Dubai 100 Dirham Challenge
Red Team: Larry, Renee, Dani, and Elle Hartshorn
Itinerary:
• Visit the animals at Pets Habitat
• Explore Safa Park
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Ride bikes to Umm Suqeim Beach and fly a kite
Stop #1 Pets Habitat
We started our morning off by going to Pets Habitat in Al Barsha. It was smaller than we expected but they still had a few animals – 5 cats and 5 dogs, hamsters, birds, snakes, even a hedgehog and a few other things. Dani and Elle would have liked to hold the Pug, but we were told no. We spent about 30 minutes in the store looking at the animals and sticking our fingers in the cages so the dogs could lick our fingers.
Elle “I loved the little pug licking my fingers.”
Dani “I liked playing with the grey kitty through the glass. He had such cute eyes.”
Stop #2 Safa Park
After leaving the pet shop we headed down Sheikh Zayed Road to Safa Park. This was our first visit and we weren’t sure what to expect. Parking was easy, but that was probably because it was early on a Friday. We decided to explore as much of the park as we could. As we entered the park we saw a vendor selling cotton candy… a big family favorite. We were already loving this park! As we ate our cotton candy we explored the gardens and waterfalls in the middle and then headed towards the maze. Every year for Halloween we always went to a cornfield maze in Connecticut so we were excite to check out the maze here. We were a bit disappointed by this maze, but it was still fun running through it. After the maze the girls climbed on a very cool rope structure. From the top they could see a zip line in the distance. We all ran over to the zip line. It was so nice that the park wasn’t crowded. We must have spent an hour going back and forth on the zip line.
It was hard to leave the zip line, but we wanted to explore more of the park. We decided to head down to the other end, near Al Wasl Road. On the way the girls spotted an ice cream man. We bought some ice cream and continued on our walk. It was such a beautiful day. In the distance we could see bouncers. It was a dilemma… try out the boats on the pond or check out the bouncers. We flipped for it and the bouncers it was. There was a big slide, a climbing wall, an obstacle course type thing and a bounce house. Dani and Elle had a blast going up and down the slide and helping other kids get up to the top. They tried out the climbing wall too but it wasn’t as much fun. They jumped around for about an hour then decided to move on. We walked around the Ferris wheel and other attractions. We will have to come back in the evening sometime when those are running.
We loved Safa Park. It will definitely become a regular destination for us. The next time we will bring a blanket and a picnic lunch.
Elle “It was a long walk around the park, we kinda got lost. It was fun at the end going on the inflatables. Oh and I loved that my mom and dad went on the zip line too!”
Dani “I liked that we had such a nice day. It was awesome to see the ice cream man and cotton candy man.”
Having a blast on the zip line.
Elle in the maze. A nice view of some of the gardens in Safa park.
Eating cotton candy. It was so yummy.
Dani chilling out in the sun. A picture of the cityscape from the park - the tall building is Burj Dubai.
Stop #3 Lunch
After Safa Park we drove to a local restaurant just a block from our villa in Umm Suqeim 3. Unfortunately it wasn’t open. With no hours posted we weren’t sure if they would be open later or not, but we were planning to try again at dinnertime. We ended up going home for lunch and a rest before our next adventure.
Singing a Taylor Swift tune while driving around town. We were having a good time!
Stop #4 Umm Suqeim Beach
Around 5:00pm got on our bikes and set out for Umm Suqeim beach with our kite in a backpack. It took less then 10 minutes to get to the beach. We parked our bikes in the sand and unpacked our kite. The wind was perfect for kite flying. We hadn’t realized this was the first time that our girls had flown a kite. We had an amazing time! We all took turns holding the kite, making it flap in the wind and running up and down the beach with it. Dani and Elle couldn’t stop giggling. Who knew that kite flying could be such fun. We named the kite “Edward” from Twighlight.
Elle “It was windy and nice and beautiful. It was the funnest activity of the day and I liked it the most.”
Dani “I had never flown a kite before. I thought it was a LOT, a LOT, a LOT of fun and I can’t wait to do it again. The wind is so good at the beach that kite flying is a natural for it.
Stop #5 Dinner
We decided to try the local restaurant again. It was a bit un-nerving because only men were there – a ton of taxi drivers. We decided to be brave and walked up to the outside counter where we could see chicken on a vertical rotisserie. We asked for 4 of those as we pointed. When they were making the first one we noticed they added lettuce and tomatos so we changed our order to 1 with veggies and 3 without. The sandwiches were to DIE FOR! They were delicious. We will definitely make this a regular stop.
Elle “I wouldn’t try the sandwich, but everyone else really liked them.”
Dani “You gotta be brave to walk up to a restaurant like that and we were! The sandwiches were great but the sauce was a little spicy.”
Summary
We had such a great day. Doing this gave us an excuse to go out for a whole day and try new things. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and only go to the places that you know. It was also eye opening to pay attention to how much we were spending. I can’t believe that we had a whole day of fun on only 90Dhs.
And how much did our day cost?
Pets Habitat 0
Safa Park - entry free 12
cotton candy 10
ice cream 10
bouncers 40
Lunch 18
Beach 0
Total 90Dhs
