One thing Dubai is known for is the hot desert it sits on. We knew we definitely wanted to check it out no matter the temperature, so that’s what we did for Mark’s birthday! After we made it out to the desert, our first stop was riding camels, which are way bigger than we expected. It was so much fun, though the camels were not very scary even though I was a bit nervous around them. The next stop was 4-wheeler riding, which is what we were most excited for. We each got our own and followed a guide through the desert. This is when we started to feel the heat—not only was the temperature 113 degrees, but the air was also super hot from the engine, so we were burning up. Besides that, it was so much fun. Mark was in front of me, swerving back and forth, having a great time throwing sand everywhere and seeing if he could drift, which was super funny.

The next thing we did was hop into a car with our guide, who was an experienced driver. He took us around the desert again, but this time he was actually drifting down the dunes. It was pretty scary but a lot of fun. We then stopped to do sand-boarding where we sat on a board and went down a hill, which was cool, but then we had to walk back up the hill, which wasn’t as great. I also got so much sand in my pants. That was the end of our desert trip, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone—except I would do it around sunset so it is not so hot. Mark had a great birthday though, and we hope next year can live up to this one!