“The beach, the beach, the soft and sandy beach! Life is a ball at the beach.”
These are the words to a song my kids love. And we couldn’t agree more. I really think beach vacations are amazing and Dubai did not disappoint. We stayed at The Hilton Residences right on Jumeriah Beach. I love when we are able to rent an apartment for our vacations. It is so nice to be able to buy groceries and have food to pack and cook.

Of course with all Dubai has to offer we didn’t spend ALL our time at the beach soaking up the sun and relaxing by the water. James was able to take the older girls to visit Jumeriah Mosque for a tour. The four girls thought it was cool to go inside and see a different culture. They learned a lot and education is always a good thing. We saw the fountain show outside the Burj Khalifa, which was beautiful if you are there at night. Of course we had to shop at both The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates, and if we are out shopping we might as well grab dinner. We had heard rumors of every American restaurant being there but still we were surprised that pretty much anything you wanted could be found.

We took a day away from the sand and went to the Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark. The slides were good especially the one that James and Caitlyn raved about called Poseidon’s Revenge where you go inside a clear column and stand there until the floor opens and drops you straight down. Or how about The Leap of Faith that all the kids and James went on, except Mark and Holli, where you go through a shark tank on the slide. So yes some of the slides were cool but this Texas family still loves Schlitterbahn best of all.

On the way home from the Waterpark we took the monorail since the taxi line was huge. It said the monorail ended under a mall so we thought it would be perfect. We assumed we could walk out of the mall and grab a couple of taxis back to the apartment. Well the signs didn’t tell anybody that the mall wasn’t constructed yet so it dumped you in a deserted construction zone along the freeway. We only had to walk about an hour as it got dark till we found a spot to cross the freeway and hail a couple taxis.

Of course no trip to the Middle East is complete without a camel ride. Lucky for us there was one right on our beach so I could lay on my chair tanning while everyone took a camel ride. Yes I even rode 😉 I am pretty sure I could live in Dubai although the public bathrooms would take a lot to get used to……..