Jebel Ali Beach Club

This weekend, we tried out one of the local beach clubs. You can either join on a yearly basis or pay a day fee, which included lunch. The Jebel Ali Golf & Beach Resort is 20 minutes from our home, heading towards Abu Dhabi. It is at the base of the second palm development - Palm Jebel Ali, which has completed the ground work and will now start building structures.

The beach was beautiful, the water was warm...it really felt like we were on vacation for a day.


White sandy beach.

Checking out the Palm Jebel Ali.

Resident camel.

As close as I was going to get.

Just relaxing.

New Car

2 test drives, 10 brochures, 50 sms and we have our new car!
Jeff is off to work.

Hong Kong

With our flights already booked to Singapore, Jeff was requested to go to a meeting in Hong Kong in the middle of the week that we were in Singapore. Since they are relatively close, we decided to checkout Hong Kong for two nights.

What a city! There isn't an inch that hasn't been built on. They have a great metro that takes you from Hong Kong Island, where we stayed, to the mainland in a tunnel. Both sides are chock-a-block full of sky scrapers separated by an active harbour.

It was quite grey for the first day, then rained most of the second. However, you can get around most of the city via underground walkways. We enjoyed Hong Kong at night. Most of the building have some sort of neon advertising on it, which makes for an incredible skyline. On the second night, we happened to be walking along the harbour when the Symphony of Lights started. We were thinking fireworks but only in Hong Kong were there 20 to 30 buildings, which were outfitted with laser beams and iluminated their neon building lights to music that was broadcasted around the harbour. It was interesting.


Fruity drink at the InterContinental.

Best view in the city from their lobby. Thanks, V for the travel tip.

Bruce Lee statue on the Avenue of Stars.

Buildings everywhere.

We stayed at the JW Marriot on Hong Kong Island. Shortest of the three building with the white band on the top.

In the middle of the city, there is a huge park, where I found flamingos.

Habour promenade.

Symphony of Lights.

Hong Kong at night.

Singapore

Jeff had some meetings to attend to in Singapore and it was looking like he would need to be there for a full week, so we tied in both weekends to make it a mini holiday.

Singapore is much greener than Dubai and is very clean. It was incredibly humid and rained every day...poured. We still managed to get out and explore the city, mostly by foot.

We went to the Long Bar, where the famous Singapore Sling drink was created and on our last night went to a club that was located on the 70th floor of our hotel.


View from our balcony.

We walked along Singapore River, which is lined with restaurants.





My favorite past time.

Pit stop.



Taking his beer seriously.

The now famous Singapore Sling.

Chicken wings before heading to the Club on the 70th floor.

Dubai Desert Home

Our new home is located in the Springs. It is a master planned community with man-made lakes, walking trails and probably the most greenery you will find in Dubai - which doesn't meant a lot. We will continue to update, as we build our new home.


Jeff watering our street tree - he enjoys the fact that ours is the biggest on the block.

Living Room



Kitchen - We had to purchase the appliances.

Laundry Room

Master Bedroom

Backyard

Phuket, Thailand

Shortly after Jeff returned to Dubai, he had to get back on a plane and head to their resort in Thailand. We managed to find great flights using points for me, so I joined him for 10 days in Phuket.

While Jeff had to work most days, we still managed to enjoy great Thai food, golf a few new courses and relax on his days off. I busied myself bargaining at many of the Phuket markets, relaxing by the pool and enjoyed the spa at the resort.

This was not a proud Iwasaki trip...we quite literally only took the four, not very interesting photos below. Sorry.

Seattle and Area

It just so happened that the Toronto Blue Jays were playing against the Seattle Mariners, the weekend following our wedding, which was something Jeff had always wanted to see. So we left Sunday morning, only to encounter a 2 hour wait at the border. We managed to get there for the last few innings, which was still enjoyable since it was a beautiful afternoon.

We stayed in Seattle for one night, then went by ferry to the Olympic Peninsula to golf. We found a great inn on Bainbridge Island for the night, then hit the outlet mall in the morning. We squeezed one last round of golf in before heading back to Vancouver.

Winding Down on Mayne

We enjoyed a few more relaxing days on Mayne, after the wedding. The killer whales came to bid us farewell, as we left Village Bay... again it was perfect.


Molly is wiped out.

Hanging out at Lighthouse Park. It is Lisa and Rob's last day on Mayne.

Aisha is warming up to Molly.

Definitely comfortable now.

Soaking up some sun.

Molly and Kuro.

Gayle looking good.

Enjoying the new stairs.

Jeff and Aisha are bonding.

Aisha wants to take the dogs for a walk.

Picture perfect.

The crazies.

Lee and Aisha.

Have dinner on the new stairs. They are great!

High tide. The stairs are safe.

From the ferry in Village Bay.

Would have loved to be on that sail boat.

Good bye to Lighthouse Park. Until next summer.