I managed to fix the issues with yesterday's post. Something happened when I was revising text on my phone and I deleted half of the post without realizing it. Today, we sampled our third mangrove and marsh sites. Each site that we visit is different from the next - it's pretty intriguing from my nerdy plant perspective. I'm amazed at the plastic nature of A. marina - the growth form changes so much across sites. Today's trees were few and far between, but they were the stoutest trees by far. Yesterday's were so dense that I was glad that I have some experience barreling through thicket in SF Bay marshes. We were on the eastern side of Jubail Island and we could see the crazy huge Ferrari indoor stadium (or whatever it is - it's insanely huge!) and a building (hotel?) that is disc-shaped and standing on its edge (the photo is a blurry shot into the sun while zooming by on a boat). I also saw a few crabs in the trees.

 The salt marsh that we visited had much lower plant cover than the day before, but the plants were woodier and larger. This particular site was right next to a mangrove restoration site.

Tonight, we ventured out into the city to get food and drinks. Our hotel is a dry hotel. It lost its liquor license not too long ago (apparently it doesn't take much for that to happen here, and pretty much everyone on the crew has agreed that no access to alcohol definitely increases productivity), so the hotel has a large indoor/outdoor eating area where you can smoke shisha (tobacco out of a hookah). We have been eating there the past three nights so we were ready for a change (although I did have the best chicken shawarma ever there!). Based on a suggestion by one of the UN logistics guys on the crew, we went to a restaurant/bar hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi. It honestly didn't feel like I was half way around the world - I felt like I was in Florida with a bunch of drunk frat boys. It was nice to have a beer and a pizza, but, needless to say, it was also nice to load back into a cab and head back to my quiet room. At some point, we'll go to one of the local 'ex pat' bars that has a bit of a gritty feel, but at this point we're all taking it easy on the extra-curricular activities. Tomorrow we wrap up sampling near Abu Dhabi, finish lab work, and get ready to pack up our gear to head west for our remote island adventures. I'm so happy to be here doing what I love!