News from Lauren Sutehall from Dubai

From those of you who don't hear from Uncle Martin's granddaughter Lauren--here is her latest message from Dubai!!

Greetings from Dubai!

We had a fantastic port visit to Dubai, UAE- it was my favorite port visit yet! The first day we visited a giant outdoor mall that is created to look like an old Arab fort. It is extremely expensive there but they offer just about any food you can imagine (we had French Polynesian for dinner). That mall, called the Madriat Jumeirah, is next to the only hotel in the world that is rated at 7 stars! The hotel requires an advanced fee and registration- just to see inside the lobby! Needless to say, we didn’t see the inside. (see pix of outside)

The next day we went to the “Mall of the Emirates” where we went skiing! This mall has a giant indoor winter wonderland with a ski slope, ski lift and sledding hill. The slope wasn’t very crowded and it was fun skiing to blasting music and no lift line! After a morning on the slope, we went off-roading on the sand dunes! We drove about half way to Oman to the middle of the desert. Our crazy driver laughed at us and told us we “screech like chickens” when the RV was falling sideways down the dunes. Then we rode camels and had a Middle Eastern BBQ with belly dancers and hooka at a campsite in the desert. It was an amazing day!

In the picture of the sunset over the dunes, you can see a large tower that will be the tallest building in the world when it is finished this year. I hope I have the chance to return and explore more of Dubai one day. We are back at sea now and celebrated St. Patty’s Day with non-alcoholic beer and Irish food! I hope everything is going well for you and that you have a Happy Easter!

Lauren

ENS Lauren Sutehall USS Hopper (DDG 70) Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer