Our Dubai adventure was an adventure. After a busy week, getting up bright and early to get on the road for the five hour trip didn't sound so appealing anymore, but we did manage to make it on the road at 7:30. Our plan was to bring some fruit and juice and then get some doughnut holes at Dunkin Donuts on the way down the road. Turns out their delivery hadn't arrived for the morning so all we could buy was coffee. I knew that Aberly would be devastated to not have me return with anything as she loves getting doughnuts on the weekends, so I finally convinced the guy to give me a few holes from yesterday's batch that he wasn't technically supposed to sell. Bless his heart. He probably has no idea how much he saved the first leg of our trip from meltdown mode.
Off we went. Since Colin and I still hadn't had breakfast, we did the terrible and stopped at the golden arches for McMuffins (turkey sausage here to be kosher) and hashbrown triangles. Aberly took a few small bites and politely declined anymore (smart girl) and we ate the rest. Colin had two, I had one. His stomach wasn't too thrilled with the abundance of grease it normally would get over the course of a few days instead of in one meal. Luckily the nausea subsided after an hour.
The rest of the drive to Dubai was easy. Aberly slept and then occupied herself when awake. Traffic was flowing nicely and our border crossings were quick and painless. We were making great time. However, it was about that time that I realized the one thing I had forgotten to do was write down directions to our hotel, their number, and their address. I knew they were on a highway in the 60's, so when I saw one, I exited. Turns out it was the wrong highway, but luckily, that highway took us to Festival City where IKEA was, so we simply changed the order or our day from check-in then IKEA, to IKEA and then check-in.
After lunch in the popular IKEA cafeteria, we weaved our way through the showroom and got the things on our list to help cozy up our new home. Aberly entertained herself by getting into the display beds with her baby doll, sitting on couches and chairs, and then playing in the kid's toys. Bless Colin for following her around while I grabbed what we needed, asking for his opinion when need be. Once done, we headed outside to pack up the car (it all fit!) and I headed back inside to ask the mall concierge how to get to our hotel. He found it online and started to describe where it was. I jotted the directions in faith. He sure sounded like he knew where it was.
Now I know I just set that up like he said he knew but it would turn out that he didn't. Actually, he did know and he did give us pretty good directions. The problem is that he didn't give us any road names and only landmarks (hospital and Police club) and additionally in Dubai, the highways and exits are numerous and confusing, and there aren't actual road signs indicating which exit to take for hotels. Anyways, our first attempt was unsuccessful and we felt totally lost. I took a few wild guesses of which highway to get back on to and thanks be to Jesus (and the fact that I took an exit to avoid paying a toll coming up), we ended up going over a different bridge that took us back to IKEA. Colin went inside with his iPad and hooked up to wifi at a coffee shop to look it up himself. Turns out we were literally blocks from it after we stopped at the hospital the concierge had referenced. So, we headed out again and took the turn indicated on the map. Hallelujah! We could see the hotel! We tuned left at the traffic circle to get to it... but... that road didn't connect and once again we were spit back onto the highway. Sigh. Grr... At least we knew where we were this time and headed back towards IKEA for one more try. This time we took a different exit that initially looked dubious and I was sure we had made another mistake but then, behold, we were there!
Thank God. Aberly was getting seriously annoyed at that point and wanted to get to the "otel". We checked in to our super nice one bedroom apartment hotel room and took a big breath. The room had a patio with a great view of half the Dubai skyline. It was a great spot for a great price (about $150 US w/ breakfast buffet) and we will stay there again. After a brief rest, we hit the pool and it was great. It was super kid friendly with a kiddie pool end that had a little "creek" towards the deeper pool. It slowly got deeper and ended up at an end with a waterfall over a cave. Colin and I had a good laugh entering the cave because they had made some faux ceiling with stalactites coming down that looked more like a cow udder. Aberly LOVED it, of course. After swimming, we went up and ordered room service before crashing at 8:30 (all of us) in our big king bed.
