The magic of Christmas came to Saudi Arabia! On Dec 23 Alex and Makena boarded a plane to the middle East lugging overstuffed suitcases and a plenty of cheer. For the most part their flight was uneventful, just how we prayed for.
They arrived on Christmas eve around 11:30p local time (KSA) and we were all in good spirits once we could actually grab and hug them. It's been over 4 months since we've seen each other and it really felt great to be together again.
By the time we went to bed that night it was pretty late, we half debated just to stay up and have an early AM Christmas, but cooler heads prevailed and we went to bed. The next morning we picked up where we left off as far as smiles, giggles and group hugs. We quickly turned our attention to the suit case they brought that contained all the goodies. We'd like to thank all those who contributed to the "Santa Bag", there were many wonderful and thoughtful gifts and we appreciated the effort and love with which they were sent. Krishna's favorite was the family picture that Alex had made, it now sits prominently in our dining room.
On Dec 26 we boarded a plane to Dubai. Alex had been planning this trip for months and it was now time to execute the plan. She was able to find a great hotel very near the metro, so we had great access to all the favorite spots in Dubai. We saw the Mall of Dubai with the Ski Dubai resort inside. It is amazing what they do in malls over here. There really are like little cities complete with food, clothing, entertainment and everything else you would expect to see in a fully developed city - they are huge!
While there, we also went to the mall of the Emirates that had the world's largest aquarium and dancing fountains like the ones in Vegas. This mall sits right next to the World's Tallest Building – Birj Kalifa. Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out to go up the building, but we figured it gives us a good reason to come back. So as a consolation prize, we decided to go see the new Tom Cruise movie MI 3 that was filmed in Dubai and spotlighted the Birj.
We also went to the Atlantis Water park. It had some awesome waterslide great beaches and enough things to do to keep us busy for awhile. What also made this park unique was the location. It was built in the Palm Jameera district. This is a man made geographical layout that sculptured land mass to represent a palm tree. Each branch of the tree was converted into prime residential and commercial real estate. Please google it to get an aerial shot, it's really amazing.
After 2 days in Dubai, we moved on to Abu Dabi This meant we took a 2 hour drive in a chartered bus. The ride was OK, but it made for a great sight seeing opportunity. That's the nice thing living in this part of the world, everything we do is new and full of wonder so even Mundane things are exciting.
Alex did a great job hooking us up with a hotel we were bumped up to a suite and life was pretty sweet. We kept really busy here. The front desk gave us some sites to see. These included the World's Largest Mosque, the Emirates palace, the Marina Mall, and the Heritage Center. The biggest challenge for us was that the Abu Dabi only had 4 passenger taxi's so it became a little pricey to travel using the. The girls were good sports by agreeing to walk when we could. The good news is that we got our exercise in so I didn't feel to guilty eating a few sweets along the way. The malls there were nice, but not quite the size as the ones in Dubai.
There were two big highlights in A-D:
First was our Safari/Dune bashing. This was a lot of fun not only because of the high energy activities, but also because of the variety of events. We started out on a 10 minute bashing excursion that took us to a camel farm. The girls got some great pics. Then we were off again climbing up and sliding down more dunes to our next stop; a falconry exhibition. After that, more bashing to arrive at our final destination – a tent compound where we ate traditional Arabic BBQ, took some novelty pics, and watched a Moroccan belly dancer. Fun was had by all.
The second event was unplanned, but very fortuitous. There was a tennis tournament/exhibition being held at the King Fahad sports complex that was close to our hotel. It was an exclusive event whereby the top 6 players in the world would compete against each other. We decided to check things out, and before we knew it we were watching Tsonga mixing it up with Monfils and on the other court Nadal was going against Ferer. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Djokovic and Federer play but the girls got some great pics of them as the left the club house. As Makena said, "This was the highlight of the trip!"
So all in all it was a great trip, many thanks to Alex! It was sad to put Alex and Makena on the plane, but we all felt grateful for the time together and we certainly made some lifelong memories
They arrived on Christmas eve around 11:30p local time (KSA) and we were all in good spirits once we could actually grab and hug them. It's been over 4 months since we've seen each other and it really felt great to be together again.
By the time we went to bed that night it was pretty late, we half debated just to stay up and have an early AM Christmas, but cooler heads prevailed and we went to bed. The next morning we picked up where we left off as far as smiles, giggles and group hugs. We quickly turned our attention to the suit case they brought that contained all the goodies. We'd like to thank all those who contributed to the "Santa Bag", there were many wonderful and thoughtful gifts and we appreciated the effort and love with which they were sent. Krishna's favorite was the family picture that Alex had made, it now sits prominently in our dining room.
On Dec 26 we boarded a plane to Dubai. Alex had been planning this trip for months and it was now time to execute the plan. She was able to find a great hotel very near the metro, so we had great access to all the favorite spots in Dubai. We saw the Mall of Dubai with the Ski Dubai resort inside. It is amazing what they do in malls over here. There really are like little cities complete with food, clothing, entertainment and everything else you would expect to see in a fully developed city - they are huge!
While there, we also went to the mall of the Emirates that had the world's largest aquarium and dancing fountains like the ones in Vegas. This mall sits right next to the World's Tallest Building – Birj Kalifa. Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out to go up the building, but we figured it gives us a good reason to come back. So as a consolation prize, we decided to go see the new Tom Cruise movie MI 3 that was filmed in Dubai and spotlighted the Birj.
We also went to the Atlantis Water park. It had some awesome waterslide great beaches and enough things to do to keep us busy for awhile. What also made this park unique was the location. It was built in the Palm Jameera district. This is a man made geographical layout that sculptured land mass to represent a palm tree. Each branch of the tree was converted into prime residential and commercial real estate. Please google it to get an aerial shot, it's really amazing.
After 2 days in Dubai, we moved on to Abu Dabi This meant we took a 2 hour drive in a chartered bus. The ride was OK, but it made for a great sight seeing opportunity. That's the nice thing living in this part of the world, everything we do is new and full of wonder so even Mundane things are exciting.
Alex did a great job hooking us up with a hotel we were bumped up to a suite and life was pretty sweet. We kept really busy here. The front desk gave us some sites to see. These included the World's Largest Mosque, the Emirates palace, the Marina Mall, and the Heritage Center. The biggest challenge for us was that the Abu Dabi only had 4 passenger taxi's so it became a little pricey to travel using the. The girls were good sports by agreeing to walk when we could. The good news is that we got our exercise in so I didn't feel to guilty eating a few sweets along the way. The malls there were nice, but not quite the size as the ones in Dubai.
There were two big highlights in A-D:
First was our Safari/Dune bashing. This was a lot of fun not only because of the high energy activities, but also because of the variety of events. We started out on a 10 minute bashing excursion that took us to a camel farm. The girls got some great pics. Then we were off again climbing up and sliding down more dunes to our next stop; a falconry exhibition. After that, more bashing to arrive at our final destination – a tent compound where we ate traditional Arabic BBQ, took some novelty pics, and watched a Moroccan belly dancer. Fun was had by all.
The second event was unplanned, but very fortuitous. There was a tennis tournament/exhibition being held at the King Fahad sports complex that was close to our hotel. It was an exclusive event whereby the top 6 players in the world would compete against each other. We decided to check things out, and before we knew it we were watching Tsonga mixing it up with Monfils and on the other court Nadal was going against Ferer. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Djokovic and Federer play but the girls got some great pics of them as the left the club house. As Makena said, "This was the highlight of the trip!"
