On our way home! via Dubai, UAE

Day Twenty-Three: January 7th

We get up in the morning and go downstairs to eat breakfast, in a fancy courtyard, and then go out to the biggest mall in the world to find tickets to go to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Sadly it cost $100 each! So we couldn't do it. Instead, we went to one of the markets, which was especially fun, how all of the merchants kept telling us to buy things, and putting things on us telling us to buy them. I got one of those Arabian lamps (the genie kind), mom spent $100 on a full belly-dancer kind of suit for Amaia, and dad bought a bunch of cool plates. Then we went to an awesome restaurant where we got some of the local food and some delicious juices. Then we went to another market that sold spices and mom bought sumac and we ate lots of dates. After walking through that one we went home and got in the pool. Then we went to a fancy restaurant for dinner overlooking the fountains of Burj Khalifa and watched the Guinness book of World Records new year’s lightshow on the Burj Khalifa. It’s the biggest LED display in the world and it’s on the face of the building. My mom actually got us a hotel room overlooking the burj because she knew I wanted to see it so bad. There was also this amazing fountain light show that starts every 1/ 2 hour and the fountains dance to the music that’s playing. Very late at night, we went home.

Day Twenty-Two: January 8th

Today we go home! We get up very early, eat breakfast,and go to the airport. We go through security, which takes forever, and finally get onto the plane. It’s another sixteen-hour flight, but the entire time it was light out, so I couldn't sleep. Instead, I worked on writing what you are reading right now. When we get back to Santa Cruz, Dad made us stay up until 6:00 so we would get onto the right time zones faster. It was torture! We collapsed before we even got to bed.

The End