Greetings from Dubai

February 14, 2023 We flew out of Detroit Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. on what we knew would be an arduous two day journey to Dubai, United Arab Emirates that included 13 hours of flying, a 5 hour lay over in Paris, across 9 different time zones arriving in Dubai at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. There was actually one highlight to the two flights we were on. Many of you know that Paris is one of our favorite cities in the world. We don't feel like we are in Paris until we see the Eiffel Tower. As we were landing in Paris at 7:30 a.m. Paris was shrouded in a light fog but there rising elegently above the fog was the Eiffel Tower. We were excited. Thursday morning while Lynda was preparing for the day Tim went to the rooftop of our hotel, the Canopy by Hilton Al Seef, to get his first daylight view of the Dubai sky line. We knew it was going to be spectacular and Tim was not disappointed. The first order of business was meeting with rest of our tour party. This tour is run by AHI which also ran the wonderful tour that we took to South Africa. That trip was nearly all MSU grads. This tour is a mixed bag with grads from the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, University of Chicago, University of Missouri, University of Chicago, Iowa State University, Stanford University and San Diego State University. Everyone introduced themselves, there are 21 of us, and our tour director outlined some basic protocals that we are to follow during the entire tour. After this meeting we headed for the first stop of Thursday's itinerary. At this point a brief history lesson is in order. The United Arab Emirates did not come into existence until 1971. Before 1971 the land that became the U.A.E was mostly inhabited by bedouins who lived a nomadic exsistence in the desert. Dubai and Abu Dhabi were nothing more then fishing villages. Everything changed in the late 1960's when oil was discovered. After this discovery the sheiks of 7 tribes/emirates met to form a new nation and government knowing this was the only way they could peaceful exist together. Fortunately they elected Shiek Zayed bin Al Nahyan as the first president/prime minister. He was a visionary who deftly led the 7 Emirates through the difficult job of forming this new nation, investing oil revenue into healthcare, education and infrastructure. Dubai had gained some prosperity in the early 1900 hundreds with a thriving pearl industry. When the Japanese came up with a way to make cultured pearls the rug was pulled out from under the Dubai pearl industry. Today Dubai's main industry is business and tourism. During the 2000's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has been responsible for the rapid expansion of Dubai. Archtects have been given free reign in Dubai resulting in the amazing skyline mentioned earlier. All of this history means that there is an old section to Dubai and a new section. Thursday was our day in the old section. The Dubai Creek seperates the two sections. We first visited an area along the river where the style of the old Dubia was recreated. This recreation included a display of what a typical Bedouin campsite would have looked like. From here we were bused to the Dubai History Museum where we saw a well produced film of the development of Dubai from its very humble origins to the amazing city that it is today. We also saw interesting exibits of historical artifacts. Our next stop was the Center for Cultural Understanding. This is where we had lunch and had a Q&A session with a young Islamic women. Our private dining room had no table. An open area had a large rug in the middle with all the food layed out for our buffet. We were asked to take off our shoes and sit on the pillows surrounding the rug. Our guest speaker was intrducted and she took us through a typical dinner that her family would host in their home. We were served a small cup of arabian coffee, a much lighter coffee then we usually drink. This was followed by each of us being given a date. This is the traditional welcome. She then described each of the dishes on the buffet, all of it traditional Arab fare. Our children and grandchildren would have enjoyed watching us trying to fill our plates from serving dishes sitting on the floor. After our wonderful meal she talked briefly about her culture including the woman's place in an Islamic family. That was followed by the Q&A session. Interestingly most of the questions were asked by the women in our group, asking further questions of our guest about the treatment of women and her personal views. Our guest was very open and honest in her responses and showed no resentment in regard to this issue. Nor did she dodge any questions. It was a calm, open discussion about how women are treated in two very different cultures. Quite refreshing for a change. Our finally stop was to take water taxiss across the Dubai Creek where we visited spice and gold souks and then were given free time to wander about the souks. Lynda bought a beautiful pashmina after bargaining the clerk down from his initial asking price of 185 dirhams to 70 dirhams. Our granddaughter Jocey would have been proud. We also walked through a utensils souk. We were a bit disappointed as it was mostly cookware and utensils much we use now. We were looking for something that reflected the Middle Eastern culture. Thursday evening we had a welcoming banquet in the hotel which featured a set menu served familiy style. It was all Spanish cuisine, the seafood paella probably being the highlight of the meal. The true highlight of the evening was getting to know our fellow travelers. Friday was devoted to the new Dubai. Our first stop was the Palace of the President of the Emirate of Dubai. We are sure it was quite palacial inside because all we saw was the spectacular entrance where we had a group picture taken. Our next stop was at "The Dubai Frame",a structure built for the 2020 World Expo. It literally looks like a picture frame standing up. It is 492 feet high and 311 feet wide. The entire frame is covered with 3500 square yards of gold plating. Two sides of the frame contain elevators, one side up and the other down. The top of the frame is an observation deck. Down the middle of the deck is glass thick enough to walk on that shows the ground below. We both did walk on the glass although we were a bit timid at first. Obviously, the views from the observation deck were spectacular. From "The Frame" we took a 2 hour panoramic bus ride along the coast of the Arabian Sea. It was an interesting drive seeing many different businesses and enjoying the different type of archetecture. We stopped at a public beach where we could take pictures of the Burj Al Arab Jermeirah Hotel. This hotel is shaped like a sail and is probably one of the most expensive to stay in in the world. It is built 200 meters off of the coast. At the top on one side is a heliport and n the other is a restaurant that sticks out of hotel like a folded newspaper. It really is quite stunniing. Further down the coast we came to The Palm. This is an island that was manmade; the road that goes over the causeway and through the middle of the island is the trunk of the Palm tree. The roads that go off this road are the fronds of the Palm tree. At the top of the trunk is the Atlantis Hotel that we are sure you have seen pictures of. The hotels and homes on the island scream money. From The Palm we drove back to the Grand Sheraton Hotel Dubai for an over the top buffet lunch. There were stations for Chinese, Indian, and Italian food plus a carving station with chicken and salmon. The bread station was fabulous. Unfortunately, the dessert station was just so so. After dinner the scheduled stop was the Dubai Mall which contains over 1000 stores. We are not mall people so we got permission to leave the tour and booked a trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Burj is Arabic for tower and Khalifa is a famous Emirati sheikh. In addition to being the tallest building in the world, 2,716.5 feet, it is the tallest free standing structure, has the highest number of floors, the highest obsevation deck and the tallest elevator in the world. There are two observation decks, one at the 124th floor and the other at the 169th floor. We opted for the 124th deck. We didn't think the view be much better 45 stories higher plus it was more expensive. The 125th floor has windows completely around the building plus a gift shop. The views were unbelievable. Buildings that looked so tall from ground level were dwarfed by the Burj Khalifa. There was a winding stairs that took us to the 124th floor where there was an outside terrace on one side of the building. There was a railing plus a very high glass wall that keep us from tumbling to the street below. It was an amazing experience. The Dubai Fountain was right next to the Burj and was advertised as a spectacular dancing fountain show with music. We found a bar with an excellent view of the fountain for a drink while we watched the show. What a disappointment. It lasted two minutes. The fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is way better. After the brief show we took a cab and turned in for the night, both of us too tired to do anything else. . Saturday was a free day so we relaxed, had a late breakfast before taking a cab to The Miracle Garden. This garden was unlike a Botanical Garden where the flowers are all growing like they would in your garden and all properly identified. When we first entered we were greeted by two gigantic topiary's green plants in the shape of horse's heads. There was a peacock hanging off of the neck of each horse with it's tail featheres, completely done in flowers, hanging to the ground. There were also two larger then life Elephant topiarys and an actual Emirates Airlines plane also covered in flowers. Like everything else in Dubai, it was over the top. The colors were breathtaking. We took a cab back to the hotel where one of us is relaxing while the other is composing this blog. Tonight we take our bus out into the desert for dinner and a belly dancing display.

