Dubai 2012 Long Weekend Day 4

We woke early this morning and took a quick taxi to the Dubai airport.  Nice airport and quite large.  It seems to take forever to go from one place to the next.  One thing I hate more than anything is taking a bus to your plane from the gate.  I half way understand if it is a low cost carrier at a larger carrier's hub, but this was Emirates, the flagship of Dubai.  Why they couldn't taxi their planes and board from the gate is beyond me.  Nonetheless, the flight was a breeze despite the delays.

After arriving in Bahrain, we decided to go to our favorite restaurant there and eat, Ric's Country Kitchen.  I may have discussed it before, but in short, Ric's has some good American fix ins, particularly for breakfast.  I ate up some biscuits and sausage gravy with a side of bacon.  Jamie had what appeared to be potato skins along with (you guessed it) a side of bacon.

The drive across the causeway was a piece of cake and Jamie and I spent the rest of the day catching up on our shows.

Again, a wonderful trip to Dubai.  We highly recommend the city for a 4 day weekend.  There is probably enough to do if you wanted to stay for a week, but it might get costly.  They have some fabulous resorts there too, but again, more costly.  I know we'll be back down there for a similar long weekend in the future.

Dubai 2012 Long Weekend Day 3

Beautiful weather today in Dubai.  James had a great night's sleep, so we also slept in and hung out in our room.  We left about 1:00 to go to the "Creek."  After discovering that the Metro station there was closed, we decided to get off on the Metro early.  When we asked the taxi driver to take us the the Creek, he took us to the Creek Children's Park instead.  It was then that we also discovered that I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera.  So... no pictures today.

We spent the entire afternoon in the Dubai Creek Children's Park.  It is a very nice area with a ton of stuff to do with kids.  James is too young obviously, but we have decided that we'll go back there one day.  Having a park like that would be amazing in Saudi.  It is times like that that I wish Saudi had their act together.  They certainly have the money Dubai has, just weird in the way they spend it.

After roaming around the park for a few hours, we took another taxi to Festival City, where we decided to eat at Hard Rock Cafe.  The food as always was great, and we bought James his first HRC onesie.

We leave very early in the morning to fly back to Bahrain where we'll hop over into Saudi.  We should be home by 11:00 am, so we'll have the day to rest before going back to work on Monday.

James' first on this trip (14.5 weeks old)...

1st time out of the country (Bahrain and United Arab Emirates)
1st time across Saudi/Bahrain Causeway
1st airplane ride (Bahrain to Dubai) and (Dubai back to Saudi)
1st monorail ride (Dubai)
1st hotel stay (Rose Garden Hotel Apartments Dubai)
1st Hard Rock Cafe (Dubai)
1st time rolling on one side
1st time rolling in the grass (this may seem weird, but remember where we live)
1st time held by complete strangers (everyone seems to have an opinion on how to calm a baby)
1st tear rolling down the cheek

He's also really starting to "jabber" and may be teething.

Dubai 2012 Long Weekend Day 2

Jamie had a rough night with James, so we slept in (kinda) and didn't head out until after noon.  We took the Metro straight to the Dubai Mall.  On exiting the Metro, you can see the  Burj Khalifa measuring in at 829.84 m (2723 ft) tall. You can actually see it pretty much from anywhere in the city.  It is actually a beautiful building.  I read where it took 5 years to building using 13,000 workers where they sometimes built a level in only 3 days.  


The Dubai Mall is equally impressive.  We entered and found a nice little "Mexican" restaurant in the food court.  The rest of the day was spent trying to feed James and keep him happy and walk around the mall.  There is a large aquarium at the bottom.  We decided not to go in, but you can see the 10 million liter aquarium from the outside quite easily.  It houses over 33,000 marine animals.  


A quick dinner at Uno's deep dish pizza and a dessert once again at Cold Stone and we were off to see the Dubai Fountains, the largest dancing water fountains in the world.  If you have been to see the dancing water fountains at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Vegas, the Dubai fountains won't seem all that.  There are more fountains, but the show is pretty much the same.  The back drop, however, is quite incredible as you view the Burj Khalifa to your left of the fountains and the Burj Al Arab to your right.  The Burj Al Arab is the only "self proclaimed" 7 star hotel in the world.  It is impossible to go in to see it unless you have either a) a room for the night which starts at $1800 per night for a "standard" room OR b) you can get a reservation (up to a month early) to eat at the restaurant where the meal will probably cost you around $250 per couple.  While it would be nice to actually say we've seen it, we'll wait for that large bonus check to arrive in the mail first.  


It had been a long afternoon, so we headed back for the night.  Tomorrow, we'll see what else Dubai has to offer.  Check out the few pictures we have on our Picasa Photo Albums.   

