Enjoying Epcot

Okay, whiplash time.

Now I take you back once more (but only once more I promise) to Orlando.

I added on a couple of vacation days to my NASPA conference trip, and Tim met me there.  Had a minor adventure getting to Orlando, as my flight from Dubai to JFK was delayed an hour ... and between customs and changing terminals, let's just say they were re-booking a large number of people from that flight.

I had not flown on an Airbus 380 before.  It's a big sucker.

I had the genuine joy of flying business class, which makes such a long flight (14 hours) much easier to survive.  And the Airbus has a little lounge, where you can stand or sit, and have a variety of drinks and snacks.  Nice to have the variety.

One of our free days, Tim and I decided to check out Epcot.  Figured we didn't need to see the duplicate of Disneyland, and wanted something unique instead.

I asked Tim to take a couple of photos with me in them. (If you know Tim, you know that people photos are not what he does, unless it's for scale!)  What I had not packed for was cool weather, so picked up a Walt Disneyworld souvenir jacket!  Another iconic building, this time in the U.S.:

Should have kept a copy of the Epcot map, because I don't remember which country is in the background here ... am sure someone reading this can remind me!

Visiting the different settings / "countries" in Epcot is fun. They theme all of the places well.  And beyond the settings and the spring flowers, we also noticed that you could -- with great variety -- eat, shop and drink your way around the world at Epcot!  What would you call that? Global sampling? 

This time a day trip to Dubai

I don't mean to give you whiplash, going from the UAE to the USA and then back again to the UAE ... yet I should warn you that I'll probably do that at least once more, as I have some Orlando photos coming. 

I have been writing and saving drafts of posts from Tim's visit in February, and am finally returning to them, to complete and share.

So now about our day-trip to Dubai.

On the Saturday before Tim flew back to California, he and I drove to Dubai.  That's about a 1.5 hour drive north on the E-11, for those of you checking out maps.

I had never driven on my own to Dubai before; always have been a passenger in the back seat, soaking in the sights.  And really, the only place I had ventured so far in Dubai are the Mall of the Emirates (which has Ski Dubai) and Dubai Mall.  Between paying attention while my brother drove, I had the two malls and the Burj Khalifa to navigate by.

Part of the day was to have lunch with Ahmed, one of the Al Rowdah Academy managers. He lives in Dubai, and had met Tim earlier in the week.  Tim and I had stopped at the Dubai Mall, mostly to see if a bookstore by the name of Kinokuniya had a particular book in stock.  It's quite the store!  (If you haven't ever read them, a couple of very good books on education and thinking outside of the box are: "The Learning Paradigm College" by John Tagg and "Out of Our Minds -- Learning to Be Creative" by Ken Robinson.)

There are some interesting videos about the mall on their website: http://www.thedubaimall.com/en
(lower right hand corner of the webpage)
Found the videos by accident when I went to look up the name of the bookstore, because I had no idea how to spell it!  (Am sure there are many other videos and photos of the area.)

I had not ventured outside of the mall before, but after lunch this day we did ... had I known how beautiful the area was outside, I would have made sure we ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating.  Next time!

In this shot, to the right is the mall, and to the left are restaurants and cafes. Behind us is a hotel, and walkways all around.  The fountain is quite famous; and at night the fountain is also lit up.  Will have to check that out some time.  

Hard to tell the scale of this building from these photos.

And looking up ...

There you have the tallest man-made structure in the world.  It's worth Googling it, to get different photos and perspectives of it.  Not sure what floor the observation deck is on; am encouraging Tim to give it a go next time he visits ... the 28-floor glass elevator at the  Orlando Marriott World Center was enough to make me gasp, so cannot imagine I'll make a trip up in this building! But am sure it's spectacular.

I mentioned landmarks to navigate by.  You can imagine that the Burj Khalifa is one of them!  When we first came into Dubai that morning, I was determined to get closer to the Burj Arab.  We found some side streets (don't know if I'd find them easily a second time!), in an area that reminded both Tim and I of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA.  (Okay, I know grammatically -- as I read this through for typos -- that I should write "Tim and me" ... but as correct as that might be it just sounds wrong!) 

The area has a very similar feel to Balboa Peninsula, with similar houses and tiny beach streets.  Came upon a bustling beach, that even had a five-foot-high (approximately) platform that you could stand on to have the Burj Arab in the background of your photo.  Didn't opt for that, but did take a couple of photos. 

