Breakfast at the hotel was quite nice and plentiful. Regardless of your culture/dietary needs you can find a wealth of options.
City Tour
Our half-day city tour started at 9 AM. Upon pickup we drove over to the beach, the driver said we had to wait 10 minutes and if we wanted to get out and walk around we could. The way it was told to us we thought it was that maybe we were switching vehicles and getting a guide and would stop further closer to the Burj Al Arab so we elected to stay on the bus. We did joke that wouldn’t it be funny if this was our stop to see it and we missed our opportunity to see it. Our guide joined us, Wael, and off we went. Yup you guessed it, that was our stop to see the beach, the Arabian Gulf and the Burj.
We chuckled and figured we can swing through on our own a different day. We started driving through the modern portion of the city and learned that the about the 7 Emirate cities. Dubai being 1 of them who is hosting the world expo in 2020 so they are building massively to hold the influx of 40 million visitors of to today to 180 million visitors during that time. So the new tallest building of the world will be ready for that time. Taller than the Burj by 100 meters or so.
We learned a lot about the Emirate people and Sheik Zayed who vowed to take care of his people once they discovered oil in the 70s transforming the lives of the people from primitively living to overnight millionaires. Cars are considered cheap as they don’t pay import fees or taxes but what is expensive are the license plates and status is shown by having a lower plate number. 1 and 2 are for the sheik and crown prince in each city but numbers after that are for sale in an auction style fashion. People paying upwards of 10+million for a plate number so the lower the number the more prestige it is. This made a fun little game throughout the rest of our trip while we were on the roads of who can find the lowest plate number. I won with spotting with plate number 14.
We stopped at the Jumeirah Mosque to wander about and then we stopped by the Dubai museum. We were there when a field trip go maybe 2nd graders were there. Those kids were off to the races to find the answers to the questions they had as an assignment. All had their iPads out to take pictures and to follow along. After the museum we took off on the boats to cross the creek to head to the souks.
Spice and Gold Souk
We started at the spice markets. Learned about the different spices than were set off to wander for about 30 minutes. The bag pushers were out, Kate Spade, Gucci, etc etc. one guy even though we said no kept wandering with us exclaiming “Oh my shop is just ahead you come”. We were able to shake him off and arrived back to our meeting point where most of the group was gathered. We had to wait a bit for some others who took their time coming back. While waiting this was the first time we felt the heat creep on us. If you keep moving even at a slow pace you don’t feel it but stand still at high noon you feel it. Good thing even though it was 104 was it was a dry heat so it wasn’t unbearable.
One word for the Gold Market is blinding! Whatever form in which you want gold they have it. They even have the world’s largest ring, beyond it being a circle I don’t know how you can call that thing a ring. It would take two of me to wear that around my waist. The bag people were here too and were slightly more pestering. We joked that they are the modern-day version of Aladdin sugar dates, sugar dates and figs, sugar dates and pistachios! Speaking of Aladdin when they say his name it’s Al Addin (al adean).
Burj Khalifa
After the Souks. We went back to our hotel and then grabbed an Uber (btw did we mention they have an Uber Chopper here in case you know you want to take a helicopter. We headed to the Armani hotel (located within the Burj Kalifa) to go to At.mosphere where we had booked ourselves high tea at 2. Tea for 2 and 2 for tea.
Once ushered into the lobby they directed us to the elevators down to floor C. From there we got into another elevator bank that was set for floors 112-154. Up to 123 we went and from there we decided down a spiral staircase to enter the restaurant. We were escorted to our table which was a window seat overlooking the fountains below.
We had our little kids moment of a few pics before we were told how high tea works. We start with a bottle of champagne. Then came the berries with a fresh whipped cream that was light as air. Topped with a 
sprig of fresh mint of course adorned with gold leaf. Next were the finger sandwiches, 8 small little delicate bites. Since I don’t eat fish or seafood they had doubled me up on the caprese and chicken salad version. All were amazing but the chicken salad was by far my favorite.
We spent time flipping through the large book of teas, and settled on a few that caught our eyes, while ordering the next course. Chicken for me, scallops for Cecilia. Our glasses of champagne never quite emptied as waiters were discreetly buzzing around to top you off, this way I can officially claim I only had one glass. 😊
Our main course arrived and it was not heavy at all leaving room for us to enjoy our tea and desert trays, of course they did offer us if we wanted a second bottle of bubbly, but we declined. Dessert tower is 
the best way to describe what they offered. Most had edible gold leaf on the items, Carmel, chocolate berries all with a whipped butter, mango, and a raspberry jam (which was heaven).
After all the wonderful treats we decided it was time to head out, but first we had to grab a pic on the spiral staircase. Heading out of the hotel we noticed their fleet of Rolls Royce’s to escort their guests wherever they would like to go.
Dubai Mall
We decided to stay on foot and see the Dubai mall. Following the signs it led us into the parking garage where all signs stopped and we had to wander a bit to find our way into the mall. Upon entering the mall saw a very large wall of fountains next to the plans and model of the new tallest building that will be completed in time for the 2020 expo.
Wandering though we discovered they have an official sized ice rink where kids were practicing their figure skating techniques, later we saw this group of guys in hockey skates doing spins and we were sure on their holds we were about to see someone injured. We heard that there is also a place to ski in the mall so we found information and inquired about where the skiing hills were that we’ve heard about. Information just said not in this mall. Okay, how far? Far. Well geez thanks 
for the info buddy.
We kept wandering and saw their aquarium and decided we wanted to go see and most importantly play with the otters. We got in line and laughed as we saw a derpy looking shark with a mean underbite. We got up to the front of the line and tried booking our tickets, only to find out the otter exhibit is closed for the day, its times are 2:30, 330 and 530 and it’s 6 now. (Of course this was printed nowhere). But we can offer you this experience for the same price. No we wanted to see the aquarium and he otters. We were quite disappointed.
We continued wandering about stopping to look upon some beautiful rugs, Cecilia said watch your step as we went in as there were rugs on the floor but isn’t that their purpose? Later we looked at the new SUV Tessa they had on display. This woman was in the drivers seat and we were oddly proud that she was in charge. She then stepped out and we wandered in, as if on cue the music started to play in the car. It’s a beautiful automobile with the largest windshield I’ve ever seen it reached way past our heads.As we got out we saw the woman who was in the car earlier customizing the vehicle and her partner buying it for her on the spot. No big deal just a $250k automobile.
We decided to head back and take the metro back to our hotel. The mall is not easy to navigate. We would see signs that say you are here but without context. The metro was a bit of a hike from the mall but thankfully we were able to play beat the heat and take the skyway.
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