UAE Continued - 3

 Day 7 (20th Tuesday) Continued

Arrive at Qasr Al Sarab  (in the neighborhood of Liwa - but not quite there!)

THIS is what we came over the hill in the dark to see... I think having seen it in the light and seen it in the dark, I'm really glad we came into this place at night - it was so "Arabian Knights" it wasn't funny.  SO impressive and beautiful light up.

The bedroom...If you look at the web site the view of the deluxe balcony suite, I think that the one pictured is the actual one we stayed in - based on the background view, etc..

I even had to take a picture of the bathroom in the lobby area - I love the options of bin for paper, or wand for washing... and it's all done in a nice stone with a wooden seat.  Very nicely done.

The sink area in the lobby potty - the other thing that lets you know you're at a very nice hotel is they use wash cloths as hand towels... no paper towels for these folks... we were living large, that's for sure!

Could be my all time favorite picture and what I view as desert... this was the view from our balcony on the first night... VERY nice!

Day 8 (21st Wednesday)
And the daytime reality from the bed :)  not nearly as pretty and romantic as in the evening, eh?

The view from our room - literally as it was laid out.. I should weld them, but it's too much of a gap...

Checking out the pool area....

Sand sand and more sand, it's so fine and blows so easily that there is a constant film of sand everywhere... the good news is it is VERY fine - like talcum powder, so not nearly as irritating as you would think... but not nearly as clean as you would like at any given time in any place you are.

The back of our actual balcony - although it's very open and breezy, it's very private as well.

Main lobby reception to the right, concierge to the left... walk all the way in to a sitting area (past the very nice fountain full of rose petals) ... to the left of the sitting area a bar, to the right a library.

FINALLY - someone taller than me!!

we were on our way to Liwa to see if we could score some sun cream - aka sun screen as we forgot to pack it for the trip.  Oops!

aka speed bumps!  Oh, they are EVERYWHERE on just about every road - coming into round abouts, coming into towns, anywhere they want you to slow down... which is a LOT.  Sara said something about having over 100 speed bumps and almost as many round abouts in her daily commute.  Yuck!!

Later that evening - on our way to our camel trek we spotted a lone gazelle.

too much effort to move this... it's the cool entry about half way between the road and the resort - it's beautiful and those pots are something like 10' tall!

OK, back to camel trek!  This is Batua - Sarah camel and the one I got to know the best as he was right at my knees and breathing hard most of the trek... he was young and in SUCH a hurry... and he did try to bite my foot at one point - thank goodness for the snot caps :)

One of the guides took my camera to take some shots on the first part...

We went maybe a mile, mile and a half to our "spot" to watch the sunset.  Who's idea was it to have us then hike the side of a dune to watch said sunset?  WTF?  I didn't want to climb a mountain... I'm fat, old and out of shape folks!!

And this, my dear friends, is about as good as our sunset got.  With NO clouds and all the sand in the air, this was it.. there was no fan fair with the colors due to the yuck in the air as it was too low to make a hoot of difference in the color.  Such a disappointment on the sunset factor!

The rest of the folks watching the same thing we were...

Pigs at the top of a dune!

And the embarrassing action shots... but we have to include them, as they are my reality  - therefore worth of seeing... mounting the camel...


LEAN back... and whatever you do keep your FEET forward.. that is the trick to this... feet forward... as they will rock up and back and as long as feet are forward all will be well.

It just looks awkward.... it didnt' feel awkward by this time...

And we're UP!!

I'm so happy, oh, so happy, oh so happy and Witty and ... well, you get the gist!

Good grief we're out of order.  This is going DOWN the dune!!

This is the LAST "down boy" move... and note I am one handed at this poitn because I'm encouraging him to hurry up and go DOWN.... he did an awkward shakey squat for a bit before he finally relented and went down.

And they're heading back to the barn...

Our very, very handsome camel man...

photo opportunity at the end of the night....

Day 9 (22nd Thursday)
Up bright and early for DUNE bashing!!
Sand over the windshield!   Whoooo hoooo

I was fine until I listened to him and shut my eyes on a hill and lost my stomach and NEVER found it gain... UGH!  Backseat, not in control MUCH different than 4x4ing in the desert in Barstow!

I'm not a fan of sand, but this was very pretty and soft sand... more fine than FWB... but with reds and grays and greens in it.

Shadow pigs :)

Love this with the shoes outside the door - hood popped to keep the car cooler...

