Birthday Visit

At the beginning of the month my friend Lisa came for a visit from cold wintery New York. Who can blame her? Snow and brutal temperatures in NY compared to sunshine and 75 degrees here in Abu Dhabi.

I took some time off from work to show her around, we spent some time walking around the city which was easy to do at this time of year because the temperatures were so nice. We made a stop here to take a picture at one of the hundreds of fountains.

We did the typical stuff like visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

We also went kayaking in the Mangroves.

We took a walk down to the beach one day and saw what is actually a typical sight.


On the way out of Abu Dhabi to the town of Liwa and the edge of what is called the "Empty Quarter" the largest uniterrupted sand desert in the world. It covers 225,000 square miles, more area than France, and although the Sahara is 15 times the size of the Empty Quarter, the Empty Quarter holds half as much sand mainly because the Sahara is mostly graveled plains and rock outcroppings. An incredible site to see, but back to Joe Camel.

Lisa snapped a picture of this guy in the back of a truck.

Oh, I think I know where he was going. Take a look at this menu.

Here's a shot of the edge of the Empty Quarter. There are more photo's that show more sand in my next update about my visit from Keith. After lunch at which one of us had the camel burger (very lean) we climbed a small wall to get into the sand just to see what it was like to see sand as far as the eye could see.

On the way back to Abu Dhabi these guys appeared beside the

highway or maybe we appeared beside their farm, but either way

our paths kind of crossed so Lisa got out and snapped this picture. It seems the little guy is curious and wondering why someone is snapping his picture especially after they might have just eaten one of his family.

On Tuesday night a couple of hundred athletes gather at the Yas Island Formula One track to run and bike on the track unimpeded by traffice or cars. It's just a great feeling to get out and run without worrying about crossing streets or getting hit by a car.

Here's a nice photo of what the track looks like at night without race cars on it.

Finally we went down to Dubai one night and took in the fountain show outside the Burg Khalifa. This fountain is designed by the same company that did the one at the Bellagio in Vegas. It's quite a show. Every 1/2 hour it plays for the length of one song and the songs change each time so the music and water are in synch. It's an impressive show to say the least.

QOB - This comes from my daughter Courtney, well she sent it to me, but it's by Proust according to her. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

I look at things differently now at 52 than I would have 5 or 10 years ago never mind 20 or 30 years ago. The world is a big place, but if you live in different parts of it you see it with new eyes.

Stay Warm,

Wayne