Madonna in Abu Dhabi!!!

We got back to Saudi at the end of April and we pretty much spent the month of May here in Saudi doing the same old thing.  But, since both of our birthdays are in May we planned a trip to Abu Dhabi to go and see Madonna at the Du Arena on Yas Island.  She was playing on the 3rd and 4th of June.

Neither of us had been to Abu Dhabi so we decided to make a very long weekend of it and we went for 5 nights. We arrived the day before the concert.  The flight from Saudi is less than 2 hours.  It was such a nice change from the usual 24 hours it usually takes me to get home!

When we purchased the tickets back in March, there were three sections.  General admission, Golden Circle, and Grandstand seating (which was way at the back of the stadium.)  Both the general admission and the golden circle were standing room only.  The problem was that even though we bought the tickets the day after they announced a second date for Madonna, they were sold out of the basic Golden Circle tickets so if we wanted Golden Circle we had to purchase a special package which was twice the price and basically the only extra thing that we got was early entry.  We decided to call it our birthday presents and an anniversary present and we spent the extra money to get the better seats. (Or area rather, since there were no seats to speak of.)  

We really couldn't have cared less about early entry (especially since Madonna showed up totally late) but we went early anyway so we could get our special "extras" which came with the package.  (It was a really crappy watch... Nicole... guess what mommy is bringing you home!!)  Anyway, while we were waiting to get let in, we would occasionally hear people in line start to cheer and we couldn't figure out why.  About every ten minutes or so, someone would scream and clap and we would look and we couldn't figure out what they were getting so excited about.  

Eventually, we saw this woman with an iPad going down the line.  She was having everyone in the line touch this button on it and she would either say yes or no.  Usually no.  Everyone seemed to want to touch this iPad.  So, naturally... I wanted to touch it too.  So I walked down the line to where she was and where everyone was gathering around shoving their fingers toward her.  Touch, no, touch, no, touch no... and eventually it was my turn and I touched it and she said, "You got it!" And I cheered! And I had no idea what I was cheering about but I figured it must be good!  Then she asked me who I came with and I pointed down the line to where my husband was standing and she said that he should come up and then this guy gave us both wristbands that he said would get us into the Golden Triangle and we would get super close to Madonna.  Needless to say, I was super excited!!

If there was ever a concert I would want to see up close and personal it would be Madonna! And you would not believe how close we were!!! We ended up actually inside the stage!!

The Golden Triangle is actually inside that triangle thing on main stage!!

 This is where you walk in and everyone would walk in, look left, and say... 

Oh my God, that's the stage!!!

And once you are in, you realize that you just walked under part of the stage! And she was going to walk down those stairs and all along the outside of the triangle.

Yes, this is a crappy picture because there wasn't enough light, but that is the stage right behind us!!

So then we waited for a couple more hours and finally she came out! And my pictures totally suck... but there are a couple where you can actually see Madonna so here they are...

And yes, my pictures are pretty bad but I was taking them with my iPod and I was RIGHT THERE!! I took some video and while the picture is decent, the sound is horrible.  But someone else posted some much better footage on YouTube using an actual camera so here is a link if you want to see it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thmV3KVTjZc

There are definitely better videos but this one was short and you can see how close we were.  She was freaking touching people!! 

That was the closest that I have ever been at a concert and it was Madonna!!  Can you believe how freaking lucky I am??? You can't buy those tickets!!!!!!  Happy Birthday to ME!!

Bermuda

Wow! How lazy have I been with the blog?  I guess... very.  I could claim to have been very busy... but that is probably not completely true.  But, since the last blog post was at the beginning of March... I guess, I need to catch up.

At the end of March I went back home for a quick visit and a vacation.  It all seemed so hurried and I barely got to see anybody.  But, I did manage to get in a quick race in Carlsbad.  It was only a 5K since at that point I was still having difficulty with the (now officially diagnosed) ITBS.  We did the Carlsbad 5000.  It really hurt, but I finished in just under 30 minutes.  Not my best time, but considering I had to stop a few times to shake out my leg, I was OK with it.

Andrea on the other hand did really well.  Notice that she is wearing a medal in the picture!

Way to go Andrea!!

After that, Matt came and we headed off to Bermuda via New York.  I must say Bermuda was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen!  When we got in it was dark so we really couldn't see anything, but once I woke up, I went out onto the deck and this was the view.  

Amazing, I tell you.  We ate breakfast out on the deck every morning for a week and it never got old.  

 The whole island was just beautiful everywhere we went.  But the hotel/ resort was just amazing.

 This was the family pool.

 This was where our hotel room was.  We had the top corner room... hence the amazing view.

This was the pool and part of the golf course... not that we golfed... but we did swim every day.

 And this was the beach club.

 And the beach.

 That's Matt in the red shorts.  He went in.  The beach water was COLD.

 But the beach club had a heated pool if the ocean was too cold!

Freaking amazing I tell you! I have never seen anything like it.  

And while we were there we did leave the hotel and head into town.  You can't rent a car there but there are plenty of taxi's and you can rent a scooter which we did for a  couple of days.  

 Here is Matt with the scooter.

 I think he looks a little bit like this guy from the Flintstones.  I believe they called him the Great Gazoo.

 We took the scooter to see this lighthouse.  

 This is the view from the top.

 This was the city of Hamilton.  We went there quite a bit.  It's right in the center of the island.

 We also went to see some caves.

 It was 100% humidity inside there.   Can you tell??

And that was our trip to Bermuda.  It was gorgeous and I had a great time... but I really don't feel any need to ever go back there again.  But you never do know!!