Next on Survivor Dubai:

Your mission: Survive two weeks of orientation, obtain your driver’s license, and fight through your first bouts of traffic jams.

Your reward: One night stay at the 5 star Kapinski Hotel in Ajman.

We splurged a little this weekend and traveled about 20 minutes to Ajman and stayed in the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever seen. It is the off season here so places are really affordable right now. We had an ocean view, and the first thing Jason and Avery saw was a Camel walking on the white sand beaches. It was like a mirage as when they went down to the beach to get a closer look, it was gone. We weren’t sure if it was someone’s pet, or if it just came over from the wild.

It was quite a bit cooler on the Gulf than in the concrete jungle we live in. It was really soothing to be by the water and in the fresh air. Ethan and I spent our time in the kiddie pool that was covered with a tent, so you were still outside, but it was just big enough to block the sun’s direct rays from hitting you. Ethan is like a little fish. He likes it in the water. Jason and Avery divided their time going from the pool to the beach. They even saw a Sting Ray in the water! I’m glad I wasn’t there for that. I had fun playing “pirate/coast guard” with Avery in the pool. He is really becoming a strong swimmer.

It was nice to get a taste of what life can be like in Dubai once you get past the sand storms and intense heat. Other expats have compared it to arriving in Minnesota during a blizzard in January. They say in October it cools down and it really is "quite lovely" for about seven months. There is so much here that I want to explore, but we are limited with Ethan. Hopefully, we can just hunker down for one more month and then be free to check out the parks and museums.