Bryce's Visit

In preparation for Bryce's visit, I picked up a few snacks at the grocery store. I wanted him to have a few things that would be easy to find if he woke up inexplicably hungry (something I frequently do when I travel internationally). I choose a variety of things ranging from what I knew he would like to what I thought he might have fun trying.

When he left, we saw that the date bar and the two Pringles cans had been left on the dresser. Now, the fact that he did not try the date bar was unsurprising, but both Craig and I were confused that he hadn't tried either flavor of Pringles. It wasn't until we were packing up the apartment a few days later that we discovered he had eaten both cans of Pringles, but had not completely removed the seal from either can. With the lids back in place, the cans appeared untouched but were empty.

I did not take many pictures during his visit for a combination of reasons. On his first full day, he fought jetlag and somehow induced me to watch three movies. I even watched the entirety of UP, which I had stopped on previous attempts due to tears. I still cried, but I have now actually seen the whole movie.

The only day he did any sightseeing, I was hiding in the dark with a migraine. Craig had a rare day free and took him to the Louvre and the Grand Mosque. The rest of his trip was taken up with visits to the park and the grand opening event, which I'll let Craig write about.

Grand Mosque

A trip to Abu Dhabi can hardly be complete without a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. I had planned to wear one of my abayas and lend the other to my friend. But I'm enough taller that it didn't work as planned. Instead, she wore a floor length, long-sleeved dress and borrowed a headscarf. Still, this wasn't enough to get through security at the mosque. She had to add one of the mosque's loaner abayas over her dress. Here we are, near the entrance:

We removed our shoes and went into the mosque. At one point, my friend asked me to take a photo of her. I suggested that she step further out into the sunlight, to provide better light for the picture. But as she stepped out, she discovered that the marble in the sunlight was significantly warmer than the cooled marble in the shade. She took a few quick steps and gave a little shriek of laughter before posing for the picture.

As I was handing her phone over to her, a security guard approached us and told us that "only peaceful pictures were allowed". I thought he was objecting to the little dance my friend had done when she discovered the floor was so hot, but his objection was to the still photograph of her standing with her arms extended from her sides.  He insisted that we delete the photo and stood watching as she removed it from her phone.  We were confused, but obedient to his request, so I cannot show you the objectionable photo.

We did later see a sign that expressly forbid the pose she had taken:

As we were leaving the mosque, we saw another larger sign with even more prohibitions. Ironically, the reason we had not seen this sign when we entered is because it was further into the sunlight and I had been avoiding the heat of the sun. I do still wonder if he would have noticed the picture if she had not been shocked by the heat underfoot. And, of course, I really do wonder what exactly the objection is to this pose.

Even with that bit of drama, I was able to take some "peaceful" pictures of her:

After our tour of the mosque, we returned the borrowed abaya and found a taxi. We made our way to a Harley Davidson shop, where we struggled to pick out t-shirts for our respective partners. It turns out that this is a very difficult decision to make for someone else, even when you know them well. Or perhaps because we know them so well - it might have been easier to pick something for someone who doesn't expect you to choose perfectly for them. 

We finished our day by going to the local mall (not the international mall across from our hotel, but a more varied one just a few blocks away) to shop for souvenirs. I will say that the experience made me glad that I gave up buying souvenirs sometime before I had two granddaughters and ten nieces and nephews.

Adventures in Camel Trekking

One of the things my friend most wanted to do during her visit was experience the desert. Riding a camel featured highly on her list as well. I knew that we would have to get out of the city to experience the desert. Although I am listed as a driver on our rental car, I have not yet attempted driving here. So I decided the best way to accomplish this desert visit was to take a tour.

Our hotel offered several options, which I reviewed beforehand. I decided that I might be up to the challenge of a morning desert adventure. There was a camel trekking tour that ran from 7:30-11:00 in the morning.

When we stopped to book this tour, the concierge tried to talk us into the longer tour that runs from 3:00-9:00 p.m. - this includes a camel ride, belly dancing, and dinner in the desert. This is their "most popular" tour, we were told. But we held firm to our morning only limitation and booked the camel trek.

I was relieved to wake up on Tuesday morning without a migraine and without terrible lingering side effects. I wore a long-sleeved, SPF shirt and a hat to protect myself from the sun. I also wore a lightweight pair of athletic pants that I typically wear when riding our tandem bicycle at home. I knew these would be cooler than jeans but more comfortable and more sun protection than my slacks.

We were picked up by an SUV at the hotel. We were the only people riding in the SUV, which was nice. I was a bit surprised to see that the vehicle had rollbars inside:

We drove about 45 minutes out of Abu Dhabi into the desert. When we left the highway, our driver asked if we wanted a "desert safari". We agreed and found ourselves slipping and sliding across the sand. It wasn't exactly "dune bashing" - a very common tour activity in the region - but it was probably as close as I want to come. I don't mind driving off-road myself, but being driven wildly that way isn't my idea of fun.

