Desert Life

Motorcycle jumping over the airplane at the Al Ain Air Show

The kids (and grandpuppy) came to visit this weekend.  We took Blue for a morning walk to visit the camels.  Then we headed up to climb Jebel Hefeet and visit the Green Mubazzareh (hot springs).  Finally, we drove out into the desert to play on the dunes.  After coming back home to clean up, we went to eat at a Lebanese restaurant called Leisure, where strangely enough, I ordered Mexican food (Chicken Fajitas)....yummy!!!

The camels kept following Blue around the outside of the fence, fascinated with him! 

Heather and Blue and me on the very tip top of Jebel Hefeet

Looking across a chasm at Kim and Cory on another rock outcropping of Hefeet

We drove through the Green Mubazzareh (a lush, green valley at the base of Jebel Hefeet) where there are hot springs.  We didn't go into the official "women's" and "men's" areas, preferring to stop alongside the road at the small feeder streams to soak our feet.  This was about 300 yards from the source of the springs, and the water was still extremely hot!!

Green Mubazzarah:  lush and beautiful in the middle of the desert

Out in the dunes.....play time!!

After playing for a while, Blue was taking "rest" stops!

Cory "sandboards" down the dunes!  LOL

Heather gracefully "hops" down the dunes!

Heather, Cory, and Blue race to the top of one of the dunes.  
(Yes, Cory, that's Blue's little head you see bouncing along beside you!)

By this time, Blue was worn out and ready to pose!  :)

Sinking down...down....down...into the sand

The dunes were so pristine, you can hardly even tell we left our footprints here.  
Don't you just love the circular pattern in the sand?!!

Sheikh Khalifa Bin Blue

On Saturday we all went to the Al Ain Aerobatic show.  There were 15 aerobatic and display teams from 4 different continents performing.  This is the 9th annual show, and is supposed to be one of the five top aerobatic shows in the world.  They were expecting around 130,000 people.  We watched part of the FAI Desert Challenge, which involved 6 competitors from different countries compete head to head in terms of aerobatic skill.

We were also glad to see exactly where the airport is, since we're flying out of there in a couple of weeks to go to Oman.  The government just moved the holiday for the Prophet's Birthday to February 17th, so that means we have a 3-day weekend!!  Yea!  We're going to fly to Muscat, Oman for a few days on the beach.

Tickets!!

We thought it was neat how the smoke trail formed the "11" in 2011

This is Otto the Helicopter playing yo-yo--quite entertaining for the children, 
but we were ready for him to fly on out and let the real show begin :)

These two planes were Blue Voltige, motorgliders from Italy.  
This was their re-creation of the Italian flag.

Here's Blue Voltige doing a close-flying formation.  They had beautiful music playing from the speakers, and it was almost peaceful watching these two perform.  They had very small quiet engines, so you could focus on the aerobatic feats.

This was a paramotor.  Apparently, with little wind today, it was quite a feat that he even made it off the ground.  His partner crashed on take-off.

This was Team Viper, flying Hawker Hunter supersonic fighter jets.  The pilots are all current or
former members of the British RAF.  Here they are meeting almost head-on.

Team Viper flying formation

Scandinavian Catwalk:  two ladies walking on the wings!  They crawled up and down
 as the airplane flew spirals and loops!

"AirCats" on the wings as the plane comes out of a full loop

This was Kim's favorite part:  Magic Corn
He's found a delicious new snack!!