Poltergeistic Light Bulbs

For my friends who live in the same compound as Brian and I, this will come as no surprise...My house is trying to get me.  Now, I'm not saying this in some crazy, schizophrenic, hormonal freak out.  When you turn on the clothes dryer and a light bulb in the hallway blows up into pieces, one may think, "That's strange."  And five minutes later, when you turn on the bedroom light to make the bed and the light bulb pops never to come on again, "Well, that sucks."  You may be thinking, "Oh, Lauren, stop being silly, this happens all the time."  NAY.  And I'll tell you why I say, "Nay."  Turning on a dryer should NOT make a light bulb blow into pieces.  Ever.  Are they even related in the wire-family that is behind the wall?  The kicker is when you plug something in, like an iPad or alarm clock, and the ENTIRE house loses power.  WHAT?!  Knock on wood, but so far none of our gadgets have blown up yet.

I take all of these signs from my villa to mean:  Get the hell out of Doha and eat some Mexican food and Whataburger.  Oh, and buy more light bulbs.

Babies and Weddings - Summer 2013

I'm sure most of you know now that Brian and I are expecting our first kiddo in January.  IT'S A BOY!  We are super excited and have decided on the name Nolan Clark Roan.  We had originally chosen Connor for the first name, but then after telling some friends, I realized that EVERYONE is naming their kid Connor these days.  So, when we were in Albania, Brian was talking about baseball to one of our friends outside of the bar of the bachelor/bachelorette party.  Nolan Ryan was brought up and I looked at Brian and said, "OOOOH, that's a great name!"  He agreed and viola.  Our son was named outside of a bar in Albania.  We like to keep it classy in the Roan family.  ;)  The middle name is Brian's Dad's middle name.  He got to choose the middle name since our girl's name was after my Grandmother's.  I'm glad Leo doesn't have a weird middle name like Snodgrass or Pendernut.

Here are some pics of his life thus far...

12 Week U/S

21 Week U/S - His little legs are crossed

21 Week U/S - His face, hand and tummy

Nolan is our most exciting news to update you guys on, but I'll start from the beginning of summer and give you some tidbits of what we've been up to.

We finished our Eurotrip in late April and returned to Doha.  I found out I was preggo about three weeks later.  With this information, my nights of friends coming over for BBQ and wine and movies were over.  I started going to sleep at 7pm and waking up at 7am.  Rock star, right?

I went back to the US for a week in July for some work stuff.  I was lucky in that I was able to purchase some maternity clothes and see some friends.  Maternity clothes in Doha are triple the price of what they are at home - even in the same chain.  I stayed with one of my great friends Lacey and her husband Nate.  Their son Alex is adorable.  He liked to play fetch with the dogs.  And by play fetch, I mean, act like a dog and fetch the ball!  It was awesome.  I also ate a Baconator.  I stayed one night with my friend Casey and her main squeeze Tom.  We went to an all-you-can-eat BBQ place in DC.  HOLY COW...I was miserable after we left there.  I'm pretty sure my kid had quite the growth spurt after the DC trip.

In late August, we went to Albania for our friends' Mark & Kledia's wedding in Lezhe.  It was definitely a culture shock, but I feel like we are getting used to those by now.  The wedding took place in a castle that had hosted only one wedding prior to theirs...the king who lived there hundreds of years ago.  Needless to say, this wedding was kind of a big deal in Lezhe.  Brian was the best man and did his best-manly duties to his fullest.  He gave a speech, that I missed (I'll get to that), that made everyone teary.  So, in Albania, weddings tend to go until 4-5am.  With my preggo-ness, I couldn't stay up past 1.  I tried my best, but no go.  This is why I missed Brian's awesome speech.  I'm hoping someone got it on video so I can hear what he had to say.  I heard nothing but great things from everyone.