Florida - January 18, 2003 - January 29, 2003

We spent the 18th and 19th driving as far as Gainesville, Florida, overnighting on the 18th in Knoxville, Tennessee. On the 20th we made the short drive to Palmetto, Florida where Lynda's brother, Gerry, and his wife Cathy reside. While visiting Gerry and Cathy that weekend we stayed in a nearby Airbnb. Actually we had a room in a lovely house in a gated community not far from the Brown's. While there we also had dinner with Ryan and Anna and the kids, Olivia and Austin. Sunday, the 20th we caravaned with the Browns to Bonita Springs where Lynda and Gerry's cousin, Karen Hubert and her husband, Butch live. We visited for an hour in their high rise condo and then had a wonderful buffet brunch at the clubhouse in their gated community. After lunch we drove across Florida to Singer Island, near Palm Beach. Our friends, Lyn and Don Johnson, invited us to join them at their time share condo. We spent the week with them. Their time share was part of a vacation condo run by Marriott. We participated in Bingo (Tim won the Grand Championship!), trivia and a wine tasting and cheese party. Much time was spent playing Wizard (Tim was the Grand Loser!) and just generally sitting around visiting and drinking. We did take a drive into Palm Beach one day. Two highlights of the trip were driving by the iconic Breakers Hotel and driving by Mar-a-Logo, former President Trumps compound. The main entrance was blocked by a SUV with an armed Secret Service agent along side. Not very welcoming. While with the Johnson's we celebrated our 54th Wedding Anniversary. We also called Jilayne who was with Rob in Aruba celebrating her **th birthday. We left Florida on Saturday, January 28 for home. Overnight was spent in Ashville, NC and we arrived home on Sunday evening. We had a great time on a much needed vacation. The weather was good; temperatures mostly in the 70's. The only bad weather was Sunday coming home. It pretty much rained constantly from Ashville to Toledo. Unfortunately, we were greeted at home by six inches of snow and temps in the 20's. Oh well. We will always have memories of a nice time in Florida.