Welcome Back to Dubai

Last spring before we left, Nate found a great deal on a seaplane trip over Dubai, but we never got to go before we went home for the summer, so we were able to go last weekend. Our trip included lunch at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and we were pleasantly surprised to find that our meal choices were actually pretty good - Nate got a good steak:)

Then we boarded a tiny plane with 6 other people, and floated down the creek a bit so we could turn around and have room to take off on the water - which was pretty cool. The takeoff and landing were a lot smoother than I expected. Nate and I were in the very back of the plane, and we felt like maybe we had too much lunch because there was quite the incline if we had wanted to get up to visit the pilot in the front!

It was a pretty smoggy day, so some of our photos didn't turn out the way we hoped, but we had a good view of stuff when we were right over it.

This is Al Barsha, our neighborhood - you can see Ski Dubai jutting up into the sky, and in the back, the large pink monstrosity that is Lulu Hypermarket, next to our school. I think our apartment building is hidden behind the taller ones, but it is there somewhere.

The Palm...

The Burj al Arab - the tallest hotel in the world, and the only 7 star out there. If we are lucky, one day we might get to go inside but I'm pretty sure we will never get to stay there.

The World - an interesting idea that didn't pan out - people were supposed to be able to buy their own island, but once they started inhabiting the Palm and realized that the water flow issue was a problem, this kind of tanked, so there is only a house on one island in the middle.

I'd say this is "downtown", but it is just one of the big city areas - you can see the Burj Khalifa rising high into the sky and the creek running past it. That is one thing that still amazes us here - there are multiple areas like this with enormous skyscrapers that are each like their own city. I can still remember driving past Salt Lake with my family one time when Landon was probably 8 or so, and he got so excited to see all the tall buildings - I wish everyone could come here just for a day and take a drive down Sheihk Zayed road through just a few of the collections of skyscrapers.

The plane ride was pretty cool and mostly turbulence free, but right towards the end it got a little bumpy, and I started to get a little sick, so I have to say I was glad for it to be done - but it was a pretty cool experience - one more to add to the list of things I never thought I would be doing! Hopefully everyone can have at least one of those kinds of cool experiences this year - and if you want to have it in Dubai, we are here for you!