The next morning we hit the pool again and our big girl swimmer actually swam about 4 feet on her own in the deep end from me to the wall, and then from the wall to me. Goodness! We laid in the sun and then went back to our room to pack up before hitting our last destinations of the trip. ACE Hardware and Mirdif Mall. ACE? That is a destination? Oh yes, yes it is. It's the closest thing to Home Depot you will get, and in Oman, there is nothing like that. I was looking for gardening supplies and a canopy for our patio (which I found plus some fun house plants). Colin was looking for brewing supplies. He struck out. Either the items you use for home brewing are just not popular or the UAE government knows about the sinful way to use things like copper tubing so they keep it away from the general population.
Getting to Mirdif Mall was our last mis-adventure. I had been to Mirdif before with some girlfriends, but I only knew how to get there from one direction, and that was not the direction we were going. I did guess the right exit to take... but I didn't take it as I second guessed myself. So we headed down the highway to the next round-about to turn around on (yes, round abouts in the highways) and finally got there. Oh, I should note that before all that, we got mixed up trying to get on a different highway and burned 20 minutes as we navigated around the Dubai Mall parking lot since it was a landmark we knew.
Mirdif is a great mall because it has 4 things I/we love. Pottery Barn, PF Chang's, Borders, and good toy stores. I found a few cute decor items at Pottery Barn, Colin actually got to peruse a large, stocked book store, Aberly died and went to heaven surrounded by toys and displays to play with, and then we savored good Chinese food not available (as far as we know) in Oman. Mirdif Mall is also huge, I will note, and I think you could shop in there all day and not hit it all.
A sidenote about Dubai is their money. It is so weird because their Durhams run more in 10's than 1's, like in the US. So you look at a price and it says it's 50 Durhams, which is about $13. It's weird to look at a menu and see something listed at 70 Durhams. Or a toy listed at 100 Durhams. But you sure feel rich for a moment when you go to the ATM and pull out 1,000 Durhams (About $260).
Okay, so the rest of the trip was tiring. The car ride was long going home. It felt like 1,000 degrees at one of the five boarder stops. Yes five. But that is the only one where we have to get out at and stand in line to get our visas back into the country. Aberly was grumpy and tired and only wanted to play her Curious George game on the iPad (thankfully she did finally sleep for an hour and a half). The roads were busy and it took longer to get home. We finally rolled in around 8:15 PM. Aberly watched Curious George cartoons while we unpacked and ate a PB&J sandwich for dinner. Once she was in bed, we watched some TV and had a cocktail to relax and decompress.
Today we took our haul over to our new place (yes, we have the keys!) and put the boxes in the house so at least they are there and don't have to sit in our apartment until our move on the 13th. We'll put it all together later. We are too exhausted right now.
Off we went. Since Colin and I still hadn't had breakfast, we did the terrible and stopped at the golden arches for McMuffins (turkey sausage here to be kosher) and hashbrown triangles. Aberly took a few small bites and politely declined anymore (smart girl) and we ate the rest. Colin had two, I had one. His stomach wasn't too thrilled with the abundance of grease it normally would get over the course of a few days instead of in one meal. Luckily the nausea subsided after an hour.
The rest of the drive to Dubai was easy. Aberly slept and then occupied herself when awake. Traffic was flowing nicely and our border crossings were quick and painless. We were making great time. However, it was about that time that I realized the one thing I had forgotten to do was write down directions to our hotel, their number, and their address. I knew they were on a highway in the 60's, so when I saw one, I exited. Turns out it was the wrong highway, but luckily, that highway took us to Festival City where IKEA was, so we simply changed the order or our day from check-in then IKEA, to IKEA and then check-in.
