Pre-Christmas vacation to Sir Bani Yas Island

Waiting for ferry

Since the kids got out of school pretty early (last day was Thursday, December 16th), we decided to head away for a little mini-vacation prior to my family arriving for the holiday.  So off we went to Sir Bani Yas Island.  It's an wildlife preserve island on the Arabian Gulf (a.k.a. Persian Gulf to those on the other side of the gulf).  It used to be a royal wildlife preserve (there is still a royal residence on the island) but it has been opened up to the public over the past few years.  They have also recently discovered a Christian monastery dating back to the 5th or 6th century (details, schmetails).

Boarding ferry

Anna was popular and made
many new friends!

Anna's deluxe location...
 in the bathroom!

We drove from Abu Dhabi for about 2 1/2 hours east along the coast (towards Saudi Arabia and Qatar)  to the ferry terminal.  We unloaded our bags and parked the minivan and didn't see it until our vacation was over several days later.  The ferry took about 20 minutes and then we hopped a bus to our hotel.  We had adjoining rooms and, as usual, Anna got one of the bathrooms to sleep in.  I'm so used to our kids sleeping in closets, bathrooms, whatever quiet room will hold a crib that I forget that this might be a little unusual so I took a picture of her pretty mahogany crib.....next to the toilet!

Our days were spent frolicking on the beach, collecting the many, many seashells on the shore, climbing on the break, playing on the great little playground at the hotel.  The pool beckoned the big kids one day but it was really too cold the other days (we discovered one flaw of the hotel is that it didn't have a hot-tub - we could have used that!).  We also had the pleasure of viewing several truly spectacular sunsets (my point and shoot camera doesn't really do it justice!).

We also enjoyed few big organized outings.  A "mountain" biking trip (but on a road) got our legs and hearts pumping a bit.  We did see some wildlife on our trip.  Jane gets *huge* kudos on this trip.  The smallest bikes they had were a little on the large side for Jane (but just right for Regan).  Jane tried it and was able to cycle along okay but fell when she tried to stop.  I could tell that she really didn't want to ride the bike and was a little scared but she bravely hopped back on and kept at it.  She got the hang of it and did really great the whole ride.  Anna and Meredith were in a little trailer that Jake towed behind his bike.  We had a guide and a French family with a 5-year old little girl and the grandparents came along, too.

We also went on a safari drive to see the animals.  The island has gazelles, oryx, giraffe, cheetah, hyenas, ostriches (and more that I am probably forgetting).  You can also kayak and snorkel but our kids were too young for that outing.  Jake and I were both able to get out for a run (separately) and enjoy the scenery.

Hotel staff singing carols
(with Emirate leaders
on wall behind)

Even though we're in a Muslim country, the hotel still had  a Christmas tree up and we were there for the lighting ceremony with carols by some of the staff.  That was fun for us and the girls.  Another really enjoyable part of this trip was that we got to know a few Emirati families a bit.  A few families were quite taken with our girls (especially Anna!) and they always wanted to hold her or give her candy.  She rode a good bit of the time on the ferry with another family - she was passed around a bit from family member to family member and didn't seem to mind when a woman in an abaya (black covered dress) held her and cooed at her as well.

All in all a very nice vacation and a destination we definitely recommend to others in Abu Dhabi only a short drive away.