What do you do at 4:30am when your internal clock is turned around? Well, you go out and feel the warm air and have tea and send an email! Saturday I visited The Mall of the Emirates and had a penguin experience. It was such fun, all geared up in snow pants, parka and gloves we entered the cold and icy "Antarctic" to interact with penguins. Playful and beyond adorable and oh so soft I learned all about their habitat and lives. Of course doing this in the Arabian desert puts an interesting twist on the whole experience. One of our group went skiing and had tons of fun in the snow. Not Whistler but again, indoors in the desert makes it memorable!

Sunday was a full day tour with the most amazing guide! We of course rode the elevator to the top of the Burj for an out of this world view of the city and desert beyond. Went to old Dubai, a fabulous museum outlining the short history of Dubai and how in a very few years it rose out of the desert to become a world famous destination. The architecture is stunning. We of course went out to Palm Island and the beach, all truly fascinating . Today we board the Royal Caribbean ship and head out into the gulf for more Emirate adventures.

We had a lot of fun visiting the Mutrah Souq Market in Oman. We all bought abayas so that we could tour the mosques and the people loved us for making the effort. Plus all dressed in black I looked so slim.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque was so beautiful, it took years to build and shows off amazing craftsmanship. A major feature of the design of the Mosque's interior is the prayer carpet which covers the floor of the prayer hall as well as the World's second largest chandelier that hangs above the praying hall and is 14 meters tall.

I highly recommend Dubai and the Emirates to any and all clients. There is so much to see and do, it is safe, it is clean, it is amazing! 3 days is plenty in Dubai. And the most beautiful building I have ever seen, and expect I will ever see, is the mosque in Abu Dhabi. The cruise, I believe, is by far the best way to see all of the Emirates, and Oman. -Cathy