Leslie's view of the toes.... same as mine... just snuck in here again... I loved the look of our toes in the sand... especially with the henna.

Waseem - from Pakistan.  We're welcome to come visit his family anytime... he should NEVER tempt us of such things :)

Sand Angel

Dusting the sand out of Sara's hat!

When we got back we had a nice picnic of hums, breads, fruits and mimosas on the patio - what a nice way to end the morning!

Million to one shot - Leslie popped the corn, hit the ceiling and right into the ice bucket!

After Dune Bashing and breakfast, Leslie and I hit the pool for a snooze in the shade.  Ah, the life.  We then went for our spa that afternoon and were balls of jello by the time we got home.  They do the tummy massages here too, but it wasn't as offensive as the Egyptian massages - they did cover you, they even gave you disposable panties to wear - weirdness.  All in all a wonderful way to end the trip to Qsar Al Sarab!!

Day 10 (22 st Thursday)

Some parting shots!

Final toes in the sand before gathering some to take with us...

The long trek back make me VERY glad we had done it in the dark - although there were things to see, it was mostly sand, sand and more sand.  I tried to get a shot of a sign that was prevalent at all outposts - "keep door closed" where it should have said gate... I guess door works too...
Along the way we did see some mama and baby camels as well - I'm not sure if they were wild or farmed... could have just been free range ones.

Another funny sign, just because!

I also saw a chili's sign, but to me it wasn't nearly as iconic as:

Funny sight to see... this is a "man truck" ... I guess this is how you will see workers being transported in some ares... does not look like a pleasant way to travel!  Note the sand blowing across the road - the wind had picked up again... just for me!

And that my friends, is the end of my trip.

We got back into town and we bummed around the apartment until it was time to take me to the airport as this was Friday and my flight would leave at 1:20 am on Saturday... the only upside to flying back is that you get home the same day you leave even if you do fly and travel for 24 hours!

Run For Your Lives

We had to head out at 7:30am to make the 2 hour drive to Union Point.

We headed out amidst HUGE storms and a few accidents.  Liz was checking the site to make sure we were still "on" with the downpours that were being experienced... we were... mud fest, here we come!!

 These two crack me up!

You can't see the front of Gloria's shirt, it says "Eat Liz" the backs have zombies and muffins (as in the they were the blubber muffins - ha!)  And they are so clean here!!  You'll understand!

 I got the girls all signed up for their race part, and I headed off to the Zombie Barn for my "make over"

 Even a smiling Zombie!

 After my transformation - before mud and blood...

 waiting in line for mud and blood - what a motley crew, eh?

 you can see the gal splashing blood on someone nearest to the barn!

 Love the head wounds!

Head wound dude - remember him - we saw them again at the end of the day - story to follow!

Now splattered with mud and blood we headed out to the site a horribly long hike - about a 1/2 mile I think I heard - through sloggy slippery mud - yuck!!

We got to witness folks going through the "blood pit" ... more a like a mud pit due to the constant mud.  I don't know how the runners did it really - the mud was up to 6" thick where I was and it was worse in other spots!  (oh, and a zombie was IN the water when we got there...hiding out and grabbing flags from unsuspecting water folks!)

 Quite a long water feature, however I heard later from Liz there was a pond they had to go through as well, she was thinking it would be shallow all the way across and ended up over her head in the middle - ha!

 My station - looking back at "teen" zombie, "Grandma" zombie (she rocked!), and other zombie dude.. they were just past my station heading to the water hazard.

 Liz and Gloria in all their glory - the guy walking past got a "free pass with no zombie chasing so I could get a picture of the girls with me... see what I meant about them being SO clean in that first picture?  ha!  They said they were worse in the end too - I'm sure they were!  Gloria is the only one "alive" at this point too :(  Poor Lizzie!

 Proud zombie mom with the girls! 

 Teen zombie in character!

 Had to get ONE shot of runners actually running my way - I actually told them "free passage" just run for me for a second for a good shot :)  I'm a horrible Zombie!

 Happy Zombie with my 10 flags - they didn't come easy!! 

 Grandma Zombie - I think she was glad it was over too!

 Flight Suit Zombie - he actually got into the water (mud) hazard and grabbed at folks :o) 

he was a MESS!

