The Traveling Heisters: February 16, 2013

It has been a while since our last post...sorry for that. We have been quite busy here in the Kingdom. Since we have last posted (which was before Christmas, way too long between postings) a lot has happened. We have traveled to Italy for Christmas break, done some painting in our villa, taken a few more trips out to the desert, gone to the Embassy a couple of times, and most recently enjoyed a Valentine's Day dinner with some of our new friends.

ITALY
Italy was AMAZING! We flew into Rome and stayed there for about a week. We rented a quaint apartment in Trastevere which put us within walking distance to Vatican City, The Colosseum, Palentine Hill, The Forum, Trevi fountain, The Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and many other Piazzas that we thoroughly enjoyed. We found a Steeler's bar (Thanks D'Amico!) so Sam was excited to go there. We also found many excellent restaurants and pubs that we put at the top of our "Will Be Back Again" list. After we left Rome, we drove north to Venice for a few days and then from there we spent a week in Greve in Chianti. Venice was great. We got to be on the water so that is always a good thing. We were only in Venice for two days so we spent most of our time walking and taking water taxis (getting lost if you ask boys) around Venice. We did get to see St. Mark's Square and Basillica, traveled through the Grand Canal, went to Murano Island to see a glass blowing demonstration and exhibit (beautiful pieces galore!), and had a chance to taste our first Mulled Wine...very tasty and warms you up on a cold day of walking too! We were also introduced to a unique room accommodations in Venice as well. It was the first time we had to insert a metal card into a slot to make the electric in the room for the electric to work, including the heat. Our last stop in Italy was right outside of Florence. We rented a cottage in the hills on an organic farm in Greve in Chianti. This was the most peaceful and relaxing part of our trip. The place was gorgeous and allowed us to settle down, find some much needed peace and healing. We miss you Grammie. The cottage where we stayed was on the same hill as the birthplace of "Lisa" of Leonardo da Vinci's The Mona Lisa. Very cool historical fact that we didn't know until we checked in. While we were in Greve, we traveled to several neighboring towns and got to see a few castles, numerous vineyard and olive tree farms, and we took a few nature hikes as well. We were going to go into Florence for New Year's but decided that we didn't want to fight the crowds, so we stayed home and enjoyed the night as a family. We did however travel to the edge of Florence on our way back to Rome on our way home and were glad that we did. We found a great market where we found some fantastic deals on some scarves, gloves, blouses for Billie Jo, and some other small odd items that we don't get to find in Riyadh. We also had a great lunch from a market vendor and ate on a park bench before getting back in the car and driving to Rome. In all, Italy is definitely a must do again for us but may have to wait until Gabe & Sam are off to college so that we can enjoy more of the culture of Italy...in the words of Gabe "are we going to see another building?" Although the LOVED the Colosseum and wanted to do that again!

Desert Trips
We have traveled out to the desert a few times and each time has been to a different place. The first time was to the place expats here at the school call "The Dunes." We found huge sand dunes that we had fun climbing and sitting on top of and enjoying the view of the expansive desert. We also had the great pleasure of getting stuck a few times in the sand. This is where we met some very nice locals that helped us, and the two other vehicles we were with, out of the sand. Very fun! We were invited to have lunch with our new friends but they had a heavier foot than us on the highway and we lost them. The second time we ventured out was to The Escarpment. This is at the foot of the +/- 2000 ft plateau of Riyadh. We found some wicked rock sculptures and some more great hills that the boys had fun climbing. The interesting part of this trip was when we were pulling back onto the highway we were passed by a Lamborghini and a Bentley that were pulling off of the highway to go offroading! I guess when you have money, you don't care about getting a new paint job on your $200,000+ vehicle. The second trip to the desert, we went past the Escarpment to a dried up lake, Lake Kharara. We had to drive a few miles offroad to get to the place we were headed and at one point we drove on the dried up bed of the lake. This lake fills up in the rainy season from all of the runoff from the surrounding areas but does not stay a lake for long. The place we ended up was at the spot of the waterfall, or at least where the waterfall would be after the rains. On one side a vast desert of mountainous red sand dunes. On the other side a rocky landscape that stretches what seems like forever and made me think we were somewhere close to the Grand Canyon. This site has pictures of the lake with and without water Lake Kharara. We tried to use some sand board and a sled to ride down the dunes but the sand was so soft here that the boards just dug into the sand. We are planning to go out to the first spot in the desert to try the boards again...hopefully with better luck!

Night Outings
We have traveled out to the DQ (Diplomatic Quarters) a few times for various events and have found that we like the Australian Embassy and the Canadian Embassy the best so far. Uncle Sam's, the lounge at the US Embassy, is good but very pricey. But we suck it up and try to go to as many events that are open to us as possible because we do get to fell a bit of home while we are there, even if it is only for a few hours. This past weekend we were pleasantly surprised by our compound with a Valentine's Day dinner. It was very affordable and was decorated as good or maybe even better than any of the embassy events we have gone to so far. The food was excellent and what was best is that we were within walking distance of our house.

Here are some pictures of some of what we have been doing: