Prepping for Saudi Arabia

In less than one month, Emily and I will travel to Saudi Arabia to visit my parents. The timing of the one week trip falls in conjunction with a KSA, or Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, reunion trip for families and friends who once lived in the Aramco Oil compounds of either Dhahran, Ras Tanura (RT), Udilyihah, and Abqaiq. In the last few years, the government has slowly opened up the country for tourists as it was once impossible unless you had a government sponsored visa, or were Muslim, to even enter the country.



This will be the first time in over five years I have been back to Saudi as more time seems to elapse between trips these days. There is a long itinerary planned for KSA reunion attendees, but I'm fairly certain Em and I will steer clear of most of these functions. Unless she begs me to take her on tour buses, guided tours of refineries and water treatment plants.



I'm certain we'll spend our time in better ways, much like the way I spent the fifteen years I lived there; swimming and snorkeling in the Persian Gulf, playing golf on the sand and tar courses, a night or two of camping in the desert, local shopping in Khobar, and nightly shawarma (gyro-like sandwiches) feasts! This will be even better since my best childhood friends, Michael and Bryan Benchich, will be there too. Michael is bringing his wife, Elisabeth, and Bryan claims he is bringing his A-game for a golf showdown! My Mom and Dad are members of the local Dhahran triathlon club and there is even a sprint triathlon in my childhood hometown of RT while we're there. So, Em and I will get some good training in leading into the Superfrog 1/2, which consists of large portions of beach running through the half-marathon!



Writing about these plans gets me excited but I will surely have to remember that what might be awesome for Michael, Bryan and I might be agonizing for Emily. She's been a good sport so far though, even going so far as to work shawarmas into our weekly dinner menu!



Maasalaama (Arabic for good bye)
LF