South Korea Study Trip - Day 1

March 8 - 9, 2012 –Day 1

We left the parking lot of ISG promptly at 6:30pm after goodbye hugs and kisses from parents.  Dammam airport was crowded, but we were able to all go through the GCC line.  Mathurine was very organized with all of the letters and passports and we had no issues whatsoever. The flight to Doha was only 40 minutes and the kids were wound up the whole time.  They had quite a bit of nervous energy.  They layover in Doha was not bad at all, and we boarded the next plane to Seoul with no problems despite Doha having some odd boarding procedures. 

The flight to Seoul took about 7 hours and 45 minutes.  Several kids slept and I was even able to catch a few winks even though I rarely sleep on airplanes.  At the airport, we easily went through customs and baggage claim and exchanged some money. On Unfortunately, I didn’t bring cash because I always rely on ATMs and my card has just expired.  I guess I’ll be washing dishes and singing songs on the street.  Incheon International Airport is entirely built on reclaimed land (like Hong Kong), so after arriving and meeting our tour guide Michelle, we boarded the bus and were off to Seoul. 

It took about an hour to get to our restaurant due to traffic.  We ate at a place called Ashley’s which had a buffet food with Korean dishes and a few American dishes the kids discovered. Dessert was at a Baskin Robbins, so the kids had a little taste of “home.”

After a long day, we arrived at our hotel, the Artnouveau City III and checked in.  A few of the students called home on Skype.  Most students slept through the night, but a few had a hard time sleeping.  Yours truly crashed about 11:00 pm woke at 6:45 am.  Because of a wonderful little one at home, sleeping through the night is a rare event for me. 

Tomorrow, we’ll have a packed day our touring some sites in Seoul.  

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.