Birthdays, Spring, and College Plans

Hello, All--

last year or so...

EVENTUALLY SPRING.  Looking out the window today, you would think spring might be coming after all!  It's sunny, with blue skies.  Then you walk outside and it's only in the 30's, so winter reminds us: there's still a little ways to go...  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50's though.  That is better.

This above is  a flower photo from years past...we are nowhere NEAR having flowers yet, but I can dream, can't I! :)

KARA TURNS 15!  Well Kara had a birthday on Saturday!  15 years old, can't imagine how that happened.  Here are some baby pictures.  I posted a couple of these on facebook.

3 yrs

6 mos

last fall, for her friend's Quincinera

Hollywood seems to like making movies out of trilogies, these days.  Last year, the movie "Divergent" came out the weekend of Kara's birthday, and we took a group of girls to the movie.  This year, Book 2 in the series, "Insurgent," came out her birthday weekend!  So she had a brunch birthday party,

complete with a waffle bar and games.  Then we took a caravan to the theater for 'Insurgent."  Including our family and 2 of Teresa's friends, there were 21 of us watching the movie!

let's go to the movies

 I liked this 2nd movie better than the first movie, for once.  I think a good time was had by all.  Oh, of course, she did have to make all the cupcakes and party favors...she finished them at midnight.

UNIVERSITY FOR TERESA.  Teresa has put in some more study and research, including online program comparisons and an informative conversation with the Department Head of Wildlife Science.  After all that, plus thinking and more conversations with many people, Teresa has decided to go to BYU Provo this fall!  We think that's pretty cool.  She's been online looking at housing options and mealplans, distances between housing and classes, etc.

from last fall

She can go online Friday afternoon to sign up for housing.  She won't know her roommate.  But there are a handful of kids from our stake who are there already, that she knows.  There are also a few senior girls she knows from camp, who will be going as freshmen too this fall.  She won't have to choose classes for another couple of months.

That about covers our excitement for the weekend!  We are plugging along as the snow melts.  Now we just watch for rain coming, and hope it comes in small doses.  So far, so good :)

Kari

Dubai part 2

GRAND MOSQUE.  The UAE, or United Arab Emerites, is made up of 7 states, or 7 emirates.  Abu Dhabi is the biggest "state," or the next emirate over from Dubai.  Abu Dhabi has the "Grand Mosque," the largest and most elaborate mosque in the world.

It is also the only mosque open to the public, and they offer tours of this mosque.

 Wow, I must say.
 A chandelier consisting of 12 tons of Italian glass, assembled in Germany.

The world's largest single carpet, woven by the hands of 1300 carpet knotters, working around the clock for 12 months

.  Marble columns throughout, inlaid with mother of pearl.  The mosque can accommodate 40,000 worshipers at once.

Women are asked to wear long sleeves to the wrist, and pants to the ankles, while visiting the Grand Mosque.  If you don't have that, they have burqas (robes with hoods) for you to put on over your clothes.

We wore our own clothes, and Lori provided scarves for us :)

EATING GOLD.  After the Grand Mosque, we went to have lunch in The Palace.

 It is actually a palace, and it used to be the home of a prince, or something.  Of course, it got too small (?!?!) so he built a bigger and better one down the road, and then what is one to do with an old, used palace?  Imagine the conversation:  Well let's make it into a restaurant, shall we?  With some shops and offices in one wing.

People will want to take pictures of this huge palace, but we don't want just anyone coming in.  So how about you cannot come in unless you have reservations for a meal, or ok, at least drinks, in our restaurant.

 Here, we will be one of the only places anywhere, to serve Camel Burgers.  And as an extra touch, we will serve them with shavings of GOLD on top!  Yes, people will love it!"

So we ate camel burgers, with amazing sweet potato fries,

and

desserts to DIE for...with gold shavings on top!

GOLD BAR ATM.  Also in the Palace was a Gold ATM.  You could put your credit card in and buy a pure gold bar.  They were small.  The cheapest was 650 dirhams, or about $175.00 US dollars.

