Last year Harry found a Spartan race in Dubai that he wanted to do so in February 2016 we went for a weekend trip with friends!
Harry's cousin Alex was on deployment nearby and was able to get a little time off to meet up with us! He only had a few hours so our awesome friends took our luggage for us and we were able to take the metro straight from the airport to the mall. We enjoyed having lunch and taking in the sights nearby. Since he lives in Michigan we rarely see him even in the US so it was super neat to hang out in Dubai of all places! It was definitely one of the highlights of trip! Connor was especially fascinated with the fact that his cousin is a soldier :)
Hitt cousins at the Burj Khalifa!
After we had to say goodbye to Alex we set off for our desert safari. The first part was dune bashing and I was pretty nervous about it. A friend of mine that knows how easily I get car sick told me not to do it. I really didn't want to, but figured it was part of the experience so I would just suck it up. I didn't really grasp just how crazy the ride would be...and I told the guy to take it easy on us! I will say that taking our then 2 and 6 year old dune bashing wasn't our finest moment as parents lol!
Jameson had a love/hate relationship with the ride. He would go straight from crying to saying "wheeeee". When he seemed to be enjoying it we'd ask if he was having fun and he'd say, "Nope!" We definitely didn't dune bash for long before I told the driver that we'd had enough.
Of course we got to see a camel farm out in the desert.
We finally stopped at a nice place for a little sandboarding!
Our ride!
Beautiful sand! Definitely nothing like the ugly desert that we see in our area of KSA.
Connor was the first one to try out sandboarding and he LOVED it!
It didn't take him long to get the hang of it.
We all had a blast!
Mike's turn!
Such a graceful stop.
And the video version...
I definitely didn't do any better. My sweet boy came to my rescue though.
Go Kim go!
He could have done this all afternoon.
After our sandboarding fun we made our way to dinner. It was a really nice set up in the middle of the desert!
The stage and seating was set up in the middle with stalls around featuring different things like henna and Arabic dress photographs.
This guy was making yummy Arabic bread.
Beautiful sunset!
After living in the desert for a few years we still had not ridden a camel. We finally seized the opportunity!
Mike was reluctant, but gave in to Kim's wishes.
Connor wasn't a fan either, but he was a good sport as usual.
Getting down was pretty interesting. This is funny every time I watch it lol!
Our group ready for the BBQ dinner!
After dinner we enjoyed the tanoura and belly dancing. This guy literally spun around nonstop for quite a while!
The next day we walked around and enjoyed a few things in the city.
We took an Abra to cross the Dubai Creek.
We got off the abra to check out the gold and spice souk!
World record for the heaviest gold ring!
Time to go back across the creek!
Our tired little traveler.
We took the metro back to hang out in the Burj Khalifa area before dinner.
Our group!
Cheers!
Frankie...the navigator.
We made reservations at The Meat Co. because it is on the Burj Lake and a good spot to view the fountain show....and because, well...we like the food :)
Our travel companions.
The guys.
And the girls.
The show was set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and it was really neat!
The Burj Khalifa at night!
The next morning it was time for the big race! Connor was super excited about running the junior course.
The Spartans!
Getting his war paint on.
It was pretty incredible to be on the course with the Dubai skyline in the background.
He thinks he's cool :)
Our junior Spartan is ready to go!
They did a few warm up exercises at the start line.
And they're off!
We were so proud of this dude!
Now the big boys' turn!
It was a looonnnng, hotttt day and we were starting to lose it!
Finally, here they come! We were able to see them complete a few obstacles near the finish line.
This girl and her friends took so many pictures of and with Rocky. We finally realized that they thought he was an actor! Haha!
They did it!
We ended a great day with sushi and drinks at our apartment. These two crashed out fast!
Breakfast in the apartment before heading to the airport.
And lunch before boarding.
Bye Dubai!
And back to reality...
You know you live in Saudi Arabia when....you have to wait for the camels to cross the road with their herders.
No comments:
Post a Comment