Have to say, it's fun to see such iconic buildings in person.  Maybe we'll visit the inside some day.  (It's said to be very posh, so I'd rather be dressed nicely if visiting.)

And there was a jet ski competition going on, so snapped a photo of that, to share a view of the Arabian Gulf.

Apologies if this post doesn't have flow to it ... got in late Friday night and was back to work today (Sunday), after waking up around 2:30 a.m. and never quite got back to sleep last night / this morning.  Let's hear it for jet lag!

Hello from Orlando!

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share that I have not had a chance to post recently ... I am at the NASPA conference in Orlando, and they are keeping us pretty busy.

But I didn't want to worry anyone!

Tim has met me here. We came in a few days early (yay! for vacation time!), and he's staying throughout the conference with me.  It helps that he knows some of the people in NASPA with me.  And great fun to catch up with colleagues and friends.  (Dinner with Mike Morvice last night -- another "yay!")

Besides catching up on sleep after a long flight, we did do a play day at Epcot. Had not been there before.  Was fun to check out something new together ... lately, we've explored more things separately (like me exploring Abu Dhabi).

Tim's going to give me some photos from that day ... will share them next.

In the meantime, for your entertainment, so photos of pure joy.  Tim took our pups up to the snow (Big Bear) a week and half ago.  As you will see from the photos, Suki and Taicho LOVE the snow!  That's our good friend Jon holding the long leashes, Suki on the left and Taicho on the left:

Taicho playing with good friend Tina:

Neither pup will EVER catch a ball or toy that is tossed to them.  But apparently, snowballs are an exception for Suki:

And nope, not sure what in the world caught her attention under the snow!

Sunset at the beach

Tim's first weekend here, after playing tourist during the day, we went to the St. Regis on Saadiyat Island.  They have an unobstructed view of the Arabian Gulf, and a beach front restaurant/bar.

Tim, Jeanine and I grabbed comfy seats outside.  There was a cool breeze, and we enjoyed delicious smoothies as the sun set.  We had driven past Port Zayed on our way from the Corniche to Saadiyat Island, and from the St. Regis we watched a cruise ship that had been docked, sailing out into the Arabian Gulf.

Definitely a place I won't mind going to again for a relaxing time.

Here are some photos ...

The sun is setting (obviously!).  It's a bit hazy, but you can see the cruise ship heading out; look to the left of the a palm trees.

Looking out onto the Gulf.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Now, this photo above ... I should have probably gone for another angle. Didn't realize that I had some closed umbrella centered in the shot. Ignore that, and know that I was looking past that, capturing part of the St. Regis, the blue lights on the pool, and some more of the sunset colors :-)

Tour at the mosque

While Tim was here, one day we played tourist with friend Jeanine, and one of our stops was the Grand Mosque.  I had been wanting to visit it again, especially to take one of their tours.  We had a darling young Emirati woman who showed us around, and answered our questions.  One answer to our many questions: it's a "grand" mosque because of the size. And it is not the largest mosque in the world. (That one is in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; holds a mere 1,000,000.)  I wish I had taken notes ... I did look up what the Abu Dhabi mosque holds: 40,000 (I think it was 30,000 in the courtyard and 10,000 inside the mosque).

I've shared photos in a previous blog post, but here's a few more.

In this photo below, you can see a lighter green line running horizontally.  (It shows up better when larger.)  There are these lines spaced about 3 feet or so apart, and they run the length of the mosque.  They give worshipers an indication of where to stand and kneel for prayer; pretty organized.  What really impresses me is the carpet itself. To work this line in ... somewhere there are stats on how many people and how long it took to make this ginormous carpet.  Again, the artistry and craftsmanship is impressive, throughout the mosque.

Note: something I forgot for a moment and want to share ... public displays of affection are frowned upon in the UAE, especially at a mosque.  Jeanine was taking a picture of Tim and I. Tim put his arm around my shoulder for a photo. I noticed a security guard looking, and next thing you know he is over talking to Jeanine, asking her to delete the photo and reminding us that that is a no-no.  (Not his words, but in a friendly and polite way made his point.)  So if you visit, remember that.

Also remember to bring a shawl or scarf.  The mosque has abayas for women to wear. But if you have a scarf you can wear that and then not have to wear an abaya.  Jeanine and I had both remembered to carry scarves with us. (A smart move when traveling. Places like the Grand Mosque, and some churches I have seen in travels, ask for women to cover their heads.)

Here we are!