Giving Thanks

We celebrated an All-American holiday in Abu Dhabi last week - Thanksgiving!!! Many of our friends here had never attended a Thanksgiving feast, so we thought we'd put on a good spread and bring some of our new "family" over for dinner. (Two things I'm thankful for: Pete's mom was in town to help with do most of the cooking. Thanksgiving fell on the first day of Eid, so it was a holiday for everyone else here too!)

The table is set...

One too many cooks in the kitchen?

The gentlemen say they are thankful they don't have to cook!

Getting ready to sit down: Pam, Mandy, Aitch, Jayne, Sinead, Dave, Katia, Jane, Walid, Maria, Pete, Me, Mark (and Erik, behind the camera)

Pre-carving - 19 lb turkey

I could be wrong, but I think Thanksgiving might be Dave's new favorite holiday - I swear the man has a hollow leg!

The aftermath

Privilege Parking

If I had one of these cars, I could park right up front at hotels in Dubai too!  

Crash

Poor abandoned car left on the side of the road near our house...

Pete's Mom at Emirates Palace

Pete's mom is in town visiting for the next few days.  One of the first places we went to see in Abu Dhabi was Emirates Palace. There's an exhibit there at the moment with models of the upcoming developments on Saadiyat Island (the Island of Happiness). But, there was also a short-term exhibit of art from India. Definitely glad I got to see it while it's here.

Maria - in front of the entrance

The main part of the lobby - looking up!

- - - - - Saadiyat Island - - - - -

Saadiyat Island Guggenheim

The Louvre - of course

The Marine Museum

- - - - - The Indian Exhibit - - - - -

I love this guy and his bike...

...all made out of watches

Traffic

Sometimes I like to take pictures when I'm sitting at stop lights:

Ferrari

Mercedes

Bentley

I like the license plate.

I was surprised to see this bumper sticker.

Surprise Visitor

This lizard somehow found his way into our villa this week. For being so small, he certainly had the ability to SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF ME! Luckily, Pete got home shortly after this pic was taken and carefully took the little guy outside.

Abu Dhabi Saturday Night

I snapped this (crappy) photo of 9 young men enjoying some tasty shawarmas outside our favorite Lebanese place in Abu Dhabi, Al Rousha. Looked like they were having a great time and enjoying the nice change of weather.

Muscat, Oman

The last weekend of October was dubbed Formula One Weekend by just about everybody in Abu Dhabi. I like to think of it as Halloween weekend. Or even, the weekend I can start the one-month-til-I-go-home-for-Christmas countdown. People from all over the world came to our little town to see the grand opening of Yas Island and all it had to offer - including a new Formula One race track and the Grand Prix on November 1. Pete and I had little to no interest in going to see the race, so we decided to head out of town for the weekend to Muscat, Oman. Including the time spent getting the proper slips of paper at the border, it's about a 6 hour trek from Abu Dhabs. It was absolutely wonderful to get out of town for a couple of days and just chill.

Mountains! As soon as you cross the border

The hotel we stayed at has its own little private cove on the beach. I was in heaven!

The view from my lounge chair :-)

The view of the cove from our balcony

Pete checking out one of the 2 brand new Ferraris parked in front of the hotel

The second night there we headed into the town of Muscat to go to the Mutrah Souk. There were loads of these little stalls selling frankincense. The smell was SO strong!

This guy was selling a variety of lentils, beans and kernel-y kinds of things.

The lights of a mosque we stumbled upon when we wandered out of the souk

Cooking Class

Last weeks activities for me included a cooking class at an Italian restaurant near Al Bateen port called Riviera. There were 16 women in the class, which was taught by the head chef, Vittorrio. He showed us how to make homemade pasta! (That will never happen). How to simmer bolognese sauce for nine hours! (Again, probably will never happen). And how to make lasagna topped with homemade bechamel sauce. (It was actually really good! I might try it at home.) At the end of the three hour class all 16 women were completely ravenous. At this point, they showed us how to make pizza and then served up the two small pizzas. I've never seen two pizzas disappear sooooo fast. Wow. At the end we got to eat our (their) creations, but I think I was so hungry at that point that I totally forgot to take pictures of the final product. It just looked like lasagna though, so you can use your imagination. :-)

Vittorio showing us the different kinds of tomato sauce.

The assistant putting the meat into the bolognese sauce.

Getting ready to pull the pizzas out of the oven

What $10 can get you

...In the produce section at Lulu's:

The apples are from "USA" (Washington), the potatoes from "China," and the bananas came all the way from "Phillippians."

Birthday Boat Cruise

Months ago, my friend Sinead and I figured out that our birthdays are on the same day! We sort of had the idea to have a big party together to celebrate, but never really got around to planning anything. Fortunately, we have amazing husbands who got together and planned a surprise for us!

On Thursday night, Pete got home from work and told me we were going out to try an Arabic restaurant that was recommended by a friend from work. I got ready and we headed out to Mina Port for dinner. When we pulled into the parking area, Sinead and her husband Dave were there too. I was SO confused! What were the chances that they would be at the same restaurant as us? (I had NO IDEA I was in for a surprise!) Once we were out of the car, the four of us boarded a huge dhow boat. At this point, I thought that we were just going to join up on one of the dinner cruises that goes down the Corniche in Abu Dhabi. Then, more friends started showing up! By the time we "set sail" I had finally realized that we had the whole boat to ourselves for our very own birthday party! What an awesome birthday surprise it was :-)

The party is just getting started - waiting to leave the port.

Pretty sweet spread, huh?

Our birthday cake had fireworks on the top of it.

They spelled Sinead wrong ;-)

The birthday girls

Completely stuffed and on our way back to land

The entire party - Waleed, Eric, Drew, Karma, Me, Pete, Pam, Julie, Damian, Sinead, Dave, Mandy, Jen, and Nick

Mariachis in Abu Dhabi?

Who would have thought that there would be a mariachi band playing at a British pub in the Middle East?

They even played Guantanamera!

It's finally nice enough to hang out outdoors! I believe that calls for celebration :-)

Day trip to Al Ain

I signed up for a day trip with one of the ladies groups that I'm a part of here. The trip was to a "palace" and to the zoo in Al Ain. When I signed up...October seemed a long ways off, and we were all pretty sure the weather would have cooled down by then. Hmmm...maybe, not so much! Anyway, it was nice to get away for a day and the company was good, so I'd say it was a fine day despite the HOT weather!

At the "palace" (which was really more of a museum, and not so palatial after all): Looking cooool in the sweltering heat. (Georgie, me, Ruth, Sally, and Sinead)

This one's for Pete

Just in case you were wondering

Such a small bed for a palace!

On the way out...back to the bus for some lunch and air-conditioning!

We watched the macaque monkeys cannonball into their little pool for about 20 minutes. It was pretty much the most entertaining thing at the zoo...