valentine's day

serge had to work in the morning, so we were unable to go to ajman as planned, but that's okay because we had a lovely afternoon 5 minutes from our house. 

we went back to the cove rotana, which seemed to be in full swing this week. instead of crappy cappuccino at the lobby cafe, we had lunch at their restaurant "cinnamon" out on the terrace. a beautiful day - warm, but breezy. perfect temperature. after taking one look at the buffet, we decided to go for it instead of ordering a la carte. there were so many choices, and it was overall pretty good. (and cheaper than the hilton!) a buffet is still a buffet, but this one was nicely presented and had a huge variety, better than what we've seen (and remember) from hilton and al hamra. and julian even had a delicious fresh mango juice. yum.

so after stuffing our faces, we decided to walk on down to the beach and let julian play in the sand. he had a ball (as usual) and the german couple who were sitting next to us in the restaurant gave him some shells they had collected when we saw them on the beach.

julian combined collecting shells with picking the rocks out of the sand (and tried to give them to the hotel employee). that kid's always cleaning! 

once we got in the car to go home, julian fell asleep in 5 seconds, so we went on a leisurely drive of RAK. we drove down by the waterfront (called the corniche here) and saw all the cafes preparing for evening business. i'm tempted one day to try the "al pacino" cafe, just because i think it's hilarious. (do you think they serve an "al cap-pacino?") 

we ended up down some side street and found an AMAZING antiques shop. they had tons of really neat stuff from the area, including pottery, dishes, old telephones, beautiful old phonographs (in working condition, apparently) and a ton of wooden doors. some had been made into tables, others were still just doors. the prices seemed quite reasonable. as for the authenticity - i guess unless you're an expert, you just never know, although at least the pricing wasn't highway robbery. it will be a place for our guests to explore when you come here!

so a lovely valentine's day for our little family! (p.s. the web gallery has been updated.)