Caroline and Charles Visit the UAE

November 10 through 20 Caroline Midkiff and Charles Wacker visited me in Abu Dhabi and to connect with the famous UAE VIP Gold Tour.  It was especially great to have your daughter and stepson visit at the same time. We started in Abu Dhabi and then on to Dubai and Al Ain. The Gold package included stays at the Rosewood Hotel near my apartment on Reem Island, a desert safari trip and a hot air balloon ride in Dubai.

The Abu Dhabi visit included visits to the Grand Mosque and Falcon Hospital, a day trip to the desert and dinner at the Emirates Place Hotel.  As the weather is great this time of year, we added a kayak trip through the mangroves, and tried the world’s tallest Roller Coaster at Ferrari World. A test drive of a Ferrari rounded out the visit to the UAE capital. 

We spent two days at Dubai seeing the sights and the Dubai Marina area and going to the Top of the Burj Khalifa (very breathtaking at night).  The highlight of the Dubai visit was a hot air balloon ride over the desert at sunrise.  See the attached video to get an idea of how spectacular that morning was for us.

Leaving Dubai for Al Ain (Oasis) we had a scenic ride through some desert and then a visit to the Sheik Zayed Palace Museum and lunch on the top of the small mountains outside the city with great views of the entire desert and Oman.  Best part of the visist was out to the camel market to see hundreds of these intriguing and unique animals.  Caroline wanted to buy a small one but her apartment in San Diego isn’t big enough so pictures was all we could bring back. 

The tour ended the next day back in Abu Dhabi with some jewelry and watch shopping at the Gold Souk getting “best price” for some nice souvenirs.  Caroline was off to LA the next day (16 hour flight) and Charles and I got in some golf and a day at the beach the next two days until he was off to DC that Sunday. 

Thank you Caroline and thank you Charles for coming all this way to see me and experience part of my great adventure in the UAE.  Having you in my life and all of us traveling together?  PRICELESS!! 

Don’t forget to look at the attached photo album -  use the slide show feature, enjoy!