We arrived at the camp to see two camels saddled up and ready to go. We made a trek to the restrooms on foot. And that was quite a trek, despite the short distance. Open desert sand makes difficult walking. We could see the set-up for belly-dancing, dinner, and picture spots that made up the "more popular" afternoon/evening adventure. Our guide gave us bottles of water and walked us back to the camels.

There, another guide was waiting with the camels. Each saddle has a spot for two riders, but he directed each of us to the back seat of each camel. The camels were sitting on the sand for easier mounting. (Honestly, I'm not sure how you would mount if they weren't on the ground - the saddles have no stirrups and camels are tall!)

I made two mistakes in my preparation for this trip. First, I brought my insulated metal water bottle. Now, I love this bottle. I love having cold water to drink. And I'd filled it with ice and water before we left, and refilled it with water from the proffered bottles. But I did not have a way to attach this bottle to my bag. So I had to use one hand to hold the bottle the entire ride. And it's a black, metal bottle, which quickly got hot in the sun.

Second, my athletic pants proved to be very slippery. I was reminded of a time when Court and I, both wearing leggings, rode Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters at California Adventure - we spent the entire ride slipping and sliding across the seat, crashing into one another, and laughing like mad. Let me just say that riding a camel with slippery pants and only one hand to hold on is not a laughing matter.

As a result, I spent the 35 minute ride clinging to the saddle handle and hoping that I would not slip off the side of the saddle. By contrast, my friend - with her water bottle clipped to her side and wearing cotton capris - found the ride very peaceful and relaxing.

I was glad to climb back into the air conditioned SUV (our driver had started the vehicle in time to cool it before our return) and ride back to Abu Dhabi. Back at the hotel, we had a little bit of a hassle because the tour guide did not take cards as we had been told, but we were able to run to the ATM to sort that out.

After showering and changing our clothes, we walked over to Al Wahda Mall for lunch. Then we returned to the apartment and spent the afternoon reading and recovering. When Craig returned from work, we went out for a lovely dinner at the Bentley Kitchen at The Galleria Mall.

High Tea at Emirates Palace

After our busy day and late night, we got a slow start on Monday. We walked over to the hotel pool - it's on the 25th floor of the connected building. But that pool got too much sun, so we returned to "my" pool at the apartments. It's on the 8th floor, so it's nearly all in the shade.

After "enjoying" the sauna-like air at the pool, we returned to the apartment to shower and get ready to go to tea. As we left the hotel, we stopped at the concierge to make arrangements for our "desert adventure". We had settled on the early morning camel ride, which we scheduled for the following day.

We took a taxi over to Emirates Palace. The High Tea was "enough for two to share" - but I think we could have used the help of a third person. It began with all this:

Here we are with the spread:

We made a significant dent in these offerings, unaware that the tea included a "chocolate fondant" for each of us. By "chocolate fondant", I mean a chocolate lava cake with edible gold flakes, berries, and a smear of yogurt...of course:

Don't be fooled by the appearance - that is a smear of sour, sour yogurt. Inexplicably. All I can think is that someone saw a picture and decided to replicate the plating with the ingredients at hand.

We were so full after tea that we barely managed to walk around Emirates Palace. While most of the shops sold incredibly expensive, high-end goods, we did find one shop that sold postcards. We decided it was too hot to walk on the Corniche or visit Heritage Village. Instead, we took a taxi back to Al Wahda Mall and picked up groceries to make dinner at home.

Unfortunately, that combination of heat and sugar (and who knows what else) proved the perfect recipe for a migraine. After I got dinner in the oven, I took my medication and crawled into bed, hoping that I had caught it early enough that I would recover in time for our 7:30 a.m. camel ride the following day.

Adventures as a Tour Guide

This week, I'm playing tour guide for a girlfriend visiting from Los Angeles. We've exchanged countless emails, discussing various sites to visit and activities to try. She's only here for five full days and we have lots of things we want to cram in. Of course, we'll also be battling her jet-lag, my heat intolerance, and Craig's shifting schedule.

By the time she boarded her flight, we had settled on an outline for our five days:

Sunday - Craig had to work in the morning, but he would finish around 11 a.m. and take us to Dubai. We got tickets to go up the Burj Khalifa and I had a list of options depending on our energy level, including visiting the gold souk, viewing the fountain show at the Dubai Mall, looking at Ski Dubai in another mall in Dubai, driving around Dubai, and having a traditional Arabic dinner.

Monday - I made reservations for the High Tea at the Emirates Palace. I thought we might visit Heritage Village or walk to Corniche, if we felt up to it in the heat. I suspected that this second day would be the worst for jet lag and didn't want to over-program it.

For the other three days, I had one main goal for each day, with a few extras: (1) Grand Mosque, Al Wahda Mall, and local mall, (2) Craig's "secret" project, and (3) a dessert tour, to be selected from the hotel's offerings, with an afternoon recovering.

Of course, with Craig's schedule being so...fluid...we had to alter our plans before she even arrived. We picked her up at the airport Saturday night. On Sunday, Craig went to work and we caught a cab later that morning to spend the day at his project, pushing our Dubai trip later in the week.

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Yas Mall. Our server grated parmesan onto my pasta, telling me to let her know when I had enough.

I think I got more than enough.