National's Day 2009

THIS POSTED A DAY LATE...SORRY...NATIONAL'S DAY WAS YESTERDAY. Today in Dubai marks the 38th year that the emirates came together to make it the United Arab Emirates. That is as old as Jon!! How crazy is that?? So, we were lucky enough to have the BIG hometown parade in our "neck of the woods" on the Burj boulevard right down the street one block!! A bunch of us grabbed our kids & strollers, headed to the boulevard, and didn't know what the heck to expect!! Well, it was something else. There were a few floats, jumping clowns, camels, big blow up balloons (like HUGE BLIMPS), all of the fire, police, and civil defense forms of transportation, bag pipes and so much more!! They brought in bleacher stands in one area and the first few rows were lined with GORGEOUS dining room chairs fancier that any I've ever seen with HUGE rose arrangements on the tables in front of the chairs. It was like a fancy reception, outside, on the street. All of this took days to set up and we have been watching the huge production. The parade lasted 45 minutes and that's it!! Tear down was right after from about 5:00p.m. onwards. (Last night after ladies night out...us gals passed the bleacher tear down at 1:00 am and there were TONS of workers still on site!) They work around the clock in this country and go to the extreme for everything. It was a fun parade and beautiful day outside. Some of the pictures will be ones we hold on forever. Especially, since we were literally 'parked' with our strollers right across from the Burj Dubai. It made for a great backdrop. Enjoy the slide show...I am sharing quite a few!!