Thanksgiving in RAK

Last weekend, we went to Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) to celebrate Thanksgiving. RAK is another one of the seven emirates in the UAE, about an hour away from Dubai. No one really celebrates Thanksgiving here and Nick didn't even get the day off, although he used a vacation day so we could go on our weekend getaway. The kids did get the day off of school, but only because they go to an American school. We pretty much just sat on the beach and ate. It was relaxing, especially with no turkey to cook. We were hoping that the Hilton would have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but no such luck. Here are some pictures:

Cole holding a starfish that he found under a rock - just like Patrick!

Cole on the waterslide. Naturally, both boys prefered the waterslide over the beach.

Bret and Cole in the Persian, or Arabian (as they call it here), Gulf.

Bret trying to catch crabs on the rocks.

Drew didn't like the beach that much. It's not a good place for thumb suckers who crawl. He would suck his thumb, crawl around in the sand with a wet thumb and then try to suck his thumb again. You get the idea.

Drew finally taking a rest - pooped from spitting out all that sand.

Big boys in the pool.

One highlight of the weekend was when Cole locked himself in the bathroom. The door knob was broken so we had to call maintenance to come fix it. Two Indian men showed up and worked a couple minutes to try and open the door. I don't think they realized that someone was in the bathroom (Cole was surprisingly calm through the ordeal) because when I asked Cole if he was OK both guys turned to me, with a little panic in their eyes and said in unison "No problem, Ma'am." It was so funny because that is their (all Indian workers) response to EVERYTHING, and they said it in perfect unison. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. Anyway, after about five minutes, they knocked down the door and Cole was free.

Overall it was a nice weekend - didn't feel like Thanksgiving though.