We went to pick up Jeannette's pictures, all beautifully framed, and visited the Marina Mall - on a man made island, connected by a thin strip of road to the Corniche. There is an indoor ski slope being built (sadly, not yet operational) and ice rink. We had coffee (had to keep Jeannette happy) at a rather larney place next to the slope, overlooking one of the many indoor fountains. Jordy had hot chocolate and an extremely decadent kind of chocolate biscuit/cake thing. She actually couldn't finish it and we took half of it away with us and she finished it during the course of the morning.
We collected all the kids from school early (very excited at missing the last classes of the day), and once Darrell had arrived from work we set off for Al Ain. Oh, I forgot to mention, we woke up to news that there was a Shamal (Dust storm) spreading across Dubai towards Abu Dhabi. True enough, by the time we did the school run, the dust was everywhere. Jeannette was amazed that we could look directly at the sun through the dust without harming our eyes. It was a widespread dust storm, all over the UAE, but not a very vicious one - no high winds and visibility was actually quite good. Anyway, I phoned Jebel Hafeet to check whether it had reached them and they assured me they had sunshine, so we decided not to postpone our trip. When we reached Al Ain, there was still dust everywhere, but as we drove up the (very) steep mountain road to Jebel Hafeet (rising to 3000 feet from being at sea level) we rose up through the dust. At the hotel we could look down into this huge dust cloud covering everything below.
The hotel was lovely, not the most luxurious in which we’ve stayed (that would have been the Shangri La at Oman), but very nice. We had two interconnecting rooms, ours had a double bed and 2 mattresses on the floor for the boys, the other had twin beds and a mattress on the floor for Steph. Steph wanted to know why I slept in the boys’ room, instead of in the girls…
We had a lovely buffet dinner in the restaurant, Jordynne’s eyes nearly popped out of her head at all the food. As did our encouragement to try a little of different dishes and just to leave them if you don’t like them and try something else. That’s how we get the kids to experiment with food when dealing with different cuisines. But it really went against the grain with Jordy, we’ll have to work on her hesitation to waste!
The hotel was lovely, not the most luxurious in which we’ve stayed (that would have been the Shangri La at Oman), but very nice. We had two interconnecting rooms, ours had a double bed and 2 mattresses on the floor for the boys, the other had twin beds and a mattress on the floor for Steph. Steph wanted to know why I slept in the boys’ room, instead of in the girls…
We had a lovely buffet dinner in the restaurant, Jordynne’s eyes nearly popped out of her head at all the food. As did our encouragement to try a little of different dishes and just to leave them if you don’t like them and try something else. That’s how we get the kids to experiment with food when dealing with different cuisines. But it really went against the grain with Jordy, we’ll have to work on her hesitation to waste!
This is the hotel, from a nearby rocky outcrop, and the view from our hotel rooms.
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