I know I haven't finished off our big trip yet, but I took a break from photos of the sunny middle east to share our wintery weekend.
This past weekend was an unusual one for Vancouver - we got snowed on! I wa sin Florida about a week before when we had also had a small dumping, and I had thought I had missed the snowfall for the year. I was mistaken, as this weekend we got more snow than I think we've had in all the years I've lived here. Sunday, we had a fun day out in the snow.
Read MoreIt was a beautiful, sunny day, so we decided to head down to Reifel to see what was going on. (Sorry for the re-post - I managed to delete the first one!)
Read MoreThis post is over a month late - I blame Christmas. Here's one last post from our amazing trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Being so much after-the-fact, there's not a lot of content for this set.
Our flight home wasn't until midnight, so we had pretty much a full day for our last day in Dubai. We took full advantage, spending the morning at the beach, then spent some time wandering the Marina District and relaxing.
Read MoreTuesday was our last full day in Dubai. We had a couple of things planned, but the goal for the last couple of days of the trip were to relax, enjoy the sunshine and prepare for the long trip home.
Read MoreAfter an amazing few days at the races, we were wrapping up our time in Abu Dhabi, and heading back to Dubai for a couple of days before our trip was ending. In the morning we visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, before taking the bus back to Dubai. We were staying in the Dubai Marina district for our last couple of nights, to experience the other extreme from the earlier part of our stay in Dubai.
Read MoreIt was finally here - race day at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix! We were all in for a full day of racing, with hopes of a double Hamilton win and Championship. We didn't get everything we were hoping for, but it ended up being an amazing day all the same.
Read MoreSaturday was Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix! We decided to split the day between sight seeing and the race, so we had a bit of a later start. We stopped by the Abu Dhabi Heritage Village and walked along the sea-front Corniche before taking a taxi to the Circuit. We walked the race track during the first qualifying session, enjoyed an air show by the UAE Air Force and finally watched as Lewis Hamilton took pole position for Sunday's race!
Read MoreThis ended up being a huge post - you were warned! Friday was our first full day at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix! Friday is a practice day for the drivers, which gave us about 3 hours of time at the track watching the action. The first session was in the early afternoon, and the second at the same time the race will start on Sunday. We also managed to walk around a lot of the track, and checked out the Yas Marina and the crazy Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi Hotel.
Read MoreToday was our last day in Dubai for this part of the trip, as we were headed off to Abu Dhabi first thing Thursday morning in order to take in the F1 race! We took the bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, then eventually headed out to Yas Island to the race circuit for the Pit Lane Walk.
Read MoreOur third day in Dubai was quite an interesting one. We spent the morning at the Jumeirah Mosque, where we got a tour and received an interesting talk on Islam, the local culture and what the various aspects of their lives are really like. It was fascinating. In the early afternoon we headed over to the Jumeirah Souk to wander and have lunch, then spent some time on the beach near the Burj Al Arab. After chilling at the hotel for the late afternoon, we headed out in the evening, back to Dubai Creek and the old souqs to experience things at night.
Read MoreOur second day in Dubai was a full one. We got out pretty early and explored the older part of the city around Dubai Creek over the morning. We explored the souks and spent time on the Creek. In the afternoon and evening we joined a tour that took us out into the desert in Land Cruisers for some dune driving, and traditional Arabian entertainment. It was a really fun evening.
Read MoreJustine turned 40 this year, and my surprise to her was a big trip. Justine has been a big Formula 1 fan for a number of years, so I decided we should go to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season. Given that we were going to travel so far, it made sense to make it a bigger trip, and spend some time in Dubai as well.
This trip will get split up over a number of posts as we explore these two cities in the UAE.
Read MoreI purchased a new camera recently, and Reifel seemed like the perfect place to try it out.
Read MoreMy last stop on this trip was a quick one, back to France and the city of Nantes. It was a full day of work, with one evening to explore before finally heading home.
Read MoreOn my way to visit a customer in Wales, I drove pretty close to Stonehenge. As it was a nice Sunday afternoon, I decided to break up my trip, and stop in for a visit. It had been a number of years since my last trip, and how things had changed!
Read MoreI had one day to spend doing touristy things while in Europe, so I decided to spend my day by taking the train out to Carcassonne. The fortified city consists essentially of a concentric design of two outer walls with 53 towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". It's a spectacular place, and I enjoyed spending the day exploring it.
Read MoreThe past couple of weeks I've been traveling in Europe. The first week was in the office in Toulouse, which meant all work and no play. I promise the posts get more interesting as we go...
Read MoreWe tackled another epic local hike this weekend, hiking up to Garibaldi Lake - along with what seemed like the rest of the city of Vancouver. It's a beautiful spot, but way too busy to make it worth the effort.
Read MoreWe enjoyed our hike last weekend so much, that we decided to go back for more! We changed the trail this time, and did the slightly shorter Half Note Trail instead.
Read MoreWe had decided earlier in the week to do a hike at Whistler on Sunday. The weather didn't really behave, but we made the best of it!
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