The Abu Dhabi Adventure

       Yes! I can finally say that I have been to Abu Dhabi! This post covers all of the best day yet, so I'm going to try a different tactic this time:

Yesterday was Mom's first time driving in the UAE.
Based on her reaction, I think that she thinks driving is stressful, because her knuckles were pretty white for the hour it took to drive there.
Oh, and guess who saw the first camel? ME!!😄

We looked around some neighborhoods we are thinking of living at, then Mom drove us to a mall for a celebratory "We didn't crash" lunch. Since she was the driver, she got to pick where we ate.
We ended up at a French restaurant, where we were served this gourmet ketchup.

At the same place, Henry ordered CocaCola, and it came in this way cool glass bottle.

Greta's bear shaped cookie she got for dessert.

And now we get to our Beach Adventure. That's Greta, and the picture is at the Abu Dhabi Beach. She's looking for shells and other such treasures.

This is the Starfish Bennett found. This was his highlight of yesterday.
If you want to see a video, Mom put one on Instagram.

Mom and Greta had started to dig a tide pool for the crab I found, but it ended up being the home for the starfish. In the picture, you can see (from right to left, clockwise) Henry, Ben, a stranger, (the people are extremely friendly here) and our new Egyptian friend, whose name sounds exactly like the English word "Safe". They are looking at the starfish. With a combination of starfish, crabs, and smiles, we made a lot of new friends.

Again, the man-made tide pool, with the starfish in it, and Henry and "Safe" playing with it.

Here's the selfie we took at the end. You can see the beach is located pretty close to the city. Also, the water is pretty clear. Even with the water up to her neck, Mom could still see her feet... and the flipper Greta kicked off and thought she lost. One thing you can't see, however, is what the sand is made of. It's white, with small pink flecks in it everywhere, because it's literally made of crushed shells. Gorgeous. Another nice thing is, there's hardly any litter anywhere!

After our beach adventure, we stopped for dinner at a place called "The Last Exit". It's basically a bunch of different food trucks, some picnic benches, and a place to play games. Oh, and the motion Ben is making with his hands is supposed to be a question mark. (?) It's all classic car, and old airstream camper-themed. The bathrooms even followed an old mechanics shop theme. The sinks were tires, the water came out of gas pumps, the water flow was controlled by an accelerator pedal, the flush was a pull chain, and the water for it came out of an oil drum with a toxic symbol on it. Needless to say, Henry loved it. Bathrooms here all have attendants. The attendant at this stop pretty much had to tell everyone how to operate the sink. "You push the pedal."

Here's a car advertising for "POP Sliders" where Ben, Greta, and Mom all ate.

Here is me with the Fish and Chips I had for dinner there. It was, in the words of the BFG, "Scrumdiddlyumptious"! Too bad I wasn't wearing my UK shirt. 😁

And here's a smiley potato I found on our grocery shopping adventure from a few days ago. That was a 2-hour lesson in humility and dealing with stressful confusion. Again.

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