WOW!!! Busy Day!

Tuesday Sept. 30

Dinner last night was from a local shawarma take-out. We had chicken, lamb and beef shawarma. All were excellent!  Watched some TV and had an early night.....Peter was planning to get up at 5:30 AM to watch the second half of Monday Night Football. What a mistake!!!  He actually didn't watch too long before going back to bed!!!

No spinning/walking today. Too much else to do!!  Suzanne and I headed to a nearby tailor where we took the 2 pieces of fabric she bought yesterday to have a tunic made for each of us. They will be ready before we leave Bahrain. Total price for each tunic:  4 BD for fabric+6BD for tailor = approximately $25.00. Not bad at all!!  The tailor's business had the following information:

Al Jazera Tailoring "Specially we doing all type of European & Amwrican Dress, Short, Pants, Jackets, etc......"

Peter was ready to go when we got back so off we went, back to Manama, to the Central Market. What a place!!  A gigantic roofed building with no walls and no AC, just aisle upon aisle of produce stacked high. We were familiar with most of the fruit but several types of vegetables were unknown to us. The vendors approached us as we walked by; men pushing carts followed us hoping we'd buy and use one of them to haul our stuff!!  All we bought was basil and parsley for pesto; 2 bunches of basil for $.25 each and 1 bunch of parsley for $.50. We did stop for a small Arabian coffee each; Suzanne and I were the only women sitting in the coffee shop area!

From there we proceeded to the meat market which is also huge, but air-conditioned,  AND smelly!!  Peter and Suzanne were beside themselves with the fresh meat odor!  We stayed by the door for a couple of minutes while Peter took a couple of pics and then we left. We all took a couple of basil leaves to smell to stave off the meat odor!  The fresh fish market was much better!  Also air-conditioned and loaded with large and small fish of all colors and types,  shrimp, blue crabs, octopus, etc.  Suzanne bought 2 kilo shrimp and had it cleaned for 3BD or $7.50. We were so hot and sweaty by this time that we went home to change and take a break before heading out on the road again.

An hour later we were headed south to see the "Tree of Life."  This site is more than 30 kilometers from Manama deep in the desert. The tree is a mesquite tree and is the ONLY tree in the area. The desert here is pretty flat, bleak, barren, isolated, bland and desolate. Folklore puts the tree at more than 500 years old and, because if its location, is believed by some to have been the original Garden of Eden. Back on the highway we drove past Manama west to the Royal Camel Farm where we were able to get pretty close to the camels. I had thought they were extremely tall so I was disappointed to discover a camel is only 6 feet tall at the shoulder and 7 feet at the hump.

We arrived back at Mirisolas just in time for Suzanne to head to the kids' school for a PTSO meeting and to pick up Serena (who was staying after school to take a quiz she'll miss when we're in Oman) and Nick (who was staying for Yearbook). Peter and I stayed home to greet Lucas when he arrived home on the school bus  and to monitor his homework!