After the wedding, Brian had to fly home for work stuff.  I, on the other hand, joined the newlyweds, along with four other people, on their honeymoon in Greece.  We had so much fun!  I met some great new people that will be friends for a long time to come.  We drove from Lezhe to Sarande the first day (6 hours through the mountains).  It was beautiful.  We pulled over to take some pics on the mountainside at sunset.  This one was mine:

Mountain, belly, Ionian Sea, sunset

We took a ferry to Corfu, Greece the next morning.  We stayed in a rental house right on the water.  The water in Corfu is gorgeous!  It's as clear as the Carribean.  That night we rented 4-wheelers.  I wanted to try a moped, but thought it wasn't the best idea being five months preggo on a tiny motorcylce I've never driven before.  I was at least used to four-wheelers from the ranch.  So, me and my side-kick Molly shared a quad and drove all over Corfu.  We ended up at a beach called Pelekas.  Google it.  SOOOO pretty!  It's the most beautiful beach I have ever, ever, ever been to.  EVER.  We hung out there for a few hours and made our way back to the house.  Everyone left early the next morning to head back to Albania to catch flights.  I was flying out of Corfu to Athens by myself, so I stayed at the house all day.  It was nice to have a day to relax and read and sleep...basically do nothing.  Ya know, chillin' out in Greece - No big deal.  HA!  Upon arrival in Greece, I told my cab driver I was Canadian.  No one likes Americans these days, so I was being safe.  Eh?

The rest of the weeks during the summer were pretty much spent sleeping for me and going to the pool for Brian.  None of you will recognize him when he gets home.  He's lost about twenty pounds.  He's been swimming a mile every day and it has melted the weight off of him.  I'm jealous since I'm sitting here gaining pounds and pounds, but it will be my turn soon enough!  :)  He says he is keeping our combined weight at an equilibrium.  

I guess that is all for now.  Things are going fabulously with the pregnancy.  According to his measurements, he is in the 95th percentile for weight.  I hope this changes in the coming months.  Brian and I were both big babies.  I'll be heading home on November 14th, landing in Houston on the 15th.  I'll be staying at my Dad's in Victoria the entire time, but can travel closely (Austin, Houston, Corpus) probably through mid-December?  I'm not sure on the traveling restrictions.  I plan to make a trip to Corpus, for sure, to get some good Mexican food.  This expat NEEDS some Mexican food!

Italy: Mozzarella, Bed Bugs and Overpriced Glass

We took the train from Salzburg to Innsbruck to Venice.  The trip from Innsbruck to Venice was around six hours, so we had purchased first-class tickets, hoping for comfy seats for sleeping.  WELL, this was not the case.  We first get on the train and we are in first-class, but with no seat assignments.  So, we pick this random cabin full of Germans.  The train-ticketing-dude comes into the cabin and gets mad at us because we don't have "reservations."  Well, dude, we have a ticket for two people in first class.  What more do you want from us!?  So, he sighs heavily at us and says, "Well, we may not have seats available.  You HAVE to have a reservation."  He leaves, comes back ten minutes later and has found two seats for us one cabin over.  This cabin is full of Americans, which was weird because I really didn't see/hear many Americans on the entire trip in Europe.  So we sit.  I am next to a HUGE dude taking over half of my seat and blocking my window view and Brian is in between two old women.  SCREW THIS FIRST CLASS BS.  We decide to go to the dining car and get some food/drinks.  Here we are in the dining car.

We ate and had a few glasses of wine.  Brian decided he was going back to the overcrowded cabin to nap.  Not me.  I was having too much fun in the dining car.  Drinking at 100km per hour with beautiful Italy outside of the window?  I'm not sleeping through this!  So, I'm sitting there, drinking my wine and a dude walks in the dining car.  There are no seats available, so I offer him one of mine.  I was at a 4-top by myself.  He sits and I find out that he and his wife live in Verona.  He travels back and forth to Innsbruck where he is a Latin professor.  Very nice dude.  Anyways, he gets off of the train in Verona (about an hour before Venice) and Brian finally wakes up and comes back to the dining car.  He got to see some of the views, but missed a lot of the mountains through Austria.  Weird experience:  I saw a lady give her two year old a cup of coffee.  It was not hot chocolate...it was coffee.

So, we get off the train and say goodbye to our train companions from the cabin.  I told them I was ready to "....eat and drink everything Venice had to offer."  We begin our trek across Venice to the bed & breakfast.  It is during this hike that I am truly thankful to Brian for being adamant about backpacking instead of suitcasing for this trip.  We went up and down at least thirty bridges and it would have been hell with rolling suitcases.  So, yes Brian, you were right.  During our walk to the B&B, a man gives me a rose.  I tell him I don't want it because I didn't want to pay for a rose...that was a glass of wine I could be having.  He tells me I don't have to pay for it.  SWEET, right?  Then he goes up to Brian and asks him for money.  Ugh.

