Saturday in Dubai

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We did not do too much today, but what we did was really cool. The day was really broken up into the morning and the afternoon. In the morning, we woke up fairly late, and had breakfast down at the Costa Coffee virtually right next to Jerome’s apartment building. Then, we left for The Mall of the Emirates, one of the world’s largest malls. There, we saw a mall larger than you can possibly image, stretching on forever, with employees just milling about to help you get where you want to go. It also has a claim to fame: an indoor ski area. The people there literally built a huge hill, covered it in snow, refrigerated it, and set up ski lifts and the whole shebang. Amazing what money can do.

After that, in the afternoon, we went out on Jerome’s boat to spend the rest of the day on the water. The boat is not huge, it is about 33 feet, but it is big enough to have a cabin, a small kitchen, a toilet, and enough room and power to do pretty much whatever you want. We took it, stopping along the way for salads, to the Dubai coastal waters, near the palm island. One the way out, we paralleled about a dozen professional-type sailboats that were heading out for a race. We watched a bit of the race later in the day as it was being photographed from a helicopter. Once anchored, we had lunch, talked about things for a while, enjoyed the breeze, and eventually jumped into the water, swimming and playing around in the Persian Gulf. When most people say Persian Gulf, they think about the war in the early 1990’s. When I say it, I will always think of warm, green water to swim in. We spent the rest of the day out there, a returned going by the Burj Al Arab, the world’s first, and only 7 start hotel. It’s quite a place. After returning to the marina and parking the boat in the slip, we took time to clean off the boat with hoses and a small mop.

We returned to the apartment where we took showers and made a dinner of pasta and lamb. All in all, a very nice day.

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