 And finally me with T-Dog from "The Walking Dead" show

I didn't recognize him with hair :)

So there you have it - our experience with "Run For Your Lives"

It was a LONG day - by the time I got done with my shift the girls had already given up and were in the car.  I decided my clothes were NOT salvageable - planned on regardless.  I stripped in one of the changing areas and put on clean(er) clothes - nothing stayed clean in that mud fest!  I put on my Crocks to make it to the car - what a mistake - they were SLICK in the mud and I almost bit it a few times on the way to the car... once I made it back onto the road - I was fine... then stumbled up to the car in full makeup still.  I scared Gloria - she wasn't expecting that!

We headed out and I stopped at one point for gas.  Liz said I looked too horrible to go get anything to eat, so I took some baby wipes and cleaned up as good as I could with mud and blood in my hair :)

We made it to Zaxsby's only to find head wound guy outside smoking a cigarette in full face paint still - ha!  We got a good laugh out of that as I told him my girls wouldn't let me look that horrible.  He did say the folks in the store looked at him funny.  Ya think?  ha!

RACE RESULTS ARE IN

Now this was out of the 179 in their 12pm wave. 

Overall - not a clue.

http://www.eliteracemanagement.com/run-for-your-lives-atlanta/

has all the results!

New Camera on trial...

 Standing on the back porch shooting to the back of the yard.... can you see what I see?

No?  Let me ZOOM up on it!

Wow, this one has a rocking zoom and it's a Cannon - WITH a rechargable battery this time and it's a point and shoot with auto flash (albeit pop up), so I think I'll be happy with this one.  I hope so anyway!

My Itinerary for the UAE!

Did I mention I LOVE my friends????

Your Vacation Itinerary – so far…

15 March

2000 – Arrive in Abu Dhabi

16 March

0800 – Depart for Dubai

Dubai: Day 1:

Ibn Battuta Mall (I have to shop for a phone for the girls!)

Burj Al Arab

Atlantis

Hotel Check-In – (reservation made)

Dubai Mall for dinner

17 March

Dubai: Day 2:

Dubai Mall

“The Top” (Burj Khalifa Tour & Observation Deck)

Dhow Cruise Dinner on Dubai Creek (?)

18 March

Dubai: Day 3:

1000 – Jumeirah Mosque Tour (tour time set)

Al Fahidi Fort (Dubai Museum)

Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum House (Museum)

Gold Souk (Market)

Spice Souk (Market)

Vegetable Market

The HQ

Return to Abu Dhabi

19 March

Abu Dhabi: Day 1:

Emirates Palace

The ADNEC

Yaz Island

1630 – Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Tour

Laundry

20 March

Abu Dhabi: Day 2:

City Drive

Coriche

Vegetable Market

Grocery Shopping for Liwa

1200 – Depart for Liwa

1500 – Hotel Check-In – (reservation made)

Rest on the Patio with picnic dinner

21 March

Liwa: Day 1:

Rest, relax, and catch up

Dune Bashing Tour – (booked)

22 March

Liwa: Day 2:

Breakfast Buffet

Rest, relax, and catch up

Spa (?)

Sunset Camel Trekking – (booked)

23 March

Liwa: Day 3:

Mimosa’s on the patio

Breakfast Buffet

1200 – Depart for Abu Dhabi

Laundry/Pack

2200 – Airport for Departure at 0120

You may need a vacation from your vacation =0)

Goodness, I have found a travel planner for the middle east that’s for sure!  WOW Leslie – you have outdone yourself!!

I was excited for my trip even before hearing just how much fun I’m going to have!  I am so looking forward to seeing all these new places, trying new foods and seeing new sights!  Thanks for setting all this fun stuff up for me – what would I do without you? 

BBBBBbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssssssss

Hu?

Saturday is the first my many count down items to come to fruition.

What are my count down items? 

2 days – Run for your lives (http://runforyourlives.com)

13 days – UAE trip!

100 days – Europe trip with Lizzie

 

So – first up, something that is a bit silly to be this excited about.  Run For Your Lives….  If you watch the TV Show Walking Dead (www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead) you will be able to relate.  This show is shot in lovely Atlanta area.  Fun to see something you can recognize in the distance and places they reference you actually KNOW.. and the scenery is quite familiar as well.  It looks like your backyard when it’s filmed close to home J  Anyway, we have been watching it since the first show and get a kick out of it.  We look up places we see on line and we reference the web page to see where the towns are.  Who knows, maybe we’ll drive through some of them in the future.  Right now I’m sure they’re pretty flooded with others with the same though process.  ANYWAY.  There is a 5K obstacle race with zombies that Liz saw (Run For Your Lives) and I noted you could be a zombie as well… I so I signed up to be a zombie and Liz and a friend signed up to be runners. 