Dubai 2012 Long Weekend Day 1

James' visa finally came in on Tuesday, February 7, so I quickly booked a flight and room to Dubai for our 4 day weekend. We had been wanting to take him on a trip, so we thought we'd celebrate his 14 weeks of life in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.  On Thursday morning, we headed out by 7:00 am to the Bahrain airport.  After thinking we wouldn't make it in time due to the Bahrain morning traffic, we safely boarded our plane and we off on the 1 hour flight to Dubai.  James was a little fussy only while waiting in line to board.  That was only because he was hungry.  Once we were on board, Jamie fed him and he was good to go.  Didn't fuss the entire trip.  We counted that he'll have 10 more take off and landings in the next 6 months, so he better get used to it.  Our goal is for him to be a champion traveler at an early age.

Dubai airport is beautiful and easy, and after a quick stop at the Duty Free (thank you Jack D.), we took the monorail toward our hotel.  James became quite fussy then, so we decided to stop 1 stop early at the Mall of Emirates.  After feeding him at Cold Stone and treating ourselves, we took a quick taxi to our hotel, The Rose Garden Hotel Apartments.  The room is nice and it has a full kitchen in it.  We rested a while before heading back out, taking the Metro (which was only 1 block from our hotel) back to the Mall of Emirates.  After walking the mall for a while shopping around, we ate at a place called Sezzam which was at the bottom of the Ski Dubai.  Ski Dubai is a large indoor skiing course.  Please remember that Dubai is in a desert.  When you get board, look up Dubai and notice all of the insane things that oil money can buy a country, including a fully operational ski slope inside of a mall.  If you've been to Colorado or any other ski town, it is not that big of a deal, but it is touristy and something to see.  We ate Indian food at Sezzam and it was wonderful.  They even served my favorite beer.  Alcohol is legal in Dubai but only sold at hotel restaurants and licensed bars.

After dinner, we walked around the Mall of Emirates a little longer before heading in for the night.  James was great for the night but has begun to get fussy.  We believe he might be teething.  Tomorrow, we'll head to the Dubai Mall to see some of the sites around there.  

St. Lucia Babymoon 2011 - Touring

From St. Lucia

Day 4 and 5

We rented a car for Thursday and Friday to drive around and see the sites of the island.  We also rented some snorkel gear in hopes of seeing some reefs, coral, and fish along the beaches.  With our map, we headed south the first day to Soufriere, most known for the two large pitons that are the symbols of the island. 

It was the first time I had driven on the left hand side of the road, and the roads themselves were very curvy up and down the hills.  I managed just fine for the two days of driving and actually liked it after a while.  The route to Soufriere is especially winding and takes an hour and a half to drive there.  Once we arrived, we saw the botanical gardens and the Diamond waterfall. 

One of the nicest and most known resorts on the island is the Jalousie Plantation, centered between the two pitons. We ate lunch there on their private beach, then headed back toward Marigot Bay.  On the way back, we stopped at Ti Kaye Village and Anse Cochon beach for some snorkeling on their black sand beach. It was nice but not spectacular.  Since we are driving, we aren’t privy to the nicer snorkeling locations on the island that the boat tours have. 

We stopped a local grocery store on the way home to buy some food to cook for dinner.  Our villa has a full kitchen, but we did not want to buy a bunch of ingredients, so we opted for pork chops, broccoli, and a baked potato.  It worked out nicely. 

Day 5

We headed out mid morning to the northern part of the island, known mainly for its nicer resorts and more upscale shopping.  The town of Castries is the capital and we quickly drove through it and made our way to Pigeon Island National Park, where we spent the day on the beach there relaxing, snorkeling, and just enjoying the park.  A Sandals resort is right next to the park, so it is a nice location, albeit hard to find due to the lack of signs that appears to be a problem on the island. 

After a dessert at Marble Slab, we made our way down to Anse La Raye, a small fishing village where every Friday night, they have a seafood street festival complete with music, dancing, and a wonderful seafood variety of just about anything you can think of.  We had plates of crab cakes, shrimp, conch soup (a local dish), as well as several side items.  Great great food and a nice atmosphere that shouldn’t be missed by anyone on the island on a Friday night. 

Great two days of traveling at our pace.  Had we gone on a sailing tour, it would have been more scenic, but we would have had to be on their schedule.  With Jamie 30 weeks pregnant, we decided this was the best way to see the sites.  The next few days will be spent enjoying our villa and hanging around Marigot Bay.