So, we make it to the B&B, Hotel Barbaro.  I read the reviews telling me how to check into this place, fortunately.  If I hadn't we would have been screwed.  The B&B is located above a restaurant that is owned by the B&B peeps.  So, you have to go into the restaurant, find a waitress or bartender, tell them you would like to check in, they leave their station, walk you upstairs, show you the room and go back to work.  Here is a photo of the room.

Once we unpacked a bit, we decided to walk around and get some dinner.  We sat on the Grande Canal and ate Caprese Salads (Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil).  I ate at least two of these a day.  We had some wine and make our way back to the B&B.  We learned that, unlike what you see in movies, "Thank You," is not pronounced "Grazi!"  The correct pronunciation is "Grazie!"  (gratz-eee-yay).  There is your language lesson for the day.  We went back to the restaurant under the B&B, ate, drank and went to sleep.  Our room overlooked a courtyard that had a restaurant and accordion player doing his thing until well past midnight.  Since there were no AC's in the building, we had to leave the window open.  We were serenaded to sleep every night.  It was pretty damn cool.

The next morning we woke up to church bells ringing...55 times...in a row.  I counted.  We showered and I dried my hair with this...

We took an autotaxi to Murano, an island just off of Venice.  As soon as you get off of the taxi, there are dudes directing you into their glass-making show.  It was pretty awesome.  We saw a guy make a glass horse in under twenty seconds.  Check this out...

TWENTY SECONDS.  These guys are talented.  So after you watch them do the demo, they shuttle you like cattle into the showroom.  Brian and I had already decided that we were going to buy a piece of glass as a souvenir from Venice.  Pffffffffffft.  One look at the prices and I was floored.  BUT, we continue "Oooohing and Aaaahing" at everything.  The salesman sees this and pounces!  He starts telling all of these love stories about each piece being Romeo and Juliet and then the asshole takes us into the "back room."  The back room is roped off for the high rollers, which we were NOT and we told him everything in there was way over our budget.  "Oh no, for you, I make special price....Only $8000."  It was difficult getting out of there, but we decided to go check out some more of the island and get some lunch.  We ran into our train-cabin-mates and they ask me if I got to eat and drink everything Venice had to offer.  I told them I was only about halfway there.  :)  I go to find a bathroom or something and come back to find Brian going into another "back room" where the expensive shit is.  UGH!  But, this time it was awesome.  The guy was bored and took us to their museum upstairs.  It was amazing!  I see this huge guitar made of glass and fall in love.  He tells us that Mick Jagger bought a custom made one just last year from them.

We get back to Venice and decide to go on a gondola ride after dinner (Caprese Salad).  It was $80 usd.  We bring a bottle of wine and Brian brings a cigar.  We learn that Venice is made up of 118 islands and were joined slowly, starting 800 years ago by over 400 bridges.  Our driver was third generation gondola captain.  The boat we were in was originally his grandfather's.  In the winter, the water is above the streets and people wear rain boots everywhere.  Here are some pics from our gondola adventure:

After the gondola ride, we were hungry and Brian wanted chicken alfredo.  That's not a normal dish in Venice, so he had to get out the trusty Google Translator to ask the waiter if they had it.  They did!  We ate pasta like bosses.  It was so delicious.  After dinner, we were doing some window shopping and Brian sees a store he must go into.  It was a store of paper...leather bound journals, stationary and whatnot.  I'm waiting for Brian to find something he wants and all of the sudden, I see something I had to have!  HAD TO.  It was a wax stamp and you could have your initial put into it.  We bought an R.  It is seriously the coolest thing ever!  Very Game of Thrones of us, right?  Check it...

We went back to the hotel to get some sleep...upon waking up, we had little bites all over us.  What in the world could they be from?  ....bed bugs.  It was too late.  We were checking out and had already been bitten.  Don't ever stay at Hotel Barbaro in Venice, Italy.  That is the moral to this long, drawn out story.

Germany & Austria: Heineken, Unicorns and Steigl

We leave Dubai at the crack of dawn and fly away to Europe!  First stop:  Munich, Germany.  This flight was empty.  Brian took over the four seats in the middle of the plane and made a bed.  He slept for the entire five hour flight.  I watched Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained - both very good.  So, halfway through the flight, I order a Heineken.  I THOUGHT it was a German beer, but was quickly scolded for my mistake.  "WE are a GERMAN airline and don't sell Heineken.  Here is your Warsteiner...a GERMAN beer."  She then sternly places the beer on my fold down tray, I take a sip, smile at her and she stomps away.  It tasted like a Heineken.  After Googling, it is from the Netherlands.  My bad, grumpy flight attendant.

