Welcome to Dubai!

Can you spot the boys in the letters? It's like Where's Waldo...

What an absolutely lovely 10 days we had with Brett, Scott, and Jess! I can't even believe how much we were able to squeeze into that time, and I actually think they saw literally EVERYTHING worth seeing in Dubai.

They arrived on Thursday night, March 25th and after making the mandatory stop at Duty Free for booze and Cuban cigars, they met us at about 8:45pm. We weren't sure how they would feel with the jet-lag of a 14 hour flight (direct from DC) so left the night completely open to them. They were excited to get the fun started though, so we had a drink in our garden before heading out for some drinks and food. We decided to stick close to home and gave them a little walking tour of our neighborhood, en-route to our favorite South African sports bar, Nezesaussi. We had a couple drinks there, before deciding that maybe we'd get some food too and give them their first taste of the world's largest mall. We headed to the Dubai Mall food court, and despite no one (but me) wanting McDonald's we all ended up there (the food court was about to close and the ever crowded McDonald's was the only place still open). Welcome to Dubai, how about some American food? With our stomachs full of grease and beer, we headed home so our visitors could get some sleep on their first night.

Jumeirah Beach Residents (JBR) near our favorite beach on Marina Walk

On Friday morning, we let everyone sleep-in in order to (hopefully) avoid being too badly jet-lagged (we're only 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard now with daylight savings since we don't spring forward here). When everyone finally got moving, we made a big American breakfast at home and then headed down to the Marina and our favorite beach at JBR Walk so the New Englanders could begin their base tan (or burn than tan as the case may be). We hung out at the beach for a few hours and when we needed a break from the sun, took them on a drive to see a little more of the Marina.

One stop on our little Marina tour included pulling up to the harbor so that we could get a closer look at Sheikh Mohammed (Ruler of Dubai and VP of the UAE)'s yacht. Second biggest private yacht in the world, following some Russian billionaire...

Me & Jess at JBR. Consider this picture Jess's "before" shot and watch her progress throughout the week on the tan she worked so hard on. :)

After seeing Sheikh Mo's yacht, we took a drive out to the Palm Jumeirah so they could see the Atlantis, etc. Then we headed home for a couple more hours at the pool. When everyone was satisfied that they had their base burn we all showered up and took another walk along Emaar Boulevard (our neighborhood) so they could see it during the day and also check out the Burj Khalifa up-close. We thought Arabic food would be a fitting first dinner (we aren't counting the little midnight McDonald's mishap the night before, which I am pretty sure we all want to pretend never happened). So, we walked to the Dubai Mall for dinner at my favorite Arabic restaurant Al Hallab. Delicious fresh fruit juices and Lebanese mezze. Mmmm.

Brett, Scott, Jared, Jess, and Me at Barasti. Group shot.

Then, to make a full day of it, after dinner we took a taxi to Barasti, our favorite beach bar at the Le Meridian Mina Seyahi in the Marina. The boys tried their first sheesha and we enjoyed buckets of beer on beanbags on the beach for a couple hours with our friends Marisa and Kevin. Quite the full first day if you ask me! And the first day just set the pace for the rest of the trip. These guys literally say EVERYTHING.