Wow - where have I been??

We are entering March and it appears I haven't even opened my own blog since Thanksgiving. Shame on me!
2009 has started off well... It seems like Mark has been home quite a bit more than last year which has allowed us to spend some great days together roaming Dubai and some surrounding areas. As usual I'll catch you up via photos - get comfortable, you know its going to be long!!

January was a little slow - he did some traveling and I worked on getting us settled back in life here. We did take one outing to explore The Palm Jumeirah. It had been awhile and construction moves quick out here.

The drive up the palm:

In the tunnel that takes you to the head of the palm:

Atlantis Hotel: at the very head of The Palm (no public beaches):

<--- view of The Burj Al Arab & Souk Madinat Jumeirah area

City Skyline from The Palm

With the launch of the annual, month long, Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) the city was abuzz with activity. We mostly frequented JBR's Walk due to the continual live art exhibits.

There was sand sculpting:


3D chalk art:



Rock Balancing:

Just to name a few. I'll post more pictures of the sand and chalk guy on a later post.

One night as we were out walking we found ourselves down by the Marina Yacht Club and were invited to tour one of the bigger ones! It turned out to be for sale/charter so the live aboard crew invite people on board to try to get some interest. Whatever, we were on a yacht and it was sweet!!!

view of JBR from the Yacht Club:

The Leopard 31:


<--Jet engines propel the 'boat' Well that about sums up January. I'll try to get February knocked out this week as well - that was a busy month!! Until then... xoxoxox OH! P.S. I almost forgot; I finally finished my PADI Open Water certification on Jan 30!!! We are both now ready for diving adventures!