Some morning exercise

This morning, I decided to get out for a walk to the beach. From our apartment, you just cross the bridge over the Dubai Marina, take a stroll down The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence, and choose where you'd like to cross the street to enter the beach. (I didn't take this picture...you'll see why in a minute).

So, off we went, across the bridge, down The Walk, into Starbucks for a quick fruit salad and strawberry smoothie, and across the street to the beach. My intentions were to walk on the sand with Colin so he could find some shells and watch the waves from a safe distance. Unfortunately, people park on the sand so it's quite rocky and hard on the feet. We walked further down the hill to the softer sand closer to the water.

Colin totally freaked.

I sort of anticipated this, but was really hoping he wouldn't since we didn't have swimsuits or towels. I could have turned around, trudged up the hill and back to the stroller with a screaming child, but I decided to try another route. We went straight to the water and sat down in the surf...jean shorts and all. He clung to me for a few minutes, then his little body relaxed and he started giggling at the waves, especially when they would hit us. We stayed until his little cheeks were rosy red.

I spent the walk to the top of the beach thinking of how we would have missed such a fun time if I was worried about getting my clothes wet and sandy. And boy were we sandy.

I figured that hailing a taxi was out of the question, but one stopped in front of me as I waited to cross the street. He rolled down his window, looked at us for a second, then said "Sorry, too many problems." I had to laugh.

We found a women's bathroom and I hoped to rinse off as much as possible so we could walk home without anyone staring. Guess what...the sinks were out of order. And there were no other bathrooms nearby. Paper towels did the trick.

So, we went back down The Walk, across the bridge, and to the apartment...in wet, sandy, jeans and 102 degree weather.

Quite a way to get my exercise.