St. Lucia Babymoon 2011

From St. Lucia

Day 1

Jamie and I used our skymiles to book a week in St. Lucia.  This will be our final vacation before the baby arrives.  We had wanted to go there for our honeymoon four years ago, but the price didn’t fit the budget at the time.  With the skymiles, we were able to book our flight then we found a villa to rent for the week at Marigot Bay.

Marigot Bay is the location for the 1960s movie Dr. Doolittle.  It is a beautiful sea green and blue bay on the western side of the island. 

The direct flight from Atlanta took us to the main airport on the southern side of the island.  For a steep government regulated taxi fee of $75, e can get to your resort or villa.  Only an hour ride, but the whole island is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide.  Rough terrain and windy roads make driving a bit difficult, but natives navigate them with ease.

We were dropped off at the porter station and ferried across the small bay to our side.  We rode a little lift to the top of a small hill where our villa at the Oasis Marigot Ocean Cottage #3 waited us about 50 steps from the lift. 

The villa is complete with a king size bedroom, full size bath (shower a little finicky because it is operated through rain water), dining room, living room, and kitchen.  A huge balcony overlooks a plunge pool and the entire bay.  Wonderful tropical setting.  There are actually 4 rooms to this villa, but no one else is here this week, so we have all of the public places to ourselves. 

We ate a Doolittle’s restaurant just at the bottom of the lift the first night.  Good food, but a bit overpriced in our opinion.

No air conditioning in the villa which we thought would be a problem.  We requested an extra fan, so we had them set up in either the living room or the bedroom depending on where we were hanging out. 

Our taxi driver stopped at a grocery store for us before dropping us off, so we picked up some breakfast groceries for the week. Day 2 and 3 were spent mainly hanging around our villa or going over across the bay by the ferry to look around the small village.  We ate lunch in the villa and once ate at a place in the village. Dinner was at a place called JD’s, only reachable by ferry.    

Brown Family Vacation - Day 20 and Reflections

From Yellowstone National Park

Ft. Smith, AK to Calhoun, TN

We left early in the morning after a wonderful breakfast at the hotel.  Guesthouse Inn is quite nice despite it being probably 2nd least expensive hotel of the trip.

We changed drivers several times, at lunch at a Zaxby's, dropped by and picked up Papa John's for dinner, and made it back to Calhoun right at 12 hours.  Long day of driving but it really wasn't that bad.

We cleaned out the van and then reflected on the trip. There were 19 major locations we saw during the trip.  In order of appearance, they are...

St. Louis Arch
Corn/Wheat Fields of Midwest
1880's Western Town
Badlands National Park
Mt. Rushmore
Black Hills National Forest
Devil's Tower
Bighorn National Forest
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Tetons National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Oregon Coastal Road
Redwood National Park
Napa Valley
San Francisco
Sequoia National Park
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon National Park
Petrified Forest National Park/Painted Desert

I asked my family to rank their top 5 locations.  The following lists the top 5.  The top 3 really aren't that much of a surprise, but the last 2 might be considering that we didn't know we were going through them.  The remaining of them were not even close.  A couple of surprises in here I thought, but overall a solid list for anyone wishing to travel.  Keep in mind of the diversity of ages and experiences where the votes came from...

#1
Grand Canyon National Park - No surprise here as 3 people listed it as their number 1 choice; however, 3 people didn't rank it all.  Nonetheless, the Grand Canyon is probably a highlight of any trip out west.

#2
Yellowstone National Park - 6 of 7 people ranked the park in their top 5, which some could make it a case at being #1 on this list.  We'll stick with it at #2 in accordance with total points though.  Again, no surprise considering all that we saw there, including a bear.

#3
Redwood National Park - 5 of 7 people ranked this in their top 5, and one of the people who didn't had already been there before.  One person ranked it #1. The redwoods are majestic, and the highlight was the short 1.5 mile walk through these towering trees.

#4
Crater Lake National Park - 5 out of 7 people ranked this one.  We made a last minute decision to go here and diverted from our plan.  Lucky that we did because it outranked some other popular spots and one person ranked it #1.

#5
Big Horn National Park - The largest surprise on the list, but the drive through here it quite impressive.  Only 3 people ranked this but one ranked it first and two ranked it 2nd, so the points added up quickly.  Surprising still because we re-routed to drive through here not knowing how rewarding it was going to be.  The winding road through the mountains were worth the extra time which also got us to Cody, WY and closer to Yellowstone.

There it is.  The top 5 locations as voted on by the Brown family.  Feel free to agree or disagree if you have been to these locations.  Anyone wanting advise if you are traveling through these areas, feel free to email me. Also, don't forget to see all of the locations and photos on our PICASA PHOTO ALBUM.

Dad just said that it wasn't fair to rank these and that the best thing about the whole trip was us all being together for it.  I couldn't have said it better....