It started with a song and ended with a bath.

 So our little baby turned 1 yesterday.  And in accordance with tradition she was allowed to treat a piece of cake in a way that she will never be allowed to again.

All Done!

Sandstorm is the new snowstorm.

So, driving home from work I look to the right and see this blowing in from the desert...

Seconds later I'm driving through this...

And thinking that with the light colored stuff blowing across the road and the low visibility sandstorms are the new snowstorms...

Just seems completely inconsistent with the palm trees in the neighborhood...

Think your job is bad?

The other day we were driving down the highway and we saw this.

First we noticed the guy standing in the back (it was about 44 degrees celcius outside) and then we noticed  the 4 or 5 camels...

World's Largest ____________________.

This week we had our first visitor, April's Aunt Maureen.  We have been so busy getting settled we haven't really had a chance to see the sights of Dubai so this was our opportunity.

We went to the world's largest mall (based on total area):

The Dubai Mall

We saw the world's largest acrylic panel & the world's largest aquarium:

Possibly the world's largest candy store (there seems to be some debate..)

The world's tallest building (inside you find several of its own record breakers: highest occupied floor in the world, highest outdoor observation deck in the world, elevator with the longest distance to travel in the world - just to name a few...)

Burj Khalifa

A few interesting facts:

- It is 838 meters high
- It cost $1.5 billion to build
- The elevator goes 64 km/h or 18m/sec (it takes about two minutes to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor)
- The top of the spire can be seen from 95km away
- It took 22 million man hours to build, at peak construction times there were 12,000 people working on site everyday.
- It takes 36 men 4 months to clean all 24,348 exterior windows


The world's largest fountain:

This is still one of my favorite things in Dubai.  You can sit and have a nice meal and watch the fountains which are choreographed to music.  Everything from Michael Jackson to Andrea Bocelli.  Watch this video and you will get an idea.

We also visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.  It was absolutely stunning.  It is the largest mosque in UAE and during Eid can hold 40,000 people at once.

All ready for the tour dressed in our Abayas.  

It did hold the record for the world's largest chandelier when it was completed, but shortly after a bigger one was built in a hotel in Qatar, and then an even larger one was built in a mosque in Egypt.

It does however hold a record for the world's largest carpet (as seen in picture to the right).  The carpet is 60,570 square feet in size and was made in Iran by 1200-1300 women.  It weighs 35 tons.  Allison ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on it, which had me a little worried since the carpet is estimated to be worth about $8,200,000.


















We did a few things that didn't involve anything record setting.  We visited the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding and toured a traditional Emirati village & Mosque and learned more about Islam.  We participated in the unofficial national sport of shopping.  We sampled the endless restaurants & cafes and drove out into the desert to see the beautiful sand dunes.

Now incase you are thinking that this part of the world is obsessed with having the title of "World's Largest" before everything think of Alberta - home of the World's Largest:
       
                   - Lamp
                   - Perogy
                   - Piggy Bank

                   - Sausage

                   - Easter Egg

                   - UFO landing pad

                   - Dinosaur

                   - Baseball Bat

                   - Cowboy Boot

                   - Golf Club

                   - Star Trek's "Starship Enterprise"