The Emerald City

"Well, you don't know what we can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride" - Steppenwolf

Check out this video of the little city that has been our home the last 3 years.

Getting High

"I'm learning to fly around the clouds
But what goes up must come down" - Tom Petty

Normally I write about what is going on with our family.  I figure that people reading this blog are here to catch up with us so I usually don't re-post content or links to other sites.  If someone wanted to read about what other people are doing, or the latest cool viral stuff on the internet, they would go look there instead of here.

But, sometimes I see something really neat and just feel like sharing.  I saw this video yesterday and thought it was awesome.  I noticed these guys are all pretty young... college-age guys.  I'm probably old enough now that either:

•  I would be wise enough to think this is a bad idea
• My body would complain because it isn't in good enough shape
• The thought of my kids being father-less would discourage me

Part of me though, is still young enough to think that I would just say "what the heck!" and jump.

This video made me think of some other ones I've seen recently.  If you haven't seen them already, you should.

A room with a view

"Such a feelin's comin' over me
There is wonder in 'most ev'ry thing I see
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream" - The Carpenters

This last week I took Yvonne's parents to the Burj Khalifa (aka: The Tallest Building in the World).  They don't let you go all the way to the top.  In fact, are only able to go up about 2/3rds of the way... but it was still a lot of fun and quite impressive (and still the highest public observation point in the world).



I won't bore you with all the facts, but here are a couple of pics of our adventures on the tower of babel.

A cool scale model at the base of the tower

Directly beneath the tallest building is.... the largest mall in the world

With Yvonne's mom at the lookout point  She is normally scared to death of heights.  I think her fascination won out over her fears (and the glass enclosure helped:) 

We could see the man made world islands from the lookout.

Overlooking normal sized skyscrapers (still very tall) on Sheikh Zayed Road.

We could also see the man-made Palm Islands in the distance

They love their Sheikhs here

Does this even look real?  Overlooking the largest water fountain area.

They had a gold vending machine at the top.  The least expensive amount of gold you could purchase was about $250.  

Sunset over the Atlantis Resort on the Palm Islands

View at night