After a good nights sleep, we got up in Dubai on Saturday morning the 24th, Friday night in Utah. We ate breakfast and I had a breakfast helper....
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| This is my furry "nephew", Mango. |
Mango was my little shadow. He's a sucker for attention and loves.....
The plan for the day was to hit the beach for some sun, sand, waves, and sea shell hunting. But before we could hit the beach, we had to go to the nearest grocery store, Spinney's. Grocery shopping in Dubai is an interesting experience.
Because it gets so hot over there during the summer, the majority of the parking is covered. There are car washing guys all over the parking lot. So, if you wanted to spend the money, while you shop, you can have your car cleaned inside and out. We did not take advantage of that service. And because of the heat, grocery stores are found in the big malls and mini malls. One stop shopping is a must in their summer heat.
I fell in love with their grocery carts.... All four wheels are swivel wheels which made the cart not only fun to drive around, but more maneuverable. I had a grand time being silly with my grocery cart. Since Dubai has to have everything imported, the produce section is quite the culinary adventure. They have all kinds of fruits and vegetables that I know about and many that I've never seen before. They are all labeled from the country of origin. It was fun to just walk around and look at where everything came from. Once you select and bag your produce selection, you then have to take it up to a counter where a store clerk weights everything and puts the price tag on it.
Now, Spinney's is the Infidel's best friend because they have a room where they sell the pork. And because I am such an infidel, I had to go in and look around......I also had to get my picture taken.
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| oh no!! I'm about to go into the Pork section!! |
The bacon was outrageously expensive. The frozen meat selection was small. They had tons of canned pork products, including a whole section of SPAM, which I call Stuff Posing As Meat. Did you know that there is like a bazillion different kinds and flavors of SPAM? If you are feeling a hankering for SPAM, the world is your oyster. They have: SPAM lite with 50% less fat, 25% less sodium, and 33% fewer calories; it is made from pork with ham and mechanically separated chicken; SPAM with 25% less sodium; SPAM with REAL Hormel bacon; Oven Roasted turkey SPAM, made with 100% white lean turkey; Hickory smoke flavored SPAM; Hot and Spicy SPAM with Tobasco flavor; Jalapeno SPAM; SPAM with black pepper; SPAM spread, "if you're a spreader, not a slicer....just like SPAM classic, but in a spreadable form"; SPAM with cheese, Garlic flavored SPAM; Teriyaki SPAM; Chorizo SPAM; Boricua SPAM, seasoned Puerto Rican style flavor; Turkey SPAM; Tocino SPAM; Portugese sausage SPAM; BBQ SPAM; and Smoke flavored SPAM. A SPAM flavor to delight any tastebud.
After Spinney's, it was time to eat lunch and hit the beach. We ate out lunch at a burger joint called "Burger Fuel" which was close to the beach we were going to hit. The burgers were delicious. The really cool feature a Burger Fuel is their "Doofer's." Just what in the world is a Doofer?
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| A Doofer is a nifty contraption to hold your burger in while you eat it. |
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| mini wooden skewers to hold our burgers together, none of those cheesy toothpicks we get in our sandwiches. |
After a hardy lunch, Aaron took us out to "Kite Beach." He says they call it that because it's the place where all the wind surfers like to go. Now, when you look at my pictures you may wonder why the beach looks empty in some pictures and not so empty in others. Well, I found a nifty photo editing software called InPixio which I used to edit out people. Some pictures it was too hard to get people edited out and have it still look good. But for the most part I was able to edit out the other beach goers that "detracted" from my scene if you know what I mean.
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| Kite Beach, and lookie there, a kite in the background. |
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| Applying sunblock and enjoying the warm 83 degree weather. |
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| Grandpa looking for sea shells. |
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| My nephew got in on the sea shell hunting. |
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| It didn't take me long to get a bag full of "treasures" |
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| Lots of kite surfing going on. |
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| ooooooohhhh!! Look, another shell!! |
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| See, it's so pretty!! |
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| I discovered that the best shells were buried under the sand. So I plopped myself down to dig around. I found some pretty good finds too. But I also had to deal with the waves knocking me over. It was so much fun!!! |
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| So, here I am in the Persian Gulf, or Gulf of Arabia, depending on where you are. For all intents and purposes, I was in the Gulf of Arabia......Potato-puhtato. |
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| Making a sand castle. |
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| High tide started rolling in. |
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| One cannot go to the beach and not get buried in the sand!! |
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| It was quite comfy. |
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| Sand in the face. |
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| Time to bury the nephew. |
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| Pretending to be dead. |
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| So that building in the upper right corner is one of the MANY Mosque's around. Yes, that is a Mosque right on the beach!! |
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| Feetsies poking out. |
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| I started to make myself a mermaid tail, but that was as far as I could reach. |
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| Covered from head to foot in sand. |
And of course, I couldn't leave without a bunch of shells and some sand.........
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| These are by means not the only shells I collected, they are just my favorites. |
After the beach we went back to Aaron's house where we played Ticket to Ride and live action Battleship. Jet lag caught up with me about 7 pm that evening so I crashed and burned early.
