Beach Time

Summer is definitely here. The temperature hit almost 40 degrees both days this weekend - so we hit the beach!

Friday, we packed up our gear and headed to Mamzar Park. The kids took their boogie boards, but unfortunately, their were no waves (unlike last weekend). After we had been there for about 4 hours, they cleared the water because the red tide came in to the beach we were at. Surprisingly, it was not at the beach which is literally 50 feet from where we were. We decided that we had enough of the beach, but not the sun, so we went up to the pool in our building and swam for another hour.

Saturday, we went to the Mamzar beach in Sharjah and rented a jet ski. The kids started out in the tube, and then moved onto the jetski.

An update

Not too much has been happening since our last post. I spent 3 days last week in Abu Dhabi at a conference. It wasn't nearly as crazy as the last time we were in the city! I had to work on Saturday, so we weren't able to get away on the weekend.

The kids are off school again this week. They were very surprised when the Easter Bunny made his visit on Sunday morning because they had no idea it was Easter. Not to mention, we didn't know if he would come to Dubai or not.

Summer is really heating up - it is supposed to be 37 degrees on the weekend.

I thought you might find it interesting to read the "Code of Conduct" for Dubai that I recently came across.

http://www.dubaiinformer.com/2009/03/dubai-code-of-conduct-full-version

One of the reasons tourists travel to Dubai is for the shopping. The malls here are spectacular – and there are lots of them. In January Dubai celebrates the “Festive Season” – the shopping festival! For one month the stores advertise huge sales – up to 90% off and offer amazing raffles for shopping. Even though the festive season is long over, I thought it might be interesting to share the shopping experiences…
Dubai’s newest mall is the Dubai Mall – it opened in November. It is located at the base of the Burj (the still unfinished tallest building in the world). The highlight of the Mall is the aquarium. Apparently it is in the Guinness book of records because it is made with the largest piece of plexiglass in the world. From the corridor you can view the amazing array of tropical fish, sharks and stingray. For a small fee, you can walk through the tunnel and be surrounded by the aquarium. Another fee will gain you entry into the discovery center. I think that showing you photos is better than trying to explain the exhibits.







Another unique feature of the Mall is the 3 story fountain.
Malls here are different than in Canada. There are no anchor stores. The stores are layed out so that all the electronic stores are in one area, jewelry in another …It certainly makes it easy for comparison shopping and that is a good thing because the malls are so large.
My favourite thing about the Dubai Mall - it has a machine that gives you a ticket identifying the area where you parked!