We land in Munich around Noon and make our way to grab our luggage and go through customs...fifteen minutes!  WOOT!  Our train to Austria was going to be in three hours.  We found the train information desk and there was a train leaving for Austria in twenty minutes.  We made the change and hauled ass to the station.  The train was two story, so being the touristas that we are, we went up and sat by some old local man who probably wanted to ride in peace, but not on our watch!  We plopped our bags down, took up the seats across from him and started snapping photos.  "OOOOH...AHHHH.  Look!"

We arrive in Salzburg and proceed to rely on Google Maps to assist us in our journey to the hotel.  GOOGLE MAPS CAN EAT IT!  We ended up on the wrong side of town.  We were walking, carrying heavy backpacks, I had to pee, I was starving (which if you know me is a terrible situation) and Google is taking us in circles.  Finally, I walked into a hotel, that Google said was where we were supposed to be, and asked the nice girls for some help.  They gave me a map and we were on our way.  Sidenote:  When I came outside of the hotel to show Brian my beautiful, paper, old-school map, he points to his phone saying it was working now and we needed to take a right.  NO.  EFF GOOGLE.  My beautiful, paper, old-school map said we needed to go left.  We argued, I won, we went left and made it to Hotel Markus Sittikus.  It just jumps out at you, right?

The hotel was boutique-y.  Our room had two doors.  One that was left unlocked on the outside, which you open and about a foot inside of that door, is the door that locks.  It reminded me of a hobbit hole.  We booked our excursion for the next morning and decided to grab some food and sight see for a few hours.  On the way to "Old Town Salzburg" we found this really cool park  Mirabelle Park.  Markus Sittikus, the king back in the day, had the park built for his mistress, Mirabelle.  Very low profile, right?  Here was Brian's favorite part of the park:

Just kidding, this was.  He wanted to feel the grass on his feet, since all we have in Doha is dirt.

Here is a pic of the park in its entirety.  

After this, we went to dinner, where we dined on...wait for it...PORK.  Man, I missed that stuff.  Here are some views of the river in Salzburg.  It's very beautiful.

The next morning, we were picked up by Max at the hotel.  Max was our tour guide for the excursions for the day:  Salt Mining and Berchtesgaden tour.  He was ADORABLE.  He was a little, old, Austrian man with white hair, tiny glasses, a green tweed coat and plaid pants.  ADORABLE, I say.  Unfortunately, this is the only photo I snapped of his cuteness.

We stopped to pick up six more girls that were joining us on the tour.  They were originally from India, but lived in Dubai, so we had some common ground with them.  We drove up through Berchtesgaden, which is the city where Hitler stayed during the war.  His Eagle's Nest is located here, but was closed for tours because of snow.  It is now a restaurant.

Besides this fact, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  Photos cannot do it justice, but here are a few:

 Overlook to Berchestgaden

 The water is green because of all of the limestone from the salt mines.

 This was originally Hitler's personal cinema.

The building in the background was Hitler's securities' housing.  This bare, flat part in the front is where his house was - then it was blown up.

We then made our way to the salt mine.  We all had to put on the overalls and ride the little train down into the mountain.  It was freezing down there.  Fun facts we learned:  Salt is referred to as "white gold" there and Salzburg actually means City of Salt.  The word "salary" comes from back in the day when people were paid with salt instead of money.  

After the salt mine, we were dropped off in town and decided to make our way back to the hotel to change. It was warming up quickly and we had more stuff to do.  We get to the bus stop that will take us to Markus Sittikus' casa, Hellbrunn Castle, and trick fountain tour. I give the driver twenty euro and he gives me a receipt and change.  I don't pay attention and hand the money to Brian.  Brian looks at me, the receipt and back at me.  "He still owes us ten euro."  Me - "Well, ask him for it."  Brian rolls his eyes.  I hate confrontation and wasn't about to confront a non-English speaking Austrian bus driver.  Brian goes up there and tries to explain to him what happened.  He thinks we only gave him a ten instead of a twenty.  He starts rattling off Austrian and flailing his hands at Brian and reluctantly gives him our change.  I'm pretty sure if I had been listening better, I could have learned some Austrian swear words.

So, this is the best part of the journey...

