes from fishing. In conversation, Mr. Big mentioned that the last time he was in Orlando, he had the best Yellow Fin Tuna he had ever tasted. Well, the Arab gentleman explained with joy that he catches those all the time and that he would bring Mr. Big a fresh one tomorrow. (Please note...that Arab's are very giving people. Whenever they see an opportunity to give a gift to someone they do). No Kidding! The very next day, Mr. Big received a phone call that this very kind gentleman had dropped off a fresh yellow fin tuna at Seyed's Falconry shop for us. We laughed at the idea and wondered if it was a whole tuna (those things are massive!).

Luckily, when we picked up the tuna, the gentleman had it sliced into steaks. Big Buddy was so excited that he was going to get to eat fish (I think he was a little bit sad that it was missing the eyes, fins and lips, but I was grateful they were...believe me!). The challenging thing is that Mr. Big and I have never really prepared fish before. So I put Mr. Big to the task and Voila...he did a great job. It looked so pretty sitting on the plate with rice and carrots. The first couple of bites tasted really fantastic. However, the more bites we took the more we quickly realized that we don't really love fish and it needed some sort of seasoning (not to forget that Mr. Big could not stand that our apartment smelled like Yellow Fin Tuna for the next three days). I think if we would of had some ketchup, it might of been OK. We still have three more of these steaks in our freezer if someone wants them! Or at least give me an idea of how to season these babies. :)

Florida's Natural Orange Juice, Yum!

Thought you might get a kick out of what food packaging looks like over here in the Middle East. I was able to find my favorite orange juice, "Florida's Natural" over here in Dubai. It is really fun to see it in a different language (the orange juice does taste delicious over here, and I find that I am drinking a lot of it). OMG, I also found this super funny package of chicken nuggets. Please notice how the two little boys look like two fat little American boys. I actually laughed out loud when I saw this. Priceless!

Dubai is super hot and very humid. Anyone that knows me knows that my drink of choice is water all the way! So I am always nervous when I cannot find good water to drink. Well, over here instead of water bottles that I am so used to, they have these little water cups. Big Buddy just loves these! They are perfect for kids. I was able to find water bottles later and believe me they do come in a "Super" size.

Chicken Nuggets American Style, LOL!

Big Buddy with a water cup.

I am alive!

Sorry it has been 12 days since my last post. I really have not been abducted by aliens. In fact, I flew to Las Vegas Nevada and then back again to Dubai to attend an Internet Conference for work. I know, call me crazy. Here is what has been happening on the other side of the world...

I found PORK sucka's!

A proud momma that's bringing home
the bacon! (click to view larger)

We found a British Super Market in a rinky dink little mall not too far away from our apartment and decided to scope it out. So glad I did, it was like Christmas when I found the "Pork for Non-Muslims" section hidden way in the back of the store (I swear going back there felt like back in the day when your parents would disappear behind the "naughty movies curtain" at the VHS store). Non-the-less, dirty unholy pork could be found here. Yum, yum, yummy! We also found some other interesting things here...fish galore. Big Buddy was fascinated with this. He kept telling Mr. Big, "I want to take a fish home daddy!" Mr. Big would ask him what part of the fish would he like to eat, and he would respond with, I want to eat the fin, eyeball and mouth. Since we don't eat fish really, Mr. Big and I couldn't figure out which fish would be good or even how to prepare it (please don't judge). So we skipped out without one of these beauties, however, Big Buddy would get his wish just one day later! At check out it works a bit different then at home, here a guy empties the cart while one scans the items while the last one bags the items. You end up just standing there all dumb like...well that is what I looked like at least. :) We did end up getting in trouble because we didn't figure out that you had to weigh your produce and print out your own stickers until it was too late. They had to go and do it for us really grumpily. Sorry!

Loads of fresh fish.

In the mall that is hiding the pork, I ran across this interesting sign giving directions to prayer rooms for men and women. Wow. This struck me a little bit odd. Couldn't resist a picture. After we found the pork, I felt moved to go and pray in one of these rooms to thank God for this great gift...Mr. Big rolling his eyes, dragged me out of the rinky dink mall, but not before he bought me a new pair of sunglasses. Did I mention that the sun is so bright here you have to wear shades? No really, my eyes have never been so "Blinded by the Light", LOL. Let's just say that I am no longer the wearer of cheap gas station $2 glasses. Nope...ladies I have now joined the ranks of Versace! Mr. Big....I love you!

