Burj Khalifa - World's Tallest

The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building and man-made structure on land at 2,716.5 feet.  It's impressive day or night. 

 View looking up from the observation deck on the 124th floor, 1,450 feet up (just over halfway!)

 View looking out at the puny 1,000 foot tall skyscrapers of Dubai

 

 

 It's only a picture...

 It's only a model...for about $3000 it could be yours.

 View of the Dubai skyline showing the true height difference between a tall building, and a really, really tall building.

Indoor Skydiving at iFly Dubai

As we were leaving Dubai we stopped by one more mall so that Sarah and Lauren could experience indoor skydiving. 

 

Preflight

 Dressed and ready

Sarah flying

 Lauren flying

 Post flight talking about their awesome adventure

This video of Lauren's second flight gives an idea of the flight.  The second flight was much more intense than the first.

Fjord cruise - Oman

At the end of the UAE peninsula is a piece of Oman separated from the rest of the Sultanate.  We took a day trip into the Sultanate in order to take a dhow cruise into the fjords.

 Our dhow was comfortable and uncrowded

 We were fortunate to see a family of dolphins.  The water was clear and deep.  We watched this dolphin dive out of sight.

 Ashley's camel, Dhabi, and one of her mice joined us on the cruise

 We moored off a small island to do a quick bit of snorkeling.  This is our dhow.

 Sarah taking a last dip by jumping the 4-5 feet down to the water

 Windshield view on the drive back toward the UAE

Ice Land Waterpark - Ras al Khaimah

Ice Land waterpark is a very convincing winter themed water park near Ras al Khaimah.  Lauren absolutely LOVES penguins so this place was an enormous hit.  It was February, a.k.a. the middle of winter in the UAE, so temps were in the low-80s...frigid.  There was some wind coming up, hence the haze.  As you'll see below, though, we were almost the only people there.  The food was great, the rides fun, and no lines.  

Entry waterfall

 Giant emperor penguin, Lauren plays the protected chick

 "Crowded" Kid's Cove - zero entry and a dozen or more  waterslides

 The wave pool - again, not too crowded

 Lauren photo-bombing the surfing scene

 View from atop the man-made waterfall overlooking the park

 Sarah and I rode pretty much every slide in the park

The Journey Home

The journey home was again a direct flight, We left Abu Dhabi in a sandstorm with very little visibility.  It is a 15 hour flight to New York JFK.  We also got a bonus 30 minutes circling due to the SNOW STORM that greeted us on landing.  No pictures of that as we'd like to blot it from our memory...

Dhabi ready for his first trip to the United States, joined by his mice friends

 Keeping busy

 Our return flight took a northern route.  Here are some mountains in Iran; we were over the Iran / Iraq border.

 Dhabi and Ashley catching some rest

 Over 10 hours into the flight, we passed over Iceland.

 It was so close to home that we decided it will be our NEXT VACATION destination!!

Blizzard 2015

The Blizzard of 2015 occurred on Jan 27.  The wind was blowing swiftly for many overnight hours, and we had about 20 inches of snow.  Though it was difficult to measure due to significant drifting.

Ashley has a community of mice that are staying with us until they are given away as party favors at her birthday.  Here they are having a cheese breakfast.

 The Sunday before the storm.  We had about 5 inches and some rain on Saturday.

 The morning of the Blizzard

 Early afternoon, preparing to clear the driveway.  Drifts were up to 3-4 feet.

 The mouth of the snowblower is 21" high

 Fortunately the snow was very light

 Lauren finally had an opportunity to use her snow shoes

 They worked quite well

 Ashley was out to throw some snow, though she wouldn't show her face.

Cold January

2015 is off to a cold start with no snow to speak of.  One neat thing about that is that our local Lake Pocotopaug has frozen over and is quite smooth.

 In the summer, our swimming hole is on the other side of this gap

 The ice is great for skating

 We had such a good time that we returned the next morning for a breakfast picnic on the ice

 Lauren brought her penguin, Chickie, because penguins love ice and he hasn't seen any...ever

We found a chunk of ice to bring home.  It measured 8" thick, which is apparently enough ice to support small cars.  Don't think we'll try that...