Last trip to Bahrain

Recently our company started allowing us to travel to Bahrain so the girls and I decided we needed one last trip together.  Cherie and I decided we wanted a little more freedom and decided to get babysitters which was fabulous.  Heather brought along Luke but he was so easy Cherie and I hardly noticed he was with us.  I knew this would probably be my last trip.  It was fun to think back to my first trip visiting my parents during my sophomore year of college. It's crazy to think about how much has changed since then.  We had a fun day walking around Bahrain City Center Mall, eating lunch at Bushido, walking the mall some more, and hanging out at the Kempinski bar.  It was a fun day that I wish we would have been able to do more often.

On the way, driving over the Bahrain causeway.

 Us in the taxi with our twinkie sunglasses.

Lunch at Bushido.  The wine was excellent, and the food was pretty good too.

 Shopping in the mall.

 At the Kempinski bar, finishing off our day.

 I'm sad that we are leaving Bahrain.  Maybe one day I will see you again!

Bahrain

Finally! I was finally able to leave this oppressive country for a day. Even just a day out of Saudi can do a lot for the morale. Micah was able to take this Monday off for a quick trip to Bahrain. We had to take this trip to activate our visas (when we get our Saudi visas we have to leave the country within a certain number of days). Plus I just really needed to get out of Saudi and off of Murjan. We left Murjan at 7:30am and headed for the land of the slightly free.  Our original plan was to eat breakfast at Ric's but the causeway customs was busy and took longer than we had hoped so we headed straight for City Center mall. It was a little sad to not get biscuits and gravy and pork bacon but we will be in the US soon so I guess it can wait.

Shopping in Bahrain is amazing compared to Saudi except for one issue, the prices. I guess we pay a premium to shop in a bright pretty mall with modern clean restrooms and places to actually try on clothes. However, in the end I didn't really buy much because I kept thinking about how much cheaper I could get everything in the US or even Saudi. It's still fun to shop in freedom with no prayer time closings and no abaya.

Micah and I had learned previously that city center was opening a Potbelly Sandwich shop. We LOVE Potbelly. It was our lucky day because it was finally open. Yes, we did eat there for lunch and dinner.... This was Jakes first Potbelly experience. Doesn't he look excited?

Another task on our agenda was to attempt to see a movie. I know, we are crazy thinking we could take a 2 month old to a movie, and not just any movie....we went to see Batman.  I was fully prepared to have to leave the movie at some point with a crying baby. However, I'm proud to say that Jake's schedule worked out perfectly and he slept through most of the movie and ate through the end. We were able to watch the whole movie without a peep from him!

Jacob did awesome the whole day including all the car time. He slept in his stroller while we shopped, he ate when it was time to eat, and played and smiled at us when he was awake. I'm hoping this is a good sign for our trip to France in 9 days!!!