J&M got Maui'd!

The flight back to Toronto was during the daytime, so we figured that it would be easier on us, and Elsy, as none of us would be trying to fight sleep for at least the first part of the flight. Gina also drove us to the airport in the morning on her way to work, which helped us a lot. We also decided to get a porter move our luggage as my shoulder and legs were still injured. The flight ended up delayed an hour for takeoff. As the plane pushed back from the gate, the auxiliary power did not kick in, and we had to sit while the technicians tried to find out what was wrong with the plane. Maggie and Elsy about to board the plane. When we finally did take off, Elsy was so wired, and had so much practice crawling and climbing stairs in Dubai, that she had a lot of trouble sitting still in the bassinet. In fact, she tried crawling into the adjacent bassinet that had a much younger, smaller, and quieter baby. We had to restrain her a number of times. The fact that Elsy was so mu

Maggie and I had been looking for some authentic Emirati food for quite some time and I came across a food tour that was highly rated (and also highly expensive) that we waffled on attending. Getting ready to enjoy some tasty Palestinian food. By the time we decided to we did want to take the tour, the only spots left available was the night before we left Dubai. Since our flight was in the morning, a late night out stuffing ourselves silly with food sounds like a excursion of madness, but this is what happens when you decide last-ish minute. Me and Maggie at the back of the Palestinian restaurant ready to try some kunafa. We spent the day packing and preparing for our trip back home and cleaning up the room. I got my post cards written but had no easy way to mail out the post cards. I decided to leave it to the locals to do it for me. Sitting down to enjoy some Emirati food. (Notice lack of utensils.) We ended up getting out to the meeting point an hour early, so we

Maggie, Elsy and I ended up having high tea with Gina, and the kids (sans Max) at Hanaaya Restaurant at the Jumeirah Mina A'Salam hotel. The venue was really nice, and there was so much food! It was mostly sweets, which was overwhelming after a while. I would've traded in some of the fondue for another scone, but I would not have been able to finish another scone, as I was stuffed! Picking up the kids from school before heading to high tea. We had kind of seen the place when we visited the Souk Madinat Jumeirah on Saturday. After tea, we got dropped off at the Mall of the Emirates to do some shopping as Maggie wanted to buy some more baby clothes.

We had to get up a little early for our VIP Abu Dhabi tour. Apparently the vehicle was going to be a mini-van but we were allowed to bring a car seat so that we could bring Elsy along with us. There were three other travelers with us making it a full vehicle. Elsy and Maggie at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The driver was nice in helping us, but we were a little surprised that all he did was drive us around to the various sightseeing spots but there was no explanation as to what each location was about. Elsy and Maggie at Ferrari World. So this was actually worse than the Dubai city tour as we got to go to places, but had no idea what was going on really. We weren't even able to get into the presidential palace grounds either, although it probably was not that much of a miss.

Today I had to get up around four-thirty in the morning to get ready to go dirt biking in the desert. This was definitely something you cannot do in Canada, at least not to the extent that one can here. The main drawbacks were cost and convenience, but the experience would be worth it. For the most part. I supposed to go with Kendrick, but he bailed a couple of days earlier so I went on my own. I was able to borrow his GoPro though so I could document the entire ordeal. I had booked the beginner two hour package and decided to pay for pickup as the meeting point was somewhere in the middle of the desert. I was the first passenger, and the driver ended up picking up a couple of other riders. I found out during the drive that the two other riders had booked a four hour tour, which meant that they ended up going on the trails with a guide, while I was left alone with the beginner instructor. This was probably a good thing, because I kept stalling the bike, or falling off the bike, o

Maggie, Elsy and I spent the afternoon exploring the Marina before our Sunset Cruise dinner with Xclusive. It was quite a tasty meal, although with my condition I was not able to consume as much of the meal as I would have liked to. Maggie and Elsy at the Marina. The views of the shoreline during the day and evening were quite nice, and I would recommend anyone with the cash to at least try this once while you were down here. Elsy and I on the cruise ship in front of part of the Dubai skyline.

We spent the afternoon at Sofitel the Palm for a bit of afternoon tea. It was just Maggie, Elsy and I, and we enjoyed the view of the beach and the warm weather while we dined on some delectable treats and savory snacks while sipping our tea. Elsy and I posing in front of Sofitel the Palm.

Elsy and I started coughing this morning so I ended up sleeping until the early afternoon. We took the day to rest and spent the early evening traveling to the Dubai Mall via Metro to watch a couple of the fountain shows. The food over here is pretty expensive, especially at the mall. Sitting on the balcony overlooking the Dubai Fountains.

We got up relatively early this morning so that we could get downtown for the pickup for our Dubai city tour. The entire thing was pretty much a farce, as we weren't given a specific pick up location, we did not know how much it cost, the guy didn't know what the coupon code was, etc. However, the bus was mostly empty and I ended up staying on the bus for some of the drop offs so that Elsy (and I) could sleep. Now, some of those stops were farces as well: 20 minutes at a museum (which was really the only thing of value for this tour), 5 minutes to take a picture of a mosque, 15 minutes at a beach, 15 minutes for a bathroom break where they were selling wares, and 5 minutes at a parking lot next to a mall. Me and Elsy on the beach in front of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. Ah well, we did end up taking the metro back to the villa - which gave us quite a nice view of the city. Perhaps the best (and cheapest) tour yet!

Had a long night again with the baby and ended up sleeping through most of the morning. Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to book a few events for the rest of the week but only got around to booking a Dubai city tour and the desert motorcycling on the weekend. We had the desert safari that night and our pickup was at 1530. Originally we were to take Elsy with us but later on decided to leave her at the house. That was our best decision of the night. The second best was taking jackets along with us. It got pretty cold pretty quick once the sun began to set, and the winds picked up as we left the compound and we ended up driving into the desert in the middle of a sand storm. First up was a quick pit stop at some store in the middle of nowhere. The vendors were hawking scarves for way more than they were worth, but we both realized that with the winds picking up we needed something to protect our faces from the flying sand. Next was a quick photo shoot when we entered the dunes.

Elsy had trouble staying asleep at night so I ended up waking up every hour from 0300 until 0600 with a couple of two hour naps book ending that duration. I have not gotten a lot of good sleep since we got here. Maggie and I on the staircase connecting the two observation decks. We did end up getting out to the Mall of the Emirates to take a look at what Ski Dubai was like. (We may go back to check it out - but not at regular price.) Then Maggie and I went up the Burj Khalifa to take a look from the 125th floor and watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it took so long for us to get up on the elevator that we missed out on the sunset. In fact, there were lineups everywhere we went: going up the building, going down the building, waiting for a taxi. Next time, we will go to tourist destinations during the week days, not the weekends!

I spent part of the night staying up with Elsy again. We got up early and watched the kids go out to school. I ended up going back to bed late in the morning and did not get back up until after noon. Me and Maggie having dinner at the Fairmount on the Palm. At night, Kendrick and Gina took us out to the Fairmount on the Palm for dinner. The food was really good!

Elsy was having trouble staying asleep and kept us up for a good part of the night. I ended up watching her while she kept herself entertained. As such, I ended up sleeping in the late morning and did not get up until early afternoon. Elsy was checking out the playground swing. We decided that we should at least get outside for a bit while the sun was up so we spent an hour or so walking around the villa checking out what was available. The playground was a decent size, but was busy and the pool was empty - although we were not prepared to go swimming.

We knew that the flight in would be hard on Elsy, and in turn on us. We did have a lot of help from the staff and was able to get a little bit of sleep in here and there. Elsy was not a fan of the bassinet. It was generally too bright due to the monitor hanging on the wall over her as well as the various lights that were in the cabin; one that was pointed directly into her bassinet. She was generally well behaved though, and was ambivalent enough not to cry when passengers and stewards alike were waving at her, poking her hands, or pinching her cheeks. I really should get her a shirt that says "These cheeks bring all the boys to the yard." Maggie did end up engineering a makeshift scaffolding over her bassinet by using the flight pillow and her sleeper to create a tent that blocked out the light. That combined with her tiredness and my dad's technique to put her down, we were finally able to get her to fall asleep in the bassinet. Just before we hit turbulence. Once

We had a non-stop red-eye flight to Dubai today. Maggie had just gotten back from India on a multi-stop flight and was glad we were not putting Elsy through that kind of ordeal. The plan though was to get dropped off by my dad, and to leave all of our winter stuff with him so that we did not have to carry extra stuff on the plane. We had no trouble with security or getting our boarding passes. We did have Elsy in the Baby Bjorn and got a lot of comments about her cheeks. A LOT of comments. Since we had an infant, we were ushered through the family line for security which was nice because it was a really short line. Unfortunately it was also extremely slow. I guess you win some, you lose some. It all balances out in the end. Keeping Elsy entertained at the airport was not too hard. There was so much for her to see and interact with so she was occupied during our two hour wait (we probably did not have to arrive that early to the airport). We were considered priority boarders due to

So Elsy got her two bottom teeth to come out for Christmas time. A several days later I could hear her grinding her teeth in her sleep - which meant that her top teeth were erupting too. In addition, she learned how to crawl up a step, which means that barriers will need to be a bit higher now to prevent her from going to places where she is not supposed to go. My parents' house is now pretty much open to her - at least per floor. She's also been spending a lot of time with my parents and she is getting much more comfortable with them, even though she prefers parental attention. It's funny how much pride one feels to see your spawn reaching these milestones. Living vicariously through our kids I say! Also, Maggie and I got sick again. For some reason Elsy is going gang busters.