Atlantis Weekend

August 12th Gail and I traveled to Atlantis,Dubai with an American couple that Gail met through the American Women's Network here in Abu Dhabi.

The week prior, Mary (our new friend) told Gail that she was booking her room for NEXT Friday. So Gail got online andbooked our room for the 19th. The next day one of her lady friends told her to have a good time this weekend at Atlantis. She checked with Mary and she said, "oh ya, it's this week" No worries, Gail changed our reservations.

Friday morning Jim and Mary picked us up in a taxi for the 1.5 hour drive to Dubai. I've been there five times now and I'm starting to learn my way around. When we passed the big building on the coast, I knew we had gone too far. The taxi driver, who swore he knew where we were going, was completely lost. We told him to take the next exit, and we flagged a Dubai taxi. Minor complication, but no worries, right?!

We got there and the place is impressive! The lobby is monsterous. See the picture of Gail standing in front of the glass sculpture. Amazing!

So the adventure wasn't over yet. Gail and I checked in no problem. We looked over to where our friends were checking in and there seemed to be a bit of a rucous. Jim walked over and calmly told us that Mary HAD booked there room for the 19th! The following week! Fortunately they had a room available, and here's the kicker. They got on the Island side of the hotel and we got the ocean side. In this case, ocean view is not the most desirable. Oh well.

We made plans for pre-dinner cocktails and went our separate ways. Gail and I went and checked out the aquarium them put the suits on and headed for the water park!

http://www.atlantisthepalm.com/marineandwaterpark/aquaventure.aspx

We spent time on the lazy river, the rapids, the water roller coasters, and did the 9 story water slide that goes through a tube in the shark tank. You actually feel airborne for a couple seconds! Very fun.

We were getting ready for pre-dinner drinks and Gail suddenly goes "oh no! I wonder if they thought to change the dinner reservations!" One of the main purposes of the trip was to check out the nice steak house they have there. Turns out Jim had taken care of it, so again, no worries. The steaks were great! Jim and Mary are early to bed people, so they headed off and Gail and I went to the lounge to meet a couple guys that I've met through work. They actually live on the palm island that Atlantis is on.

We had a great visit, some nice martini's and headed back to the room around midnight.

The next day was low key. We spent some time at the pool then headed back home. We are excited about planning our next trip, for more nights!

Next blog, desert trip that we leave for in an hour!

Mark out!