Wild Water Tour Without Getting Wet!

Today we are going to take you on a tour of a couple of Dubai's latest attractions.

Please remember to keep all hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

The first is the largest (of course it is... in Dubai is there anything but?) shopping mall in the Middle East. It's called The Dubai Mall. Very creative with the name huh?

The Dubai Mall has all the usually stores and lots of them but what is unusual about this place is has nothing to do with shopping.

It has an aquarium and ice rink!

The aquarium is huge! They have a full tour as well that takes you inside a tunnel inside this tank so you can pretend to feed your 3 year old to a shark if you wish.
As well as to other parts of the aquarium but we skipped that when we got in line behind 2 classes of 5th graders!
Here are some shots of the public viewing area...

We were up on the 3rd level taking this pic.

Up close and personal with jaws

Not sure how well you can see this but the bubbles behind the shark are divers.
They were in the tank to do a fish feeding.

A big fish in a big pond

No explanation needed here.

You get a better idea of how big this big tank is with Kenny standing in front of it.

Here is the olympic size ice rink.
The top row of glass is some of the food court seating.
It's not just hotdogs, potato chips and slushies at this canteen!

You can watch the skaters from all sides of the ice.
We were up on the third level watching the kids (all in matching blue skates) skate around.

On to our favorite part of the Dubai Mall tour...
The Bell!

Dubai's first and only Taco Bell!

Outside the Dubai Mall you can get a close up view of the tallest building in the world.
The Burj Dubai!













At the base of the tower there is an entire new community built in. Apartments, shopping and most likely anything else you might need or want!








Now for the next stop in tourist attractions in Dubai...

The Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeira

This hotel sits at the very end of the palm.
It is a huge resort with it's own beach, water park and you guessed it...
an aquarium!

It is supposed to be a version of what the lost city of Atlantis would look like.

It's a round tank in the middle of the hotel so you can walk all the way around it.

All the better to see the whale shark they have inside!



This is the view from the lobby and check in


the whale shark cruising around the lost city





This is the very end of the palm. The road that leads out to the hotel is right on the Gulf.
In disney sort of fashion, you need to take a bus from where you park your car to the hotel itself but on the way out we decided to walk.





And that ends our tour of 2 of the newest attractions in Dubai.
Enjoy your day ... wherever you are!

Back to Dubai We Go We Go!

Oops we did it again... that's right folks... We moved back to Dubai!

In October we returned for Dubai "the sequel".
Here are a couple of shots of our new place in Dubai's Silicon Oasis...

I wanted a square dining room table that sat 8 and couldn't find one anywhere so...
We built one.

Here are the legs for our benches (which we had to have cut twice because my math skills aren't the best and Kenny was a PE teacher)

One of the benches assembled
Note the Ikea tool kit... love that store!

Our table on our table. The one we used for construction was an old headboard we found and converted to a desk with some patience (taking the staples out was not good times), some shelf paper and a set of Ikea table legs.

Starting to look like something

Ravi, very helpful of course. She likes Ikea too!

Let the painting begin!


The finished product...

Another Ikea purchase with a little added Joneserbeek touch.

The furkids making themselves at home.

Our little desert apartment.

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Ravi was not just helpful with the construction...

She must have thought I was cold and needed a fur blanket.

and loves to do laundry too.

The Colorado Ice

When we were given tickets to see the Colorado Ice, we figured we were in for a good ol' hockey game. We were wrong!
The Colorado Ice is an arena football team. Still tickets are tickets and any sporting event is still better than a night on the couch watching t.v. so off we went.

Used to seeing football played in a huge stadium with massive distances between the stands and the field we were super surprised to walk into the arena. It felt like you should put on some pads and a helmet.

The game was fast paced, in your face and the crowd loved every minute.

They had kids that played during the half time show. I think this guy lied about how old he was.
Either that or he's really big for his age!

Kenny was part of a play. He caught this ball the Quarterback was throwing up in the stands... to his mother (we found out later... when she came up to us and told us the ball was meant for her)
Not only did Kenny intercept the pass meant for Mom, the QB got a penalty for throwing it up there in the first place!

The most entertaining part of the Colorado Ice Experience were these 2 young men.

We call them the "SUPER FANS"!

It's gone to the dogs

As we are dog stalkers we thought a good day out would be to attend

Paws on the Promenade.

This is a chance for all lovers for the canine persuasion can get their dog on.
There were booths with food, treats, apparel, personal hygiene, sports activities, entertainment and even adoption... all for the dogs of course!

The costume contest brought out all kinds

Hey! Is that Superman?

This is Captain Jack Russell wait, you're a basset hound!


Some were just trying to stay cool.
These boxers had the right idea with these vests that are filled with water and chilled in the fridge before you go out.

The dogs weren't the only ones who got the chance to shop. It just so happened that the event was at the Shops at Centerra. Which meant everything the dogs could get that day I could do, well except for the adoption part. Unless you count Build-a-Bear as adoption!

Coors Field, the Rockies and Us

More summer fun... again I apologize that all of these posts are sooooo late in coming to you guys. I'm trying to catch up! Here's another from our time in Colorado this summer.


America's Past time in the Mile High City!

That's right sports fans we are going to Denver to see the Rockies play.

Our first glimpse of Coors Field

Wouldn't be a baseball game with out a footlong or in Kenny's case, 2.

The Giants were in town...

and the game went into extra innings...

with the Rockies coming up a bit short in a 10 - 7 finish

But we had a great day!

STAMPEDE!!!

The 4th of July can mean only one thing...
a whole bunch of bull is coming to Northern Colorado.

That's right folks. It's time again (well for anyone from the area) for the world famous Greeley Stampede and Rodeo.

This is the longhorn parade. They did this everyday, walked these huge animals through the fairgrounds. Just looking at those horns is giving me a headache. Imagine carrying those around your entire life!

"Do I make you horny?"

The running of the bulls is a little different here in Colorado.
First, there is no running and the bulls could care less if you're
wearing a white pantsuit with a red belt.

The longhorn parade movie...




Time for some entertainment, as if the longhorns weren't enough!

The Spin Doctors and Poison Concert is about to start!

Backstage at the concert I got the chance to talk to the Spin Doctors.
Nice fellas. One even from Toronto.

The crowd starting to pour in.

"little miss little miss little miss can't be wrong"
"ain't gonna blah no more when you blah blah blah"

yep... that is the king of "Rock of Love" himself...
Brett Michaels

Speaking of Rock of Love...
here is Big John. No idea why they call him that.

The show was fantastic! They played all the old stuff we used to listen to while we tight rolled our jeans, aqua netted our hair out, put on way too much eyeliner and colored mascara and studded our jean jackets... and that was just the guys~

All access pass... who's the cool guy now?

Do you think they'll ever get tired of the neon green in that logo?


The midway was all lit up and raring for someone else to ride the rides...
We don't do spinning or rides that people with no teeth are in charge of maintaining.
Carnies scare us... nomads, small hands, smell like cabbage.

We did get our share of fried foods in though as well as anything they served on a stick.
The pizza was my favorite.
Kenny enjoyed the deep fried oreos, deep fried snicker bars and deep fried coke a cola.

We did avoid the rocky mountain oysters too.
Anyone that knows what these are will agree with me... GROSS!

The Greeley Stampede and Rodeo... a week "bull" of entertainment.