The Snells: Bahrain Fun

We took our first trip this past weekend to Bahrain! We needed to activate our visas, and so along with a few other families, we traveled to Bahrain for the weekend. Bahrain is a little island just off the coast of Saudi Arabia, right across from the Khobar/Dhahran/Dammam area. There is a 25 km causeway that connects Saudi and Bahrain. After about a 2 hour drive, we arrived at our hotel. We spent the majority of the day swimming and hanging out by the pool with our friends. The kids had a great time playing in the kid pool! The hotel was a huge complex, with several towers of hotel rooms, executive apartments, a spa, 20 something restaurants of all different cuisines, and lots of ballrooms/meeting spaces. It was a very nice hotel to say the least! We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and everyone had a great time! We got a babysitter after the kids went to sleep so the adults could go out for a bit that evening! It was fun to be able to hang out with our friends kid free! On Saturday, we walked to a breakfast place called Ric's. And oh my goodness, it was delicious!!! It was a country type place that reminded us very much of Texas. They were playing country music, had Minnesota maple syrup, and served bacon! BACON!!! (Side note: Bahrain isn't as conservative as Saudi....so I didn't have to wear my abaya in public and they serve pork and alcohol). The bacon was delicious....we devoured 2 plates of it very quickly. After breakfast we decided to visit Al Fateh Grand Mosque of Bahrain, which is open to visitors. Mosques in Saudi are not open to the public, and so we thought it would be interesting to see what one was like. I had to wear my abaya in the mosque, as well as have my head covered. There was beautiful marble and a large dome with a chandelier hanging from the middle. After we were done with our tour, we went back to our hotel and went swimming for just a bit, before heading back to Saudi. The trip back took a little bit longer, because customs were a bit busier on the causeway. It was a very quick trip, but a lot of fun to see somewhere new! We definitely want to go back and explore some of the other areas too! Below are some pictures from the weekend! We head back to the states on Tuesday, and so we have begun packing and getting ready for that. It may be a while before our next post, since we will be back in the states for the summer. So, until next time!!!