Today, our last day in town, we started the day off with a visit to one of the local mosques where we were taught about the Muslim religion as well as some of their customs. It was very enlightening and I have an entire post already written in my head to be shared, but I am just too tired to write something as insightful as I plan. We then wandered around the Emirates Mall, no skiing today, and stumbled upon a Katy Perry concert (another post to be), before watching a movie and listening to everyone talk around us. Lots to be told about everything, but it will all have to wait as I am still overdue on our dune drive, our trip to the market, boat ride up the Dubai “creek”,…and the list goes on. For now I am exhausted and going to pack it in, get on the plane, and pass out for our flight to London, then enjoy a three hour layover before heading to New York AND another three hour layover before finally getting to Dallas and our boys. I think we hit the maximum time away yesterday and are very much ready to get home and spend some time with our boys as well as kick back and enjoy the comforts of our home.
Author Archives: teamfricke
Skiing…In The Desert
On Wednesday, while Melanie was wrapping up her work, I headed to the slopes. That’s right, there is snow skiing in Dubai. It’s indoor, but still it was a ski slope completely with snow, chair lifts, penguins, and screaming kids. I was told it was one of the biggest indoor slopes, if not the biggest, in the world but despite it being a bunch of fun it was a bit overwhelming. All I could think was that if this was the biggest, then those others out there must really be small and pointless. I’m not a very good skier, having been only twice in my life, including the trip we took almost a year ago for spring break, but after about an hour of getting off at the first stop of the lift I found myself zipping down from the top. It took longer to ride the lift to the top than it did to get to the bottom and get back on the lift. Unlike golf I had a few people to talk to on the ride up as well as be encouraged and goaded into going to the top. A couple of times I rode with a nice Asian woman that was zipping down the hill confidently on her snow board and she gave me positive encouragement and advice on improving my skiing. The other encouragement, goading, I received was from a 12 year old Russian boy that kept telling me in his broken English “You go to the top!”. I would receive waves as he zipped past me and sighs if he was on the lift with me when I would get off at the half way point. He had quite the proud look when he finally saw me riding to the top. All in all I went up and down almost nonstop for about four hours and I am still paying for it in soreness. Today is our last day and as we search for things to do to eat away our time I am hoping Melanie will want to ski so I can show off my ability to ski from the top like a big boy. Full disclosure: even from the top the slopes are a green.
Golf Is The Loneliest Sport
At least it is when you play alone. On Tuesday, while Melanie was working, I took off to the Montgomery golf club for a round of golf. On the way I found this impala roaming the streets of Dubai.
When I arrived I was very happy to find myself playing alone as after a couple of months off I was a bit self-conscious of my game. It turned out to be a very good thing that I was alone as I was also playing with rental clubs and despite popular opinion a good craftsman can blame his tools. I quickly discovered how much I love my own clubs and after finding myself talking to myself and then answering, out loud, I realized that I also miss playing with my buddies.
I am happy to say that I broke 90, so all in all it was a good round. More importantly I got to take in some spectacular views while playing a game I love and having a great conversation with the funniest guy I know…me.
Day 16 – Missing The Boys
We have one more day here in Dubai and both of us are really starting to miss the boys. Fortunately, due to technology, we are able to see and talk to them every day which makes it somewhat easier although their drifting towards the tv while we talk can prove challenging. Cutler has found it very entertaining to show us what he is eating when we talk. Below are some of my favorite screen shots taken from our conversations while we have been out of the country.
Another Dancing Fountain
We were in another area of Dubai tonight, called the Marina area. It was beautiful and relaxing and enjoyable to just wander up and down the river. Near the end we stumbled upon another dancing fountain. I couldn’t pass up the chance to record and share.
Since my last joke, the dinner companion, fell flat I wanted to be clear that this video was intended as a joke. It was just a fountain that we came across and I thought it would be funny to include. I’m hoping to regain my faith in you, the audience, to understand my jokes. Until then I will raise my hand when I am being sarcastic.
Day 15: Good Morning
This is what I woke up to this morning. Hope your day starts as great as ours.
Day 14 – Berj Khalifa
Another building that I have become fascinated, borderline obsessed, with during our visit is the Berj Khalifa. It is the tallest building in the world, standing tall at 160 stories and more than 2700 feet. When standing at the base, it is nearly impossible to get the entire tower in the frame…although we have tried and thanks to technology succeeded a few times. Today I took some photos from the window outside of our room and you can see that it dwarfs the others standing around it. In fact it looks as if it is doubling it in size.
Tonight, after risking our lives for in the market (a story for later), for some purse shopping we headed back down to the Dubai Mall that is next to the beauty where the fountain show occurs to see the show and naturally we started taking more photos. I do believe it is even more beautiful at night.
And finally, I have a video from the dancing fountain show. I posted one from the show during the day a couple of posts ago. I think this one blows it away. Very cool seeing it at night. I’m glad we survived our near death experiencing shopping for purses.
Tomorrow begins Melanie’s portion of the vacation as her work conference is over. We will be heading to the dunes for some “dune bashing”. Here’s to hoping for no car sickness.
My Dinner Companion Clarification
Apparently my last post has confused some people, Melanie and my Mother. My dinner companion was the Burj Al Arab. The building that was in the photo.
My Dinner Companion
While Melanie is off to a work party I have found another woman to keep me company while I dine.
Hoping to get inside the building before we leave as they are said to have the world’s largest indoor waterfall. If not the tallest at the very least a very tall and impressive one.
Day 13: getting Going
After a full night of sleep Melanie is off to work forcing me to relax and have fun. Today I relaxed with a lovely breakfast served by Anus, er sorry that is Anis. I then went for a walk and arranged my rental car and a tee time. Good thing I can get rental clubs, I don’t think my clubs would fit.
Team Fricke 