Yes, I am super tired, no I am not pregnant (I am going to
torch that shirt once I get home!)

I found this interesting! (click to view larger!)

Big Buddy is a Rock Star!

Striking a pose at the pool.

Fun to see the U.S., India and Brazil all playing together.

From day one here in Dubai, Big Buddy has been a rock star wherever he goes. The culture is such that children are viewed as very special...almost like mini gods or rock stars. I have always felt that in the U.S. we treat children pretty good...at least I thought so until Dubai. No matter where we go, Big Buddy gets asked his name, age, and various other questions. He is often referred to as "Baby" and they can never pronounce his name quite right...this irritates Big Buddy and he tries to correct them. He always gets hugged, kissed on the forehead or cheek, his hands held or squeezed, his ribs tickled, you name it, he is getting plenty of attention ;) . He is even given gifts from toys, balloons, food, whatever his little heart desires really (Mr. Big is trying to train Big Buddy to ask for the next Ferrari he sees!). LOL!

Not only is Big Buddy a rock star with adults, he is also one on the playground! No matter where we go, Big Buddy can spot another child a mile away and will run towards them often times scaring the poop right out of the super shy ones. In the past week, he has made a friend at the pool that goes by Riley Jack (first names only here). He is from England and is the same age as Big Buddy. They love swimming together and sharing their water toys. Big Buddy has also made two little friends on the playground behind our apartment. Sophie is from Brazil and Zeib is from India. One interesting thing that Mr. Big has noticed is that no matter where the children are from, they all play the same and find a way to communicate with each other even when they don't speak the same language. All of this fascinates me!

The Little King of burgers.

Oh, I cannot forget to tell you about our Burger King experience with Big buddy. Yes, we did the extremely American thing and found a Burger King to eat at over here. The food only tastes about 65% like the Burger King in the U.S. though. Strange. When you go into a Burger King over here, they get all excited and crown your offspring with the crown of Burger the King LOL! Then they take his order along with tons of smiling and cooing at him (I vaguely remember Burger King being like this when I was a little kid. Maybe it was because it was pretty new back then). Hugh. Big Buddy was greateful for the good old burger taste along with being crowned.

Lost in "Scary Town"!

Lost in "Scary Town" while Mr. Big tries to fix the
navigation system

Grand City Mall

Skyscraper construction is everywhere!

Monday, Mr. Big decided that he wanted to get some curved top flags printed for a couple of falconry hunts/competitions that he is putting together. After a couple of hours calling several banner shops trying to get a bid (I swear, when I hear an Indian accent, I cannot concentrate on what is being said) I was able to get a general location of such a shop. Now something interesting in Dubai, they never list actual addresses on websites, ads, etc. Instead, they list PO Box #'s. When you ask for street names, no one seems to know them. Now, Mr. Big has a navigation system that he brought along which has been very helpful on several occasions...except for today. Naturally, we thought we would drive right to the front door of this little banner shop. Hours later, driving around we ended up in Industrial Park #4 (aka Scary Town). We called the salesman at the banner shop (which shall remain unnamed) for better directions. He asked if we were by the "Grand City Mall". Why yes, we just so happened to be right by this very strange mall. Notice that there are only men hanging around. Turns out that these Industrial Parks are full of Pakistani and Indian laborers living in these one bedroom shacks (no women in site if you know what I mean). After awhile of driving around the same streets and taking the same round-a-bouts several times, we finally gave up (it was getting dark and I was ready to get the heck out of dodge!). No banners today.

Looking back, "Scary Town" was not all bad as I look at the photos that I took during the adventure. Along the way I was able to get a snapshot of several buildings with cranes on the top of each. Over here in Dubai, there is construction everywhere! (Something to note, at the end of each day, the cranes are turned and left in the direction of Qiblah. Qiblah is the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays to the holy mosque in Mecca.).

Skyline in sandstorm

A sand storm blew in while we were driving around, and I was able to get this really beautiful shot of the Dubai Skyline peering out of the storm.  Now, we have never really experienced a sand storm like this (feels like sandpaper in the eyes). Cars are covered in sand and dirt all the time over here. I could tell that Mr. Big was itching for a drive through car wash. If you want to be rich in Dubai, either own shares in oil, or a drive through car wash! :)

Power lines as far as the eye can see.

