First Day in Abu Dhabi

Despite arriving at our apartment before sunrise after a day of travel, we did not immediately go to sleep. We ordered room service - soup for me and water for us both - and explored the apartment while we waited. Craig took this video (uploaded in two parts because it was too big):

If you saw video or heard about our apartment in Dubai, you'll understand how huge of an upgrade this is for us. Just a few things I'm excited about: There are no stairs in the apartment! There are no stairs between the bedroom and the bathroom! The building elevator goes to our floor! The shower is full height! The kitchen is not up a set of steps from the dining table. The apartment doesn't smell like mold/mildew!

If that weren't enough, on the coffee table, we found a box full of goodies. Items included laundry detergent, dishwasher tablets, dish soap, a sponge, shelf stable milk, tea, instant coffee, Pringles, Digestives, sugar cubes, and a small selection of toiletries. This felt like a really great start to our trip.

After exploring the apartment, we did a bit of unpacking. Room service arrived, so we had our snack and crashed for the "night". We got up in the late morning and got ready for our day.

Craig was going in to work that afternoon, but he'd set aside the morning to help me get settled. (Actually, this had been his plan for the previous day, but that's neither here nor there.) We spoke to the hotel staff about a few things, such as getting more hangers, before driving over to the Al Wahda Mall.

Now, the mall is just catty-corner from our apartment. But we drove because we were planning our first trip to the grocery store, among other things. We started with lunch in the mall. It was...fine. Then we walked around the mall a bit, trying to get a feel for it. This did not work particularly well, as it's a large mall with an extension - so the floors do not always connect the way you might think. We weren't really looking for anything in particular, but we did get a general sense of what was there (just about everything you would expect).

To finish our trip, we went to LuLu Hypermarket - a grocery store in the mall. In addition to a few staple grocery items, we picked up a coffee maker, a few toiletries, and several bottles of water (both still for me and sparkling for Craig). I stopped in a pharmacy just off the hypermarket and bought some Advil, as my ear was hurting terribly.

Craig returned me to the apartment, where I set about reorganizing the kitchen. The apartment is furnished and includes basic kitchen items, but they were scattered at random throughout the cabinets. I also finished unpacking and stashed our suitcases in the top of the closet. Craig came home early from work to take me to an ENT doctor, but that's a story all of it's own.