Jumeirah

Today we lounged in and then drove around looking at cars, etc. We attempted to attend the Hop Fest at The Irish Village, but the kids werent allowed (too bad, 150 ales left untasted). So we went to Madinat Jumeirah, a souk mall, with 75 stores. Jumeirah is a neighborhood in Dubai.

A souk is a small shop and it is literally a maze of them. Even with Steve's excellent sense of direction we still got turned around.


Drew at a camel trinket booth.

Ther are places to relax like this all over the outside of the "maze".
Jacob and Drew posing in front of an antiques booth.

This is one of the great views from the promenade, with the Burj al Arab in the backdrop.

For fun and to do the touristy thing, we took an "abra" cruise. This is a small boat that they use as transport in venecian style.

Winding down the canals, it is surrounded by a hotel, villas, spa, and restaurants.


This is a great view of the famous Burj al Arab. It is patterned to look like the sail of an abra.

After this we went to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. This is not far from where we will live. It is a great resort with many restaurants and also connects to Wild Wadi (Dubai's version of Wild River Country).
Here is a champagne cocktail toast to the Conway girls :)!

We were early for dinner, so while we were waiting we introduced the boys to "High Tea". Besides the great tea, we had scones with clotted cream and jam; tea sandwiches of cheese, cucumber, beef, and salmon; as well as, fruit tarts and dessert breads. The boys tasted it all. Drew decided he liked the salmon sandwiches because they "tasted like tuna."
The view from our tea room at sunset.

We ate at the Beachcomber. It was Malaysian night. A huge buffet containing every thing Malaysian, some of which was extremely spicy!


The boys awaiting water. They were very family friendly.

They even had a child size buffet.

This was my plate...Steve and I were unsure of a lot of food, but overall very tasty. The banana leaf roll on the left was my favorite. It was stuffed with a roasted fish in coconut milk.

Here is Steve's...he who likes spicy food drank alot of water during this!
For dessert, we tried a small cup of assorted fruit in coconut milk. This was excellent until at the bottom of the cup there was red kidney beans...not sure what that was about. The boys had dragonfruit with a passionfruit sorbet!

The restaurant had a kids area where they could play video games, color, or watch a movie. This allowed Steve and I to leisurely enjoy our wine :)
Jacob and Drew at the rickshaw outside the restaurant with the Burj in the backdrop.

This is the light show that goes on every night at the Burj. It is really hard to portray how awesome the views were and how huge this thing is.