Because Dubai is an architect's playground, we rented a car for the day so we could see the buildings and all of their glory.

The Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, currently has 174 floors and is adding on to an undetermined number of floors. The Burj Al Arab is touted as the world's only 7 star hotel. An island was built especially for this establishment, which costs a mere $3,000 USD per night for a room. The helipad near the top of the building is used for many of the Nike commercials where you see Tiger Woods teeing off into space or the Williams sisters smacking a tennis ball for miles. Those are two of the most notable, but really, all of the buildings are pretty amazing to look at.

We hit the road for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates' capital. The palaces in the capital city are incredible. Even those that are unmarked (apparently a nobody lives there) are staggering.

The beach is beautiful as well, with white sand and emerald water, but be careful not to burn your feet on the sand! Lance and I decided to take in the beach one last time, opting for the public beach. Since women and children have their own designated beach, there were only a few female tourists at this beach. Most of the beach-goers were local men. I generally don't feel uncomfortable in my bathing suit, but this was not the case today. I felt as though the Muslim men were looking at me like I was the biggest hussie on earth, despite wearing a conservative bathing suit.

Friday is the Muslim holy day, so most of the establishments were closed. Consequently, we made our way back to Dubai a bit early to check out Ski Dubai!

When we rented the car for the day, we agreed that Lance would pay for the rental and I would pay for the gas, without even thinking about where we were. When we got to the gas pump, I was pleasantly surprised to find that gasoline is approximately $1/gallon. I made a great deal!