Too fun!  I’m a stumbler zombie – as opposed to a runner zombie.  I will not be running after folks on the course, I imagine I’ll be in the obstacle areas grabbing.  What will I be grabbing?  BRAINS.  No, kidding, every runner is given what equates to flag football flags.  That is what I’m aiming for .. flags.  Doesn’t sound nearly as tempting as brains, now does it?  Ha!

I am still working out some details in my pea brain as well.  Whatever I wear must be able to be trashed/stained/destroyed, so I’m having to choose wisely.  I will be on the course from 11:30 to 1:30 grabbing at flags… Liz and her buddy will be running the course at 1pm, so I hope to see them pass me by.  By the time they get done I will be done with my shift and will collect my t-shirt, change/clean up and they should be doing similar.  Clean up you ask?  Well, it’s supposed to RAIN this weekend.  UGH.  The good news?  The high should be 69 degrees.  I guess I need to find a light coat to wear that I wouldn’t mind just tossing when it’s all said and done.

Once this effort is done… I concentrate a bit more on the UAE Trip – although I really am already well into the planning for it as well.  I have thought about packing, what I’m wearing and general planning…. Still need to pick up some acceptable shoes for walking/touring.  I think I’m going white tennies even though you are tagged as a tourist with white tennies… well, DER, tall blonde chick in the UAE it’s a given that I’m a tourist.  I’m surely not a local.

Leap Year - Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today is the 5th anniversary of meeting Butch. What? I just had my
18th wedding anniversary and my children are to be 17 and 13 this year?
Hum... weird... oh, yeah - look at the DAY that today is. Happy Leap
Year Day. Today is the 5th anniversary of me meeting Butch, way back in
the days of yore in Las Vegas.
Now, on to topics from what has been going on my so called busy life and
all that has been getting done (read into this adventures of a manic
person)
Saturday started slow.. I had been working on some of the taskings from
the decluttering group that a friend from work had started - and truth
is that the tasks were from the week or so prior, but they were getting
done today. I cleaned out my undies drawer. Sure you wanted to hear
about that, hu? This meant pulling most of the stuff that is a bit
"older" out and sorting into donate, trash, sell @ thrift store (bra's
only - don't freak!). That took place while watching shows on TV and
bumming around. All the while Lizzie is chomping at the bit to go
somewhere, anywhere so she can drive, so we headed to Mom's house to
drop off the sewing machine (perfect excuse, only she really didn't want
it back - ha!) I fixed something on her computer, talked about her
family history book I'm doing, then we did a mad dash back to town. Liz
wanted to see a movie and I was game (we did ask Butch and Angela -
neither of them were interested). We went to the $2 theater (1.99, but
who's counting?) and enjoyed a nice movie (Sherlock Holmes 2) then
headed home stopping by Red Box to see if we could find "In Time" -
another movie that has been on the list a while. We went home and
watched that on pay per view - movie watching fools!
Sunday. I got up got my coffee, read the paper. I had been reminded by
dad to PLANT the hydrangea plant he had left at my house on Friday in a
bucket... so I walked out grabbed the plant and potting soil and headed
to the back of the yard. I put the plant in pre-dug hole (Thanks dad!!)
and put in some potting soil. I then headed back to house adding soil to
pre-planted wisteria (daddy loves me) along the way. I noted that I
needed to put in the arbor/trellis for the wisteria to get a grip on to
make it to the top of the pergola. I had also walked past my broke
fence one MORE time. Got mad. went outside the fence, got the trellis
from beside pool equip drag it back to the wisteria. Pushed it into
place (small metal one) weaved wisteria onto it... Walked back to garage
tossing left over potting soil in corner and grabbed the hammer. I
walked the outside of the fence, found the fallen fence slat and took my
anger out on slat. That felt good so I walked the fence line hammering
popped nails as I went. I knew of ONE more loose spot so made my way
over there pounded on it for a while. I took the hammer back and looked
at lockers (lovingly), then looked outside - no rain. So I decided to
paint. I painted the interior of the lockers - one coat. Then I went in
for food. I put some potatoes and eggs in one big pot cooked while
eating lunch. I then went back out and did one more coat of paint... At
some point I did take the potatoes and such off the heat and did a cool
rinse on them and then actually made potato salad and put it in the
fridge. We had that with Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner
(Walmart frozen parties that break apart)... Then I went to bed! I
probably played in the computer from bed as well - iPad.
I didn't get my typical nap :( Bummer!
Monday - I stayed at work with a project that took WAY too long. We had
scheduled down time from 4:30 - 6:30 and everything took twice as long
as we thought it would. We ended up not leaving until 8:30pm Ooops!
Ah, well, some days are better than others!
Tuesday, I left work hour and a half early so I could get my permanent
crown :( I went home and cut some vinyl for BFK and said hi to kids over
my shoulder as they came in and offered them shopping if they went with
me to deliver the vinyl delivery. I finish up with the vinyl and got in
the car and had Liz Drive us to drop vinyl and Target (it's right next
door). After Target, she drove us to Walmart. Got what I needed There,
then I drove the car over to Staples (same parking lot, so that seems
lazy, but I was looking for a book shelf... that I never did find/buy!)
I went to staples dropped into TJMaxx and Payless shoe store while Liz
and Angela shopped Rue21 and Payless. I only popped into Rue21 in the
end to get Liz. After that, we were off to dinner.
Now most days I go home from work and cut some vinyl, or deliver vinyl
from the day prior. I try to only make ONE trip there per day - and do
it on the way home. Tuesday was an exception as I had to order some
license plates and waited for them to get there to finish this job AND I
was home early due to the crown - it went faster than anticipated as
well, so I was home by 2:45 - score! So - a typical day would be - drop
by BFK on the way home from work, drop an order, come home, cut some
vinyl, park in front of a TV and catch up on taped shows and surf on the
computer :o) this is NOT typical... typical would be BORING!!

