Greetings From Bahrain!

Last weekend, Mike had extra two days off (four day weekend!) so we decided to take an overnight trip to Bahrain.  Some of you may not know much about Bahrain, so here is the quick run-down:

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a small island country situated near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is an archipelago of 33 islands, the largest being Bahrain Island, at 55 km (34 mi) long by 18 km (11 mi) wide.  Saudi Arabia lies to the west and is connected to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway.  The official language is Arabic, although English is widely used.  (thank you Wikipedia for text and the CIA for maps!)

On the right map, Dhahran is about where the "R" is in Saudi Arabia.  When we go there, we drive over the Causeway.  If we were just to drive there straight, it would take about an hour to get to the hotel.  However, since we cross an international border, we have to go through customs and passport control, etc. so it takes longer.  All that stuff is on a tiny island in between the two countries.  The island is just about the word Fahd on the map (it's not the larger island to the right of that).

Bahrain is nice because a) it's something else to look at besides the compound and b) women can wear normal clothes there!  YAY!  So off we went.

The boys packed their own bags and loaded them in the car themselves.

Ready to go!

Approaching the Causeway.  This is the toll booth.

View from the Causeway, before the border island.  Those are Saudi flags on the light poles.  The Causeway is 16 miles long.

Here comes the border island.  Those towers are revolving restaurants. 

At passport control, it's just one big traffic jam.  We waited 2 hours to get through it. 

Once we were over the border and in Bahrain, we went to our hotel. 

Mike had reserved a HUGE 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom apartment in the hotel!!  It had more square footage than our rental house in the States.  That dining room table is for eight!

Here is our full kitchen.

The boys' room.

View from our apartment included the Grand Mosque (with the two towers). You can see the Persian Gulf behind it.  We were on the 10th floor.

Zoomed in.

The thing to do at the Gulf Hotel is go to the pool.  Here we are!

This hotel is popular with families with kids because it has a great pool.  This is the play structure in the pool.  Everett loved it!  (Lawrence was terrified.  Maybe next time.  In his defense, it was REALLY LOUD because all that water was pounding down.)

The other side of the play structure had a fabulous slide.  This is Everett!

After dark, our view was really pretty with all the city lights. 

The kids collapsed in front of the TV and we all ordered room service.  WOW!  And they got chicken nuggets!!  WOW again!  We really miss chicken nuggets. 

Our spacious abode.  Kids in jammies. Waiting for the room service to arrive. 

The next morning, watching the cars and trucks out the window was much more interesting than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV.  They are having their breakfast by the windows for the view.

The border crossing on the way back was faster - only about 40 minutes.  While we were waiting, we saw this container.  Powder?  Hmm, what kind of powder could this be?  (We had lots of time to think about it.)  Baking?  Garlic?  Onion?  Baby?  Gun?  Iocane?  (Mike said YOU'D LIKE TO THINK THAT, WOULDN'T YOU?!) (Never get involved with a border crossing in Arabia.)  

 So that was our trip to Bahrain.  Catherine is only 5 1/2 months old, and this puts her up to five countries - Saudi, Kuwait, Netherlands, USA, and Bahrain!  It was fun - we'll go again when I get burned out on abayas.  :)