The price was updated every 60 seconds, to reflect the change in the price of gold.

 Maybe that was for 5 grams of gold...about the size of 2 postage stamps?  These "bars" of gold were very small.

DESERT SAFARI.  One afternoon we went "Dune Bashing," which just means everybody loads into a Toyota 4Runner, and a Professional Maniac Driver drives up and down the dunes so you feel like you're on a roller coaster!  The sand goes on and on and on.

After our dune bashing, they drove us to a camp for evening activities.

 There were camel rides and an Arabic dinner.  Don't worry, the camel rides were SUPER-short, just enough time to snap some pictures.

But of course we did take pictures.

The entertainment was dancing...a belly dancer first, then a "whirling dervish." I didn't even know what those were, but they spin and spin like there's no tomorrow.

Internet photo. You can't capture speed in a picture.
He was Really. Fast.

Then they have props and throw things in the air, and set fire to them, and all the time they are spinning and spinning.  I really couldn't believe it..it made me dizzy just watching the guy.

How in the world he did not simply pass out, from the blood and oxygen being pulled away from his brain and heart, to his outer extremities, I have no idea.  He was pretty wild.

TALLEST BUILDING.  The Burj Khalifa is currently the World's Tallest building.

 It's half a mile tall.  Half. A. Mile. Tall.

At floor 124, it has the World's Tallest observation deck.  It also has the World's Highest residence,  The views from the top are pretty amazing.

Are you noticing a trend, here?  We visited the World's largest Mall, the World's Only indoor ski resort, and saw what they claim is the World's Largest aquarium (but we went online and read that a larger one has now been built in Atlanta, Georgia).

All the biggest, tallest, widest, fastest, whatever-EST you can think of, they want to build it here!

CHURCH ON FRIDAY.  The Islamic holy day is Friday.  Many of the people work 6 days a week, and if they only get one day off, it will be Friday.  Businesses are open for their work week of Sunday to Thursday, and the weekend is Friday/Saturday.  So, we went to church on Friday.  Kind of different!

COOL-SHAPED BUILDINGS.  It was fun to see some wild architecture.  There was one downtown Dubai that twisted as it went higher and higher.

far left building: twists

 Then driving around Abu Dhabi, we saw the Hurricane Building,

Hurricane Building

and the Coin Building.

Coin Building

SKI DUBAI.  The world's only indoor ski resort: and of all places, it's at "The Mall!"  Lori said, "Oh, the best view is from this room in the Cheesecake Factory, at the end of the mall."

 So we walked in and through the restaurant like we belonged there, and she led us to a room with a window wall, where you could watch people coming down the mountain, either on skis, sleds, or these wild inflated hamster-ball things.

CAMEL PANTS. We went to the souks, or outdoor markets, one day.  Scarves for sale galore, and dresses and camels and genie lamps.

 More STUFF than you could shake a stick at!  Teresa and Kara came home with some cool camel pants.

Another day we went to the "Gold Souks,"

where the entire marketplace was gold jewelry and gold clothing and more and more gold.

 Here is an awesome ring that Teresa fell in love with.  Pretty amazing artwork in this jewelry!

Now this post is getting long, and sometimes I know it can be tedious to look at other people's vacation pictures!  I just thought I'd include these photos, since Dubai is not your average tourist spot, at least for U.S. citizens.  We wouldn't have thought of going, if Lori and Paul weren't living there.  Oh, here's a picture of us with our hosts.

 They made it such a good visit for us!

Wrapping up now.  We of course came back to bitter-winter-Boston, but it was awesome to have a whole week in February, wearing summer clothes again.

Have a great week!  Kari

Dubai Part 1

decorated for Valentine's Day

Hello!

We just returned from our Adventure In Dubai.  On the way there, we flew 7 hours to Frankfurt, then 6 more hours to Dubai.  Coming back, it was a looooooong flight from Dubai to Washington D.C.  We were in the air for 15 1/2 hours, I think.  Then another hour or so to Boston.

