New Weekend Trips to Ras Tanura

After we got over jet lag, we spent a lot of weekend afternoons in Ras Tanura.  They changed the weekend days while we were on repat, so where the weekend was Thursday and Friday before, now it is on Friday and Saturday.  ARGH!  Now I am never going to figure it out!!  I spent 18 months trying to learn those dang days of the week, only to have it wrecked once I was finally coming around.  So now Sunday is Monday, Monday is Tuesday, Tuesday is Wednesday, etc., etc.  It's actually much harder than before because it's closer to the normal way. And to top it off, Friday is still the holy day, so it's like having Sunday before Saturday.  But now we share Saturday with all you people at home, which is nice. 

Also on the upside, now Mike is just as confused as I always was!  Ha HA!  Welcome to my world, honey.  Of course, when we first arrived, he just slipped back into his old familiar days of the week, where Saturday was Monday and Wednesday night was Friday night.  But now - no more!  He's complained about how confusing it is and how he has to actually think about what day it is.  Revenge is mine!

Because we were both so messed up about days of the week, we gave up calling the days their names altogether.  It started out as me saying things like "today is Sunday which is really Monday" but Mike thought I meant that it was Monday which was really Sunday, and we'd both look at each other and go "HUH?"  The solution was that we now call them Workday 1, Workday 2, Workday 3, etc., and Weekend 1 and Weekend 2.  That works much better, and it even works in conversations with other people because it is so apparent what we mean.

So, as I was saying, after we got over jet lag, we spent a lot of Weekend 1 afternoons in Ras Tanura.  It is just so beautiful there.  The entire atmosphere is different - the air is humid and salty, the wind blows in off the ocean, it's more lush and has more grass, and that white sand and clear blue water are Caribbean-esque.  It always makes me feel better about being here to be on the beach in RT.

 Everett loves to look for shells and cuttle fish bones on the beach.

 There's no hesitation on her part - she just charges out onto the beach.

 We leave after afternoon naps and get there about 4:00-ish (the drive is 45 minutes).  We spend the late afternoon on the beach, at the splash pad or at the pool, or just playing on the playground by the beach. 

 Look at all those curls in the late afternoon sun.  (Thank you, LHS, for the fabulous Lilly outfit!  It is one of my very favorites!)

 I just love this picture.  Toes in the water.

After playtime, we head to the Golf Course or the Hobby Farm for dinner, and then sometimes back to the pool locker rooms for showers and jammies, and then drive on back to Dhahran for bedtime.   It works well.  We love RT.