The last stop on our big spring break trip of 2023 was Abu Dhabi to visit our friends, the Merchants. Blaine was SO happy to be reunited with Sami! It was like no time had passed at all.

We arrived about midnight on Wednesday and went right to sleep. On Thursday we decided to take it easy and spent the day at Yas Waterworld, a giant water park. It was amazing; our kids are pretty cautious and skipped all the big slides, but they enjoyed the spray area, two lazy rivers, and the giant wave pool. Sami was more adventurous and went on some of the tube rides including a huge heart-pounding ride on a 6-person tube. I left my phone in the locker so have no pictures, unfortunately! Here’s one from the house that morning:

We stayed so long that we went directly from the park to dinner at a place in Mamsha al Saadiyat/Soul Beach. It was beautiful! Here are some pics Melissa took:

The Merchants live in a beautiful house in the Hidd al Saadiyat area, next to a gorgeous beach. How did I not take any pictures? Oh well.

Friday was the day we’ve been looking forward to for years, ever since Blaine learned that the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. We drove to Dubai in the morning and were excited once the Burj was in view!

The entrance to the Burj is within the giant Dubai Mall. It wasn’t that crowded when we arrived but apparently it’s packed in the evenings because that’s what people do there, they hang out in the malls.

First, a yummy lunch at a dumpling place! Complete with chocolate dumplings for dessert.

Then we checked in for our timed tickets to the VIP SKY Lounge on the 148th floor.

Two short elevator rides later and we’d made it! It was breathtaking!

It was super pricey to get to the 148th floor but we figured, this is our one chance! The lounge was nice and calm, not crowded at all. They served coffee and tea and juice and little fig dessert things.

Eventually after we’d seen every side and checked out the outdoor terrace, we took the elevator down to the 124/125th floors which had other viewing decks.

It was a bit more crowded there so we didn’t stay too much longer before heading back down to the mall for some ice cream!

And then we checked out the Lego store. 🙂

We’d planned to go into the Old Quarter for some sightseeing and to have dinner, but we decided instead to go back to Abu Dhabi for a more relaxed evening, let the kids play in the pool, grill some dinner. It was nice to have a relaxing time to catch up!

The kids created a whole country complete with badges and paperwork.

Saturday was our last day of the trip! It was a full day — first Melissa and I snuck away for a brief time to play some tennis! It was hot, but felt great to get out and play!

Then we drove through Abu Dhabi and stopped to check out the Grand Mosque. Much like the Burj Khalifa, you enter through a mall where we stopped for lunch at the food court.

Melissa lent me an “abaya” so I’d be completely covered as is required, but I’d somehow left my scarf in the car. Not a problem, I just bought a $10 scarf from one of the many shops selling them for just this purpose. On our way!

I just had trouble keeping it on my head, it kept slipping back! I never learned how to properly use a scarf. 🙂

The mosque was huge! They kept the crowd moving, and had helpful signs with information. At the end they had a little tram you could ride back to the mall to exit.

It was just a brief stop because we’d booked an afternoon desert safari that was a bit of a drive outside the city. Let me take a minute now to thank Melissa and Farhan for all the driving that they did during our visit!!

The drive got pretty exciting toward the end as we started to see wild camels!

We arrived at the Arabian Village and got settled, then started on the activities. First, camel rides!

Fat tire bikes!

Dune bashing! This is an activity where you ride really fast in a jeep up and down the sand dunes. Sounded like fun, and I think it was the highlight for Blaine and Sami and Cyrus! But Melissa and I were feeling a bit queasy… Andrew and Sarah wisely passed on this activity.

Many of the activities resulted in a load of sand in our shoes… (side note– I am still feeling sand in my sneakers, weeks later).

After the dune bashing, we tried out “sandboarding” which is like snowboarding, but on the sand. It was tough since there’s a lot more friction than on snow. The kids tried sledding instead.

By then it was getting to be night time so the kids took a quick dip in the pool before dinner.

Dinner was buffet style with Arabian dishes. I guess typically there is entertainment as well but we were visiting during Ramadan so there was no food until sundown and no entertainment, but that was fine — the meal was delicious and relaxing.

Blaine said that the desert safari was his favorite part of the whole trip, even including the Burj Khalifa! That’s saying something.

We got up early the next morning to get to the airport for our 14 hour flight back to New York. Thank you to the Merchants for hosting us for such a wonderful visit!!

We were back home in Larchmont that afternoon for some Easter pizza for dinner and then went to bed! The two weeks flew by, such a memorable trip.