Magical Day in the Desert

One very cool thing you can do here is take a "desert safari".  A driver comes and picks you up in his 4X4 and takes you on a very memorable adventure.  Amir was our fabulous Iranian tour guide for the day.  He has lived in the UAE for most of his life. He first took us to see one of the many camel race tracks.  Then we went to a camel farm to pet some camels.

 We were packed in, ready for some fun.  Eliza, "Miss I will not take a nap unless I am in the car" was sacked out and missed all the camels.

 Around the "camel camps" there are just camels walking around everywhere.  Not sure what these guys were doing, but they were walking back from the race track.

Nice :)

 Amir, a self proclaimed camel lover!   

 Still sacked out!

Next up, Dune Bashing!  He let some air out of his tires and then took us straight up and then straight down some serious sand dunes.  It was crazy!  The girls (Eliza woke up with all of the bouncing around) were both just giggling and screaming the entire time! It is hard to get a sense of what we were actually doing from these pictures, but trust it was not a causal ride in the desert.  You are holding on, white knuckles, the entire ride!

We got up pretty high on some dunes and we all got out to play in the sand.  It was just beautiful!

Sand Angels!

 Mama having a little Sprite to try and settle my stomach from all of the bumpiness

Olivia loved climbing to the top and then sliding down on her bum.

A little video of the fun:

After some more dune bashing (everyone except the girls was actually ready for it to end!), our next stop was a desert camp. There were two camels just outside that were offering rides.

 Saying hello

 

All ready!

Maybe my most favorite picture of my little family, ever.  The girls had ear to ear grins the entire time.

Nonna got a turn and Olivia was more than thrilled to ride with her.

 Huge smile

 Olivia put on a performance for us all :)

 The camp had all kinds of activities: trying on the local dress, shisha, camp fire, tea and coffee tent, sand boarding and Olivia's favorite, Henna!

She loves to get "Hannah" put on

 

 You can't touch the henna for a few minutes--easier said than done for this 2 year old!  Hers became just a huge brown mess all over her hand :)

 And of course, Olivia wouldn't touch hers for maybe 20 minutes, just to be safe

The served us the best Arabic food we have had since we got here.  It was delicious.  All the usual that we love, hummus, mutabel, fatoush, and lots of grilled meat.

 We went to watch the sunset over the dunes

 Sand boarding

The night ended with belly dancing.  It was really enjoyable, but sadly we had to leave after a couple songs to get back because it was a school night.  It was truly a magical day in the desert.

Eliza trying a little belly dancing :-)