The Delcambres in Abu Dhabi

Wednesday was a good day. We did the usually daily things during the day. I brought Evelyn to school and Melinda and Dennis watched Camille. I stayed for a couple of hours at Evelyn's school to observe and help out with the class. It was a good experience. Basically I learned that the teacher does have an agenda, but I do believe that she lacks some structure. It is her teaching style and I am going to make sure that I stay involved with the class. Wednesday evening Lance, Melinda and Dennis went to Emirates Palace. They said it was beautiful. They had a tour of the suite that would cost 50,000 aed a night which is about 13,000 us dollars per night.

Thursday was an early release day for Evelyn. We all brought Evelyn to school, Lance had meetings in Dubai. After dropping Evelyn off, we had breakfast at our usually stop, McDonalds. Then we went to the mall and shopped Ikea. I got several things that we needed for the house...desk, shelves, table for girls and two bookcases, baskets, and more...all for the price of 225 US dollars. Way cheep. That is the only way to go when you move and don't want investment furniture. We picked up Evelyn at 12:30 and went home to rest. At 4:00 PM a Land Cruiser picked us up at our front door and brought us to the dessert for a dessert safari. It was definitely the most exciting and entertaining thing we have done so far. We had no idea how much fun it would be. We first went to a camel farm for some photos with camels. The girls loved it. The camels were very gentle. Then we all loaded back into the 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser and went "dune bashing". I never would have imagined how exhilarating it would have been. The vehicle literally turned at an 90 degree angle going down the dunes. We were screaming our heads off. It felt like the car was going to toll over. I was in the 3rd row with the girls, Evelyn in a seat belt and Camille belted with me. It lasted about 25 minutes then we stopped for sunset photos in the sand. Then we road for about another 25 minutes and then ended at a traditional arabic camp. We rode a camel, had tattoos done on our hands (will wash off eventually), ate traditional arabic BBQ, belly dancing, and smoke shisha pipe. It was really really neat. Everyone had a blast. The girls just loved playing in the sand. Pictures just can not do it justice of how beautiful it is in the dessert. Everyone that comes to visit, we will definitely bring you on a dessert safari.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT IN ABU DHABI: Yesterday as we were driving home from school we saw a little Toyota truck with a camel strapped down in the bed of the truck...only in the Middle East....