When your not looking at skyscrapers, it seems you are looking at power lines over here...as far as the eye can see. Something else interesting, is that the homes over here are typically two story and stucco surrounded by a wall. They can very in size depending on your status. The larger ones have a guard stationed outside the gate with a machine gun (I wonder how much one of these guys cost?).

Lesson learned...stay away from "Scary Town"!

Typical Arab home here in Dubai.

Tom Cruise...in Dubai!

Tom Cruise looking a lot like Spider Man on the Burj Khalifa
(click photo to view larger)

Tom Cruise flying out from the building
(click photo to view larger)

So we had to fly all the way to Dubai, just to see Tom Cruise perform his death defying stunts off of the Burj Khalifa (worlds tallest building, located in Dubai) this past Friday. Wow! We had heard that the week before he had scaled down the building for the filming of his new movie, Mission Impossible #4 and were sad that we had missed it. As we were driving to the grocery store on Friday, we noticed that there were two helicopters flying around the building and then we saw someone run across the front of the windows. We pulled over and stood near the base of the Burj Khalifa were we were able to watch Tom repel down a many stories of the building and then run around to the other side. At one point he flew out from the building which was super cool! We took these photos and a small video. It was a ton of fun to see him perform these stunts and to also watch people from other countries get excited about seeing Tom Cruise. LOL! I wonder if we will bump into him while he films his other scenes...we will keep you updated! PS. Mr. Big is a new Tom Cruise fan now. He was impressed that Tom would do this crazy stunt himself.

No Longer Homeless!

The Palm Jumeirah is a man-made island.

The Shoreline Apartments are our new home.

I really do think that God loves me. After all of the phone calls that Mr. Big made and after running around looking at different apartments, we finally have a place to call home! Late Thursday night we moved into "The Palm Jumeirah". We were able to score a one bedroom apartment in one of the five star luxury resorts here in Dubai. The coolest thing is that we are actually living on the Eighth Wonder of the World! Shut Up! Our actual apartment is located on The Palms trunk in the Shoreline Apartments. As you can see, the beach is just right out the back door! Thank You God!

View from back window of the train rail and adjacent resort.

It feels so great to have our suitcases unpacked and to have my computer set up. Yes, we actually shipped my home computer over here so I could work. It made it in one piece and is working great! I really did miss the internet and emails like no other. Thought my arms had been cut off. LOL! On Friday, it felt really great to work. Because of the 10  hour time difference, it puts me working at night. I am finding this quite relaxing actually...however, now that I think about it...probably won't help me with my sleeping habits! :)

On Friday, we hit our first grocery store. Interesting experience. Most people only grab a few odds and ends, so it looked quite funny for us to actually spend 368 Dirham (or 100 U.S. dollars) on food. Of course the packaging all looks quite different, but we were able to find the staples of what we needed. Eggs, bread, fruit, veggies, yogurt, water, peanut butter and milk. Oh, I thought it was interesting that each and every egg over here has a born on and expiration date stamped right on it.

I love the quaint feel of this little grocery store.

Car seat update! We were finally able to find us a car seat. Yippee! Now we feel that Big Buddy is safer in the car while we are dogging all the Ferrari's, Porsches, and all other luxury sports cars. ;) Also, now when he falls asleep in the car, he will have a place to rest his poor little head instead of kinking his neck.

I don't know why I find this interesting...I just do.

Day 2, Wednesday - A place to call home

Dubai

Driving into the new part of the city.

Skyscraper after skyscraper...interesting.

Love all the different architecture here.

So many of the buildings are in the middle of construction.

Since we are struggling with the time change still, our hours of sleep are still off. It is becoming quite common for Big Buddy to wake up at 3am hungry. So he will eat a granola bar and juice and then go back to sleep till 5am. I am becoming quit accustomed to the wonderful breakfasts here. I will definitely miss them when we leave this hotel.

