Penguin Weekend in Dubai

When we moved to Abu Dhabi, we knew we would be headed back to Houston in April for G's sister's wedding and we decided we couldn't spend 2 months in Abu Dhabi without at least one weekend in Dubai.   Dubai is like Las Vegas, full of glitz and glamour.  We decided to go on St. Patrick's day weekend, booked a hotel using points and headed off!

We checked out the slopes of Ski Dubai  at the Mall of the Emirates, although we had decided ahead of time that we would not actually be skiing.  At 5 months pregnant, my ski pants didn't fit and I didn't want to worry about endangering the little one if I inevitably fell.  Besides, I really just wanted to go see the penguins that live at Ski Dubai, and to do that you only need a basic general admission ticket.

Mini baby bump, interfering with our ski plans!

Our basic park ticket came with a snowsuit and access to the snow park -  tobogganing, tubing, and a few rides on the snow ball (a giant plastic ball that you sit inside).  Mostly kiddie stuff, so not that exciting, but it was kind of fun to play in the snow for a couple hours.  Of course, the park had professional photographers everywhere so they could squeeze more money from susceptible tourists.  G and I are very susceptible tourists. :-)

Our awesome matching snowsuits - gloves not included, but enough cheesiness for everyone!

Ski Dubai offers a bunch of different penguin-related packages from a basic viewing of penguins all the way up to swimming with the penguins.  We opted to just go with a basic (i.e. free) March of the Penguins experience because we weren't sure what time we would get to Dubai from Abu Dhabi. The March happens at set times during the day, so if we missed the first one, we could go to the next without booking in advance.  Plus, I figure if my sister, Danielle-the-Penguin-Enthusiast ever came to visit, I'd take  her to one of the more active encounters.

The penguins were so cute!  The trainers were also pretty entertaining, asking a bunch of questions from the audience.  A few audience members who answered correctly got to go take a pictures with one of the penguin.  At first I didn't raise my hands because I thought this was mostly for the kiddos, but towards the end, the trainer was only calling adults -- so when the lady standing next to me answered wrong, G caught the trainer's attention and got him to call on me.  I can't even remember what the question was, I just know that I got it right!  My photo op with the King Penguin made the whole trip to Dubai worth it.

After our exciting encounter, we wandered around the Mall of the Emirates.  UAE is the land of shopping malls, and this one is no exception.  The mall is HUGE and unlike the malls of Abu Dhabi, it was crowded.  G and I grabbed a quick dumpling dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, and then headed to our hotel to call it a night.

Din Tai Fung without pork is a little sad... but the chicken versions were still delicious

The next morning we woke up early, checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Burj Khalifa.  I mean really, it's THE tourist thing to do, so of course we did it!  We opted for the "sunrise" tickets to avoid the crowds.  The plan worked really well, the tower was not crowded, however we didn't realize that the breakfast pastries included with the tickets happened AFTER the tour rather than before.  I think we would have spent longer on the observation deck if our tummies hadn't been rumbling for breakfast!

It was so bright, we were glad we brought our sunglasses!

After the observation deck, we checked out an exhibit at the Burj Khalifa annex featuring 007.  We were slightly less susceptible tourists this time and only purchase one photo instead of all the photos.  It was a pretty cool exhibit made up of costumes and set props from all the Bond movies with some history of Ian Fleming and the books to go with it.  There were some pretty cool cars too!

Why does the girl always get the wimpy gun?

After James Bond overload, we were both little peckish again, so we grabbed a quick snack before heading home to Abu Dhabi.  A super quick but fun weekend!

Red, white, and blue patriotic gelato.  Yum!