Stiegl Grapefruit Radler.  DONE.  My search for my favorite beer is over.  It is half beer, half grapefruit juice and I love them.  AND...do you see that building behind it?  That is a 450 year old house, that is a museum, that you can walk around carrying a Stiegl Grapefruit Radler and no one looks at you twice.  "Hey, come on in, we trust you."

OK, I am done raving.  Here are some pics from the Castle and trick fountains.

 This table was where Sittikus would host dinner parties.  He was quite the drunk and would play tricks on his friends.  The seat where the two boys are sitting was his seat, which would stay dry, but the guests seats had hoses in the seat and behind them and would soak you.  I willingly volunteered to get doused.  It was freezing.  

 This is about ten feet wide and ten feet tall.  It's huge and propelled completely by water.  The cranking of the people by the water made so much noise, that he installed a water-powered organ in the back of it to cover the commotion.  This guy was obsessed with water.

Another trick fountain.

This one is just downright creepy.

So, obviously you are going to get wet on this tour.  Some old man was reaming our tour guide because he got wet.  Really, dude?  

After this day, I have decided that I'm going to learn German.  In Doha, if you have light skin, people always speak to you in English.  In Germany and Austria, if you have light skin, they speak to you in German.  Then, you look like an asshole just staring at them saying, "English, please?"  I hated it.  Brian says if I just add an "en" to the end of every word, they will understand.  For example:  May I please have a beer.  Translates:  Mayan I pleasen have a beeren?  Yeah.  He talked like this the entire trip...until we got to Italy, which is a whole other Brian language.  :)

That night, we went to dinner, came back to the hotel, Brian smoked a cigar in the courtyard of our hotel and we went to sleep after a long day.  Next stop...VENICE!

Get it together, Doha!

So the first week of our Eurotrip was not in Europe.  We went to Dubai, which is the city Doha aspires to be, but is nowhere close.  Doha:  pot holes, round-a-bouts, traffic, rude people.  Dubai:  perfectly constructed roads, stop lights, no traffic, people are polite-ish.  Doha has a way to go.  Dubai just has it together.  Dubai is the family member in the middle east that made something of itself.  It is in Hollywood partying with it's "new" friends.  Now, with that said, I don't ever want to go back.  There is nothing to do unless you have a ton of money and can stay at the Atlantis Hotel...which we don't and didn't.

Backing up a bit:  Leaving Doha.  We were leaving from Gate 13.  I thought about my Mother and how she most likely would have not gotten on the flight and would have chartered a boat to go home.  :)  Love you!  The flight we were on was an international flight, stopping in Dubai before continuing to DC.  Most people on the short hop to Dubai were getting off in Dubai.  This was a huge plane - 10 seats across with First, Business and Coach classes.  We were all in the back of the plane.  Not one person was in front of row 25.  We land safely, go to Duty Free for alcohol (because it's super expensive at the hotels), rent our car (a white Toyota Yaris) and make way to the hotel (Sheraton at The Creek).  Upon arrival at the hotel, we were upgraded to a room with a creek view.  I think this is because of our snazzy Diplomatic Passports, but it's most likely because while we were waiting for our keys, a very inebriated man around the age of 65 came in with a young girl (around 20) who was dressed in a mini skirt, tube top and 8 inch heels.  Sidenote:  You can't wear this attire in the middle east - no matter where you are.  He wanted a room for a few hours with her.  If you haven't deduced by now, she was a "working girl." Security was trying to get him to leave, but he kept patting their chests calling them "tough guys."  THIS, my friends, I believe, is why were upgraded, but who knows.

This leg of the trip was for Brian so he could get his Advanced Free Fall (AFF) License.  Now he is able to jump by himself...out of a perfectly good plane, while plummeting to the ground, at terminal velocity, with nothing but a parachute that may or may not work.  "It's totally safe," he says.  "No one ever gets hurt," he says.  YOU ARE JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE, DUDE!  Such the supportive wife, I am.  And Mom, his first jump day was April 13th.  Yeah.

The first few days, he went to class and I stayed at the hotel.  He would come home around 3-4pm and was completely exhausted from the adrenaline rushes all day.  While he napped, I went to the Pub in the lobby and had a cider and a real BLT.  Dubai sells bacon...real bacon.  (Another reason Doha needs to get it together).  A local guy was in there and ordered a martini.

