National Day 2014

December 2nd was the 43rd National Day for the UAE. The holiday marks the unification of the seven emirates and the founding of the country in 1971.  It is a huge celebration here, and the public sector gets a 3 day holiday!! There are parades and fireworks and decorations everywhere! It was very exciting and we had the perfect location to take it all in from inside our apartment and avoid all the crazy traffic on the streets. We were able to watch the airshow from our balcony, even though it was windy and very chilly that afternoon. In the evening, we went over to our neighbors house to enjoy some drinks, snacks and watch the fireworks from their balcony. Sorry for the overload of pictures but it was just too cool not to document.

practice round of a heart by the fighter jets

parade of military ships coming into the harbor

more ships coming into the military setup

helicopters parading carrying the UAE flag (hard to see through our dirty windows)

our building lit up with the UAE flag at the top

our building said UAE and 43 and the flag waiving

another pic of our building lit up along with the decoration all along the corniche

The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce building showing pictures of the Sheiks

The AMAZING air show

I loved the colors put out by the planes, I had never seen anything like this!

the heart

the finale was the colors of the UAE flag

The firework show over the water

lots of red and green fireworks for the UAE colors