Technology dependence

I’m a techno junkie… it’s official.  If I leave my phone at home, I feel naked.  What’s up with that?

It wasn’t THAT long ago that we had just came back from overseas and I didn’t have a clue about cell phones.  While cell phones were gaining in popularity over here, and well established, however expensive in Europe, we were blissfully unencumbered by cell phones.  We didn’t feel the need to be constantly in touch with the world.  We would go to the beach and only talk to those around us… shocking!  Then came the cell phones… we were constantly in touch with the folks in our lives, if even for a brief minute to call and say “hi, how’s your day going?”

Next came day planners, everyone LOVED day planners… then they moved electronic.  Oh, the horror of it.  I moved from Franklin planner purse – it was my life – to carrying a phone AND an electronic planner.  That got old in a hurry, so I relented and moved my planner to my phone.  GREAT.  Life now in ONE spot.  Phone, planner, everything in ONE spot…. Then the advent of “smart” phones with internet… now we carry not only our whole life, but our communications with the world via email right there with us every day.  There isn’t a day that you’re not in contact in some form of fashion. 

Face Book brought us to a newer level of watching others lives unfold.  Sharing our own as well as we have bigger events.  Blogging has added to this as well.  This is great – really.  I have been in pseudo contact with folks I haven’t talked to or really related to on a one on one level in years, decades even.  Those that really DO want to know what I’m doing, can see what I’m doing on a monthly basis via the blog (or I guess I should say epiphany moments and/or life changing events I want to document, as I use this blog as a journal of sorts).  They can also follow me daily, hourly, secondly (ha!) if they so choose on Face Book – however, I just don’t post that much on there.   I’m a stalker.  I go, I read, I catch up on peoples lives, I laugh, I look at pictures and I move on.  I check blogs all the time to see if anything momentous has happened… I comment, I LOVE seeing all the blogs and the news.  I have had the joy of watching little nieces and nephews having babies, raising babies, watching those babies grow.  It’s FUN.  It’s a great time.  No more waiting around for snail mail to get there.  No more printing pictures to send copies to all the mother’s, fathers, grandmothers of the world…. But it’s also sad too.  There aren’t a lot of printed pictures anymore.  Not a lot of photo albums, unless you enjoy scrapbooking – and sometimes even if you DO enjoy scrapbooking as you don’t “get” to all the pictures….

My goal on that level last year was to print out all my pictures anytime there was a special on the photo printing sights…. I now have almost updated albums in my house… my NEXT goal is to get a bookshelf to have them in my living room so EVERYONE knows where they are and what year they contain… so they can enjoy the pictures too.  So they don’t sit in my craft room WAITING for me to finish an album to go to someone… or finish a page that is in my head, but not in reality…

Maybe my NEXT goal would be to start WRITING letters again too … sending printed pictures… going back to the basics.

So, what brought this on?  Oh, yeah, I left my phone at home!