This is how it went down:
Man(M):  I'd like a martini.
Waitress(W):  Gin or Vodka?
M:  Gin
...three minutes later
W:  Here you are, sir.
M:  I wanted the drink with the salt on it.
W:  That's a margarita.
M:  Oh.
Lauren:  Noob.

The next night, we went to the Mall of the Emirates and saw the indoor ski hill and went to see Oblivion, some Tom Cruise movie.  You can pick your seat, so we did - with no one around us.  Let me preface this story with the first time I went to a movie theater in an Arabic country...cell phones, smacking and non-stop talking the whole time.  I swore I would never do it again, but here I was willingly submitting myself to instant bad-moodiness.  Brian shhsh'd people the whole time.  Cell-phones rang and food was smacked.  I was ready for a stiff drink after Tom Cruise saved the world.  Here is a pic from the outside of the indoor ski hill:

He had a day off from school the next day, so we went out and about the city.  This is when I turned green with envy...over roads.  ROADS!  You don't realize how awesome traffic lights are until all you are used to are round-a-bouts with asshole drivers.  It's the little things over here.  We went to the Dubai Mall and toured the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  When we went through security, they took Brian's lighter, but not his pocket knife.  Whaaat??  It has the longest continuous elevator ride in the world. Fun fact:  I had a movement up there...tallest one in the world, right!?  My own record.  Here are some photos of the building and views:

Dubai also holds the Guinness Book World Record for the single largest acrylic panel.  It's about a foot and a half thick, as well.  Here it is:

We were allowed to feed the fish at the aquarium.  It was pretty snazzy.  They basically charge you $10, give you dog food and you throw it in the tank.  This is what happens:

At the Dubai Mall, we ate at Potbelly's.  I LOVE this place.  Brian and I made a pact when we left that we weren't going to eat from any fast-food, American-y places on this vacation, but I have a beer belly that needed a Potbelly sandwich.  It was delicious.  We also saw a Texas Chicken in the food court.  The logo was EXACTLY the same as Church's Chicken from home, but since we were in the Middle East, they couldn't call it Church's Chicken, thus naming it Texas Chicken.  Even though, I don't think Texas is much below a church in their eyes.  McDonald's is also racist over here.  They have burgers called "The Mexican" and "The Asian."  They would be fired if that was their advertising campaign in the States.  Big billboards all over town reading "THE MEXICAN - Eat it!"  What?

There was a wooden yacht on the Creek outside of our room called "Touch Wood."  Every morning, 15-20 workers were all over it cleaning and polishing this thing.  It was completely made of wood.  Can you imagine the upkeep on this thing in the States?  Luckily for the owner, labor is cheap here.

The next day, I went with Brian to his skydiving school to hang out.  I wanted to see him in action!  It....was....awesome.  I still wouldn't do it, but watching these guys do their thing was very entertaining.  I sat out there for 8 hours and never got bored.  The Skydive Dubai professional team was working that day and doing all kinds of awesome landings and air trickery.  I got some pics of Brian in action too...for your viewing pleasure:

After his day of jumping, we were hanging out on the patio at the school, watching peoples' landings when all the sudden we felt like we were on a rocking chair.  The entire patio started swaying...it was the tremors from the earthquake in Iran.  We felt it for about 20 seconds...it was pretty awesome.  

We made our way back to the hotel and packed up all of our summer clothes to mail back to Doha.  It was going to be much colder in Europe and since we were backpacking, we didn't want to carry the extra weight.  Plus, I was going to need room in my bag for souvenirs.  :)  Here is where I am going to vent.  Google Maps can eat it.  We drove all over Dubai looking for a DHL location.  According to Google Maps, they were all around us!  But, no, they were not.  Finally, from the heavens above, we see a DHL van parked in a lot.  The driver was walking back from a coffee shop to his van and we cornered him.  He told us where to go, which was a few blocks away, but not listed on Google Maps, and we were 25 pounds lighter!  We were in bed by 7:30pm that night...ready to go to Europe the next day!

For more picks of Brian's skydiving, please visit this link:  http://sassy-pants.smugmug.com/Other/Brians-AFF-April-2013-Dubai/29136939_BMX7Vv#!i=2481069675&k=jQxv5pP

For more picks of our Dubai trip, please visit this link:  http://sassy-pants.smugmug.com/Other/Dubai-April-11-17-2013/29137461_8t2Lth#!i=2481134407&k=4n4bm32