Isaac and Jenni Marshall: Our weekend

Do you have some time on your hands? Well, this is the blog to check out if you do! We had a nice, relaxing weekend, and I was in a picture-taking mood!

Isaac made one of his famous pancake breakfasts Friday morning (our Saturday), and then we took Bella to our favorite little beach spot.

So excited for the beach!

Jumeirah Beach residences...

They can even make palm trees grow on the rooftops in Dubai!

my favorite "artsy" shot=)

We knew our beach was too good to be true! We found all these barriers today, which means that building will be starting soon =( Bummer!

Old man and his shisha... he puffed on it the whole time we were there!

Looks like a good day for fishing

Bye bye for now, beach!

Dubai Marina neighborhood

On our way to Spinneys... can you believe this is the Middle East???

Grocery time! Had to pick up a few things for our BBQ.

I love these guys =)

Uh oh, Dan didn't fare so well... Despite that, we had a lovely poolside BBQ with our friends Dan, Ashley, and Kristi. I have a feeling that will become a nice little tradition=). Maybe we'll avoid the kabobs next time to keep the guys safe!

A day in Sharjah...
We drove to Sharjah this afternoon to visit the Natural History Museum. There is a geology exhibit I wanted to check out for a possible 2nd grade field trip. We had a nice drive to the Museum, despite getting a little bit lost (at least we had good company=)! ). We also spent some time at the Arabian Wildlife Preserve. Unfortunately both facilities prohibited photography=( but we had a very nice time checking things out. The geology exhibit was great, so I think we'll bring the 2nd grade classes back at the end of our "rock" unit in a few weeks. The wildlife preserve was great. I was pleased to see that the animals appeared to be in good health, with nice enclosures (in general, animal welfare is not a high priority in the Middle East). All of the animals on display were native to the Middle East, and there were some fascinating creatures! The desert cats were beautiful, the rodents were entertaining, and the reptiles were stunning. Our favorite critter was a blind fish that is only found in one cave system in Oman. They are born with normal eyes and can see quite well, but as they grow, their eyes stay the same size and their heads grow around them, leaving the adult fish blind! Bizarre! When we got back to Dubai we dined al fresco at Mashawi (yum!) before coming home. Dan was here and the boys are watching football. We have an educator's exchange at school for the next two days, so we get to go back to being students!

Here are some shots from our adventure today...

The Burj Tower... tallest building in the world

Downtown Dubai from Sheik Zayad Road

Dubai Golf Club on the creek... this is where ASD has its annual Christmas party!

Sharjah, here we come!

One of the neighborhoods we visited on a construction detour

Instead of highway patrolmen, those in the UAE are required to monitor themselves while driving... with a little help from hidden cameras. Apparently, if you are speeding, the camera will take your picture. At the end of the year when you go renew your car tags you will get all your traffic violations handed to you at once. Yikes!

A road that leads nowhere? This kind of randomness is prevalent here!

Sharjah International Airport

Airport Mosque

Heading out into the desert

We made it!

No cameras allowed, so here's a little proof that we were there

Arabian Wildlife Preserve

There is nothing like an Arabian sunset... the sky literally looks like its on fire and the sun is neon (this picture does not even begin to do it justice).

Say Cheese!!! My neck looks freakishly long here!

Photo faux pas... This is not a great photo, but I wanted to document a really cool sight. We were still a ways off from Dubai at sundown, so many vehicles pulled off the freeway and the men got out on the side of the road with their prayer rugs to pray. Taking pictures of this event is generally rude, but we were whizzing by at such a fast speed (hence the quality of the photo) that I figured I could get away with it. There were several large groups of men praying together, as well as individuals. It was such a rare sight to witness because there are so many mosques in the city.