A day in the desert

Dune bashing is one of the unique activities that people love to do while visiting Doha. Riding the sand dunes in a Land Cruiser is fun, exciting, and a little scary at times. Although Sam thought the highway drive to get to the desert was even more scary!

Climbing dunes is harder than it looks!

Spending a day in the desert never gets old: riding camels, looking at the blue-green Gulf, climbing the dunes, splashing in the water, eating traditional kebabs and hummus, napping on the majlis cushions. It is warm and sunny and so-o-o relaxing!

Hanging out with friends

at Villaggio Mall

This week and next, Tim , Max, and Simon are on a semester break from school. But instead of going away without Lisa (who is not on break for 3 more weeks), we decided to invite some friends to come hang out here in Doha. After a 24 hour delay because of an east coast blizzard, Sam and Liana arrived on the weekend from Nova Scotia.

eating Arabic bread at an Iraqi restaurant

So far their time has been somewhat mundane as they adjust to the time difference. Malls, restaurants, schools, basketball practice, city traffic will pale in comparison to a day on Desert Safari tomorrow!

Simon and Sam ready for go-karting

Life Interupted

On Thursday evening we were looking forward to spending the weekend with friends from Abu Dhabi. Deanna and Paul are from Bridgewater and moved to the UAE in August 2013. When we picked them up at the airport here in Doha we had no idea how different our weekend would turn out.....

Max played an evening basketball game on Thursday and had a stellar start to his school basketball season (shooting 100% free throws, "buzzer beater" to win the game!). At basketball practice on Friday afternoon his season came to a standstill.

He fell and broke his arm. It was a green stick fracture of the radius, very near his wrist.

The Xray Technician was a referee for Qatar Basketball Federation -- they recognized each other.

Lisa stayed with Max in the hospital overnight while Simon and Tim played hosts to our guests.....

On Saturday morning Max had surgery to set the arm and put in one pin.  The surgery lasted just 20 minutes and the time in the Recovery Room was quite fun!

The photo that received 60+ Likes on FaceBook!!

After spending the better part of the day sleeping, Max was discharged home with very little pain.

We said goodbye to Deanna and Paul and wondered how many other vacations included seeing the local hospital and health care system in action!

PARIS !!

Christmas lights on Champs Elysees

At the beginning of our Winter Break we left the warm Doha scenery and headed north to Paris! Tim and Lisa were last in Paris 16 years ago and have been wanting to take Max and Simon. This was a five day trip on our way home to Nova Scotia.

Except for the cold, the Christmas season was a beautiful time to be in Paris -- fewer tourists, lots of lights and special events. We took an evening bus tour to view the Christmas lights in the city. So beautiful! But, of course, we also made sure there was educational value!

with DaVinci's Mona Lisa at the Louvre

We went to the usual tourist sights: the Louvre, the Pompidou Centre (modern art), L'Orangerie (Monet's Water Lillies), Sacre Coeur Basilica, Notre Dame Cathedral, Les Invalides (Napoleon's Tomb), Rodin Garden, Place de la Concorde. And we ate in many French cafe and bistros.

near Omaha Beach in Normandy

One day we took a high speed train to Caen in Northern France and joined a day tour of the Beaches of Normandy. Max is doing an historical investigation of the Battle of Caen so this was a field trip to give him context for his paper.

 Learning about D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy was significant for all of us. We visited several beaches where British, American, and Canadian troops landed on June 6, 1944.

top of Eiffel Tower overlooking River Seine

One of our Paris highlights was going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We joined a tour group and had no wait time at all. We spent an hour looking at the view and then climbed down the 700 steps to the bottom. It was a fun trip!