After lunch in the popular IKEA cafeteria, we weaved our way through the showroom and got the things on our list to help cozy up our new home. Aberly entertained herself by getting into the display beds with her baby doll, sitting on couches and chairs, and then playing in the kid's toys. Bless Colin for following her around while I grabbed what we needed, asking for his opinion when need be. Once done, we headed outside to pack up the car (it all fit!) and I headed back inside to ask the mall concierge how to get to our hotel. He found it online and started to describe where it was. I jotted the directions in faith. He sure sounded like he knew where it was.
Now I know I just set that up like he said he knew but it would turn out that he didn't. Actually, he did know and he did give us pretty good directions. The problem is that he didn't give us any road names and only landmarks (hospital and Police club) and additionally in Dubai, the highways and exits are numerous and confusing, and there aren't actual road signs indicating which exit to take for hotels. Anyways, our first attempt was unsuccessful and we felt totally lost. I took a few wild guesses of which highway to get back on to and thanks be to Jesus (and the fact that I took an exit to avoid paying a toll coming up), we ended up going over a different bridge that took us back to IKEA. Colin went inside with his iPad and hooked up to wifi at a coffee shop to look it up himself. Turns out we were literally blocks from it after we stopped at the hospital the concierge had referenced. So, we headed out again and took the turn indicated on the map. Hallelujah! We could see the hotel! We tuned left at the traffic circle to get to it... but... that road didn't connect and once again we were spit back onto the highway. Sigh. Grr... At least we knew where we were this time and headed back towards IKEA for one more try. This time we took a different exit that initially looked dubious and I was sure we had made another mistake but then, behold, we were there!
Thank God. Aberly was getting seriously annoyed at that point and wanted to get to the "otel". We checked in to our super nice one bedroom apartment hotel room and took a big breath. The room had a patio with a great view of half the Dubai skyline. It was a great spot for a great price (about $150 US w/ breakfast buffet) and we will stay there again. After a brief rest, we hit the pool and it was great. It was super kid friendly with a kiddie pool end that had a little "creek" towards the deeper pool. It slowly got deeper and ended up at an end with a waterfall over a cave. Colin and I had a good laugh entering the cave because they had made some faux ceiling with stalactites coming down that looked more like a cow udder. Aberly LOVED it, of course. After swimming, we went up and ordered room service before crashing at 8:30 (all of us) in our big king bed.
(Photos of our room and night skyline views)
Getting to Mirdif Mall was our last mis-adventure. I had been to Mirdif before with some girlfriends, but I only knew how to get there from one direction, and that was not the direction we were going. I did guess the right exit to take... but I didn't take it as I second guessed myself. So we headed down the highway to the next round-about to turn around on (yes, round abouts in the highways) and finally got there. Oh, I should note that before all that, we got mixed up trying to get on a different highway and burned 20 minutes as we navigated around the Dubai Mall parking lot since it was a landmark we knew.
Mirdif is a great mall because it has 4 things I/we love. Pottery Barn, PF Chang's, Borders, and good toy stores. I found a few cute decor items at Pottery Barn, Colin actually got to peruse a large, stocked book store, Aberly died and went to heaven surrounded by toys and displays to play with, and then we savored good Chinese food not available (as far as we know) in Oman. Mirdif Mall is also huge, I will note, and I think you could shop in there all day and not hit it all.
(Aberly took this lovely photo of our lunch)
Okay, so the rest of the trip was tiring. The car ride was long going home. It felt like 1,000 degrees at one of the five boarder stops. Yes five. But that is the only one where we have to get out at and stand in line to get our visas back into the country. Aberly was grumpy and tired and only wanted to play her Curious George game on the iPad (thankfully she did finally sleep for an hour and a half). The roads were busy and it took longer to get home. We finally rolled in around 8:15 PM. Aberly watched Curious George cartoons while we unpacked and ate a PB&J sandwich for dinner. Once she was in bed, we watched some TV and had a cocktail to relax and decompress.
Today we took our haul over to our new place (yes, we have the keys!) and put the boxes in the house so at least they are there and don't have to sit in our apartment until our move on the 13th. We'll put it all together later. We are too exhausted right now.
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