Yas & Saadiyat Islands. Been there, done that.

We took a family drive yesterday...

Even though we couldn't get into the circuit, to actually see parts of it was jaw dropping.  They built the whole area from scratch in less than 3 years and it looked amazing...

That is a sneaky photo taken from in our car of the marina area of the Circuit. The pointy white bits are some of the Grand Stand seats and that big impressive building is the Yas Hotel.  (I don't know if you saw any of the footage of the race last weekend, but at night the 'covering' of the hotel is array of colours and looks spectacular.)  Parked right next to it was the Head Honcho Sheihk's Boat.  No photos are allowed and I didn't want to risk being thrown in jail by taking a snap.  (Funny as you couldn't take a photo of it, yet last weekend shots of the boat where beamed across the globe!)

Right next to the track is the (still being built) Ferrari World.  The only part that is finished is the concert area which hosted Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Jamiroquai and Areosmith last weekend.   From this photo it looks tiny, but in the flesh it is gigantic.  You can't see in the pic the roller coaster on the side of it.  Apparently it is going to be the fastest roller coaster in the world - travelling at excess of 220km's an hour.

The area where the Race circuit is, is on an island called 'Yas Island' - lots of infrastructure taking place and you honestly have to see it for yourself to believe it.  Yas Island joins onto Saadiyat Island and the road across the Island joins onto Abu Dhabi Island (yes, the city of Abu Dhabi is actually on island) which opened a few weeks ago.  

It is a 10 lane highway, with barely a car in sight for the 25-odd kilometers long it is.  (The above photo is the view you get closer to Abu Dhabi City.)  We were sitting on about 120km's an hour (the norm here people; but that is a different post altogether that one!) when we were passed (not unusual that either) by a Porche doing close to double our speed.  (Now, that was unusual!)  Our car moved around and the sound? Deafening.  My heart was in my mouth for about the next five minutes!

The Highway lead us into the heart of Abu Dhabi City.  We stopped by our favourite restaurant for lunch (Preggo's at the Beach Rotana) and made our way home.  

It was a nice family drive and also nice to get 'out-and-about'...

In other news, our baby is now a day off 9 weeks old.  She is a big smiler, a great little feeder and proving to be a good sleeper too.  She is basically now at night, waking once, after a seven hour chunk of sleep.  I'm loving that.  Her passport to is in the process of being processed and should be in our hot little hands before we know it.  :-)

Isn't she cute?  Well, we here think so...