Winter is over!!!

Today's high temp 39 degrees!

Winter ended almost over night here. Okay, it wasn't much of a winter, but we wore sweaters in the morning for a couple weeks. The overnight lows were in the low teens. Then, in about 2 or 3 days, it changed. Now the lows are in the 20's and it is getting up to the high 30's every day.

Yesterday we packed the kids' bikes into the car and went over to the College to let them ride. The College is closed on Friday and only staff are allowed in. The perimeter of the grounds is fenced and there are security guards everywhere. We knew the kids would be able to ride around and be completely safe - even though we couldn't see them. The grounds of the College are beautiful, tropical plants everywhere and many of the flowers are in bloom.

We spent the afternoon at the beach. The water is warm enough to swim in comfortably. On the way home, we drove along the beach strip and looked at all the expensive, fancy cars. We saw a man walking along with his pet monkey on a leash!

Jebel Hafeet

We went back to the city of Al Ain, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. This time we went to Jebel Hafeet and the Green Mubazzarah. Jebel Hafeet is the mountain. The road up is paved with lots of twists and turns and switchbacks. There is a beautiful hotel at the top as well as a few restaurants, a couple massive villas and a huge parking lot. The view from up there is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy the day we went so the visibility wasn’t great. It was a beautiful place for a picnic.
At the base of the mountain is Green Mubazarrah – an oasis with a hot spring which they have falajed into some hot pools. They have built a huge park with several playgrounds, a chalet village and lots of picnicking areas. The kids had a great time climbing up the green mountain (it is actually sedum). Rick and I put our chairs in the falaj and enjoyed the warm water. We all agreed that this is one of our favourite places in the UAE.

Camels in Ras Al Khaimah

RAK trip January 16, 2009

It has been quite a while since I have posted. Things are going well and we have gotten back into our routine of day trips out of town on Fridays and soccer and Dubai stuff on Saturday.

Several weekends ago, we took a drive up to Ras Al Khaimah – the only emirate that we had not yet been to. It is the northern most emirate, and borders on Oman. It was less than a 2 hour drive and the sandy desert gradually transformed to mountains on one side and the gulf on the other. RAK is completely different from Dubai – no skyscrapers and very few apartments. The villas are small and somewhat run down. The thing that really struck us was the garbage – it was piled up everywhere and the litter on the beach was appalling.
We spent the day in RAK City – apparently the biggest city in the emirate. Amazingly, there were farm animals roaming free throughout the city – chickens, herds of goats and even cattle (the first cattle we have seen since we got here).
Of course, we found our way to the beach and spent some time searching for shells. I am always surprised at how different the shells are on each of the beaches we visit. And of course, we had to spend some time 4 wheeling on the way home.