Last Day, Scott's Birthday at the Day Spa, Flying Home

Well I'm home after a 25.5 hour airline marathon.  On the last day in Bahrain, (which also happened to be Scott's Birthday,) we decided to go to this very nice day spa.  Then we went home and had a pizza party and some coconut birthday cake and bon voyage Mr. Dave...

Here's the front door of the spa:

Down the hall to the pool/workout area:

One of the pools:

The inside portion of the pool I spent most my time in:

I'm kicking it out in the sun by the pool:

Outside portion of the pool:

I finally got all the Gundys together for a photo during the birthday party:

Off I go...one last look at the Bahrain Airport:

Here's Kuwait City on the way in for the 1 hour stop there:

Well, that's all I have for this trip.  I hope I made my travels interesting to my friends who were following along!

Peace out!!

Running Looooooooow...

My last full day in Bahrain starts with a trip to the vehicle export office...no I didn't buy a car, Scott had to send the Jeep back to the states now, in order to get it by July 1.  But then we got to go to the camel farm!  The King of Bahrain has 600 camels on one site!

Welcome to the camel farm!

Say hi to a 2 week old camel.  

Lots of camels!!

Well hello there!

She likes the Brewers too!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

So that was the camel farm, pretty cool!

Time is Running Low...

So today we had to do an oil change on the Jeep, as it's going overseas tomorrow morning.  Then we figured we'd go back to the souq to visit some old friends and have a good time.  We were able to find a place called the secret bar and see some prime live music and dancing...no cameras allowed...

We ended up doing a lot of walking and had some good photo ops along the way:

And:

Not to mention:

So we stopped to have a drink and Carmella served us a couple...

My time in Bahrain is growing short but I'm still having a great time!  I'll see everyone when I get back home!!

Grand Mosque, the Manama Souq & Some Goofing Around Back Home

We went out for lunch at a place called Coco, great food and a very tasty peach iced tea.  Gayla and I went to the Grand Mosque after that.  That afternoon I had to pick up my suit I had made, so Scott, Reagan and I went back into the souq and took care of that business.

Outside the Grand Mosque:

Inside the main worship hall.  The alcove in the far end of the hall is in the direction of Mecca so that's the way the worshipers face.

I would have loved to see more of the mosque but we had a rather talkative imam guiding us around and we didn't move as quickly as we could have, but I did learn something about Islam.  Now off to the souq again!

Here's Reagan getting some street roasted peanuts:

Here I am at a busy intersection in the Manama Souq:

Here's the Manama skyline after dark:

After the souq we put on our Arab robes and had some fun.  Gayla was a sport and put on her abaya(sp?) too.  These things are rather comfortable so we kept them on for a while and played pool

Even Alex got in on the fun:

That's all for tonight, stay tuned!

Wading in the Persian Gulf and A Visit to the Riffa Fort

Our day, which is the last before Gundy has to go back to work for 3 days, began with some home made cheese omelets and toast with pineapple jam.  We decided to go to the beach on the southwest tip of the island and wade around looking for shells.  I found a few nice shells and the real prize was a camel jawbone with a couple of teeth still in it.  Very cool.  Scott lost a ring while scooping a shell or something...not cool...  Then we went to the Shiekh Salman Bin Ahmed Al Fateh, or Riffa, Fort.  This is a larger more modern fort than the last one, very cool to see!

Hello from knee deep in the Persian Gulf:

Here's the camel jaw:

Here I am outside the front entrance to the Riffa Fort:

The courtyard in the fort:

Southeast corner of the fort:

Me and Gundy outside the fort:

On the way home I finally got a good shot of the World Trade Center:

Last day of vacation?  Time for a BBQ!!

Wahoo! Bahrain, and a shave please...

Today was another full day in The Kingdom.  We started off with a light breakfast and some recreational sea shell gathering.  The household was abuzz because today we were going to Wahoo.  Wahoo is the big water park in the City Centre Mall in Manama City.  It was good clean fun and I even managed to get some photos...had to buy one of them though...I think you'll agree it was worth it!

I bumped into these two on the lazy river..

Then the big bucket o' water dumped out on me...

Grant and I in the wave pool....

With all that childishness out of the way, we had to go to the barber because Scott needed to get a haircut before returning to work on Sunday.  He let me go first:

...and the Commander...

That is all, carry on....

Fort Arad, Dhows, and Go-carts

Wow another great day in Bahrain.  We started off the day by heading over to see Fort Arad.  All I can say is wow!  This fort was a guarded location as early as 2800 BC, due to the well that sits in the center of the courtyard.  In it's present form, information leads us to believe, since the 12th century.  This was so cool to see this thing.  I could just imagine crusaders trying to take that fort...what an awesome piece of history:

Here's a dude that wanted to get his photo taken with us...I forgot what his name was:

More fort:

It was awesome, we could climb all over the place on this fort, Gundy found a cannon, I don't think it was loaded but it sure looked old:

Outside the fort:

Now here I am standing in front of a dhow that is under construction, there was a fight going on amongst the workers, but I didn't feel like creating an international incident over getting an amusing pic:

Here's a better look at the dhow in question, oh, by the way a dhow is what they call the traditional boat used for fishing and gathering pearls and anything else on the water!

Now here's Reagan and I waiting our turn for a spin around the go-cart track.  I'll be posting some video when I get back home and have some more bandwidth:

And Scott and Reagan:

Another great day in the kingdom!  Stay tuned...