Burj al Arab: 7-star hotel

FRANKFURT. (see previous post).

7-STAR HOTEL: BURJ AL ARAB.  We wanted to give ourselves a break the first day, since we didn't know how we'd respond to jet lag.  Dubai has the World's Only Seven-Star Hotel, Burj Al Arab.  They don't let just any Joe from off the street come in and take pictures or anything.  But they will let you in withOUT staying overnight in the hotel, if you have reservations for a meal in one of their restaurants.

We made reservations for a late breakfast, and oohhed and aahhed at all the elaborate fountains, chandeliers, and fancy architecture.  They had lots of heart flower formations from it being Valentine's Day the day before.  It was an impressive international spread for breakfast!

I really liked the fountains in the Burj al Arab.

It sounds a little silly, but they were very exact, as the water in the fountains shot out in a synchronized pattern, to the exact squares they needed to, to make patterns.  Sometimes in a stream and sometimes in little bursts, then they sounded like clapping or snapping.  It was quite the entertaining show.  Those fountains were very cool! (Okay, probably not $3000-a-night-cool.  But still cool.)

Burj al Arab: looks like a sailboat

BEACH.  Then we went with our friend Lori (our Hostess/Concierge/Tour Guide Extraordinaire for the week) to the beach.  With her club membership, we could play on the water toys and take out paddle boards.  It was a warm, peaceful place to spend the afternoon.

Teresa & Kara: definitely harder than it looks!

Frank & Kara on the floaty toy

CULTURAL CENTER.

Next day, we went to the Cultural Center, where the lady presented us with a full traditional Arabic breakfast!

Lentils, chick peas, flat bread with date syrup.  Little bread balls that you could also dip in syrup.

The lady explained about the traditional dress of Muslim people, and answered questions about arranged marriages, their 5 prayers a day, and briefly what is contained in Islam's religious text, the Quran.

Islamic prayers are given 5 times each day, determined by the position of the sun in the sky.  Prayers are given at:
1) pre-dawn
2) midday
3) afternoon
4) sunset, and
5) night.

Mosques (like church buildings) are scattered throughout towns and neighborhoods, and they have intercoms to the outside, to remind people of the prayer times.  Lori and Paul live close to a mosque, and we could hear the "call to prayer" 15-20 minutes before each prayer time.  They kind of sing, or chant scriptures from the Quran, with music in the background.  Then those who go to the mosque put signs in their shop windows: "Back in 15-20 minutes."

If they don't go to the Mosque to pray, they can put down a prayer rug and face the Kaaba (a black cube, the holiest Islamic shrine) which is located in Mecca.  Here is an Internet photo of the Kaaba, in Mecca.  Once in their lives, each devout Muslim will make a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  Many go during the month of Ramadan, which is a month of fasting.  (Kaaba actually means "cube" in Arabic.)

Kaaba: holiest shrine (black cube) in Mecca.
No matter where you are in the world, all Islamic prayers
are said facing Kaaba, this cube/shrine

ATVs.  The next morning we took quad bikes out, where there was desert as far as the eye could see!  Rolling hills after more rolling hills after peaks and valleys and more peaks of sand.

CAMEL RACING.

We went to the camel racetracks, and a camel racing festival was just starting.

We were supposed to see an actual race, but there was a little confusion on the website info.

I think we got there the first day of the festival, and the camel teams were just arriving that day, too.

So there were 4 or 5 riders leading maybe 20 or so camels per team, to get them used to the track.

We followed them around like true tourists, and I think the riders may have thought we were crazy.  But a few of them smiled and waved, as they trotted the camels around.

They probably never got paparazzi treatment for warming up the camels before!

The post is getting a little long, so I will close "Part One."  The next day we went to the Grand Mosque and that was pretty amazing...to be continued, as I go through more pictures :)

Kari