Day 2 we packed up the family and drove to Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) in Dubai. I read a ton of great things about it online and scheduled an appointment with a realtor to see an available apartment. I expected to meet with an Arab gentleman to see this property, however, it turns out that there are tons of Russian women Expats living here and working as realtors. Interesting! So I was excited that I could be apart of the bidding process to get a place to live. Women to women shouldn't be bad right...wrong! Even though these gals were nice, I realized immediately how they were used to working...with men. We worked with two separate gals and each were dressed in see through provocative clothing that left little to the imagination (Mr Big thought this was fantastic). Big Buddy told me he could see one gals "Nummies"! LOL! They also whore...I mean wore the most expensive accessories like a Louis Vuitton bag with Versace heels. At first I wondered how they could afford such luxuries and then quickly figured it out. For each 1 to 2 bedroom apartment we looked at, it seemed they were doubling the price from what I recall seeing on the web. (So glad I searched the web before these viewings). All in all, what a waste of a day, but a very interesting learning experience. We decided we were not going to pay $5,500 per month for a two bedroom apartment or even $4,500 for a one bedroom with scant furniture. Frustrated and tired we took matters into our own hands. We looked up the sites on the Internet and made tons of calls. We found several more affordable options in the same JBR residence and also out on "The Palm". With appointments set up for early Thursday, we began to feel much better!

Big Buddy fell asleep in the car on the way back at 6pm. He was fully asleep for the night by 7pm. Once again we were all up at 3am.

Reflecting on this day, I really liked the JBR area since it seems to be a melting pot of cultures. It really reminds me of say The Gateway in SLC were you can live there in a community and be so close to food and shopping with the added bonus of being right on the beach of course! Sure hope the gods look upon us and help us find an affordable place to stay...or we are about to become homeless in Dubai.

Day 1, Tuesday - The Dubai Mall

With only four short hours of sleep (Big Buddy got up at 5am) we began our day. Breakfast in Dubai is fantastic! Fresh fruit, eggs, and pastries galore. One thing to note, the eggs here are different. The yokes are orange orange instead of yellow. Very tasty.

Etisalat is where everyone gets their phone service in Dubai.

There are 4 levels to this mall. Ice skating rink in Dubai. Wow!

Largest big screen I have ever seen.

My iPhone stopped wanting to work after our flight over here. So our main missions for today were to get me a local cell phone so Kevin and I can be in contact, look for a car seat, and a place to live. First stop, the Dubai Mall. Now I have heard things about this mall, it is one if not the largest mall in the world. We figured we should be able to find anything we need here. What an experience...going to the mall is an event over here. Women and men dress up to the nines to go to the mall. I wondered why this is until I got here. Besides the fact that Mr. Big, Big Buddy and myself all looked like homeless people in comparison (wait, we are homeless) we noticed that the most famous designers, fashions, and most expensive everything is at the Dubai mall. Did I mention that they have an Ice skating rink in the middle of it? Wow, this along with the largest flat screen tv I have ever seen (several stories high and wide). And gold everything. They have "The Gold Souk" which are a bunch of little shops that each deal in gold. I definitely want to go back here and spend some more time. Now after awhile, Mr. Big and I found the Local Cell phone company for all of Dubai. I was able to get myself a little Nokia (yikes, I really miss my iPhone). Big Buddy and I had our first Italian Gelato ever...wow! I am in love with gelato. Regular old ice cream will never be the same for me. Big Buddy and I were fitted for our traditional Muslim garb. He a white shirt with white crocheted cap and I the traditional black burka with a couple of beautiful scarves. Although, I feel like the burka is a way to control women and their rights, I have to admit, there seems to be something sexy about this outfit. The younger women in Dubai, are starting to dress up their burka's with jewels of all sorts. Bling as we know it. They also dress themselves up with the most expensive purse and shoes you have ever seen. Can you say "Millano Blancs", "Versace", etc.

The Gold Souk is amazing!

With phone in hand, and no car seats in site, we must of walked over our 10,000 steps for the day. The three of us were exhausted! We returned to our hotel and began searching for our new place to live. We had our eye on a couple of places that we had researched on the net and started calling to set up appointments for the next day. The three of us retired to bed by 7pm and of course we were up by 5am again. ;)

It is typical to turn the corner and see something amazing!

Also typical to see gentlemen sitting around.

We did wake up at 1am and decided to go out for an adventure. Turns out that there are more people out at 1am then during the middle of the day. Very strange. This sort of reminded me of Las Vegas. We stopped at a convenient store and it was fun to see all of the snack food in Arabic.