A trip to the mall, but not to shop!

In Dubai, you often hear people say that they spent a weekend morning or afternoon at one of the various malls. Most of the malls here are very nice and offer lots of really great shopping options. However, the malls aren't only for shopping. The entertainment at most of these places is endless.

Yesterday afternoon we had planned on taking a trip to the beach (we still haven't had a beach day since being here) but then decided that it was still a little too hot outside. So instead we ventured out to the Dubai Mall. This is the biggest (and nicest in my opinion) mall in Dubai and is right next door to the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world).

We now always leave the stroller at home and Angela is happy to ride through the mall in a cuddle cart. All of the malls have these little cars - and Angela loves riding around the mall in them. They also offer 'double' cars for two kids and have some that have tv screens built into the steering wheel. My favorite part is the shopping back on the back that is great for storing the diaper bag and all of our purchases.

Our first stop at the mall yesterday was the aquarium tunnel. They've built a large tank that is visible from three levels of the mall shopping area and includes a tunnel that snakes through the tank. As soon as we approached the aquarium Angela started pointing and yelling 'fishy fishy'. She loves seeing fish!



After the aquarium we walked over to the Waterfall which is a massive indoor waterfall with an interesting display of divers. We then made our way to the train ride and Angela and Bonnie took a short ride around one section of the mall. Angela was thrilled to climb into the train car but then grew really antsy when the train didn't start moving fast enough (the conductor was taking a long break). When the train finally started moving she seemed shocked, and then had the biggest smile on her face.







The final stop at the mall was for dinner. We opted for Rainforest Cafe so that Angela would be entertained. The food was nothing special but the look on Angelas face when the gorillas nearby started moving and making noises was priceless. She is working on perfecting her monkey noise and was more than happy to imitate the gorillas that were dancing by our table!





We left the mall having made only one purchase - a stuffed monkey that makes noises and dances. Now Rich is just waiting until Angela is big enough for ski's so that he can take her to the indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates!