Dubai, Dancing Fountains and Oman.

Last week was a very, very great week. Friday and Saturday is the weekend here and the work week is Sunday through Thursday. Sunday through Wednesday I stayed home alone while Diane went to work and Drew went to class. It was nice. I went down to the pool everyday and swam a mile as well as tanned. Diane was off work on Thursday so the two of us had a great day out and met Drew for dinner in Dubai after he got out of class. We first went to a place called Nails and got manicures, pedicures and shoulder massages. I thought my eyes were going to roll into the back of my head it felt so amazing. I had on closed toed shoes so they made me wear little slippers out. It was quite humorous. Diane and I then headed to Dubai. This was so much fun. She took me downtown and showed me the oceanfront apartments where she used to live as well as other sights in downtown Dubai. We went to a resort called Atlantis right on the Indian Ocean. I took some pictures and awed at the beauty. Next we went the Jumierah mall and resort and I held a falcon. This was too cool. I got to pet it and buy some souvenir pictures with it. We walked around the mall a bit and i bought a few other souvenirs. Then it was time to meet Drew for dinner. We ate at one of Diane's favorite restaurants called Toscana. It was Italian and very delicious. We had three courses and ate way too much, but i enjoyed every minute of it. After we finished dinner Drew headed home because he was very tired from him class and Diane and I headed to the Dubai mall to watch the dancing fountains. This was a sight to be seen. It you ever get to Dubai, please go watch the dancing fountains, you will not regret it. They dance to a different song every twenty minutes. I loved it so much the first time we stayed a watched a second time. We were going to go up into the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world, but it was booked until 10:30 and we didn't feel like staying out that late, but Diane said I would get up there before I left, so I was cool with that. As it gets closer to time for the fountains to dance, the Burj Khalifa starts to twinke with lights, way cool! So it is official, I have been to four countries in under a month! Diane and I headed to Oman on Friday. She wanted me to see how beautiful the country is, so we headed out early Friday and made the 5 hour drive to Oman. The landscape change is crazy! As you make your way towards to border of Oman the UAE becomes filled with reddish sand dunes, but once you pass the border of Oman it turns into rocky mountains, that look like they used to be either the ocean floor, or from the moon. It was amazing, and they just get taller and taller the farther into the country that you go. We crossed the border with no problems, got the stamp in our passports and kept going until we found our hotel, which was somewhat hard to find, but an Omani man that we stopped told us to follow him and took us all the way there. He was very nice! So we went up to our hotel, unpacked a little and got a taxi driver, Mr. Harub, to take us to the old souks to go shopping and to look around at night. I bought a few souvenirs for a very good price and just got to take it all in. Shops like this tend to make me a little nervous because there are so many people and they are all trying to get you to come into their shop, but Mr. Harub stayed with us the entire time and helped us to not get lost. He was very nice and I enjoyed seeing everything so, so much! He then took us to get dinner. We had chicken schawarma and it was wonderful! Then he took us back to our hotel and we headed to bed. We were worn out. The next morning we went down to breakfast at the hotel and headed out for an adventure of our own. We got directions down to the Corniche (boardwalk) and looked at the ocean front. Tried to see some dolphins, but didn't. We just drove around the city for a while. It was most certainly an adventure, most of the time we had no idea where we were, but we knew the vicinity and enjoyed every minute of it. Diane has been there before so she wanted to take me to see this 1000 dollar a night resort on the ocean. It was a sight in itself and the view was amazing. God sure is an awesome creator! I took some pictures and we were on our way. In Oman there are literally roundabouts everywhere, almost all of them have some sort of statue or sight in them as well. So we had fun "weeeee"-ing around them and looking at the sight in the middle of them. I have never seen so many roundabouts in my life! Then we hit up a store, got some sandwich stuff as well as fruit and drinks and had a healthy lunch on the way back. It was such a fun little overnight border trip! I loved seeing Oman so much! We got back to Abu Dhabi last night after coming back across the border! Today I went swimming again and I am just waiting for them to get home. Tomorrow I have a hot stone massage and who knows what else it will bring, but I am excited to find out! :)