Month: November 2014

Cinderella, dressed in yella . . .

went upstairs to kiss a fella . . . I’ll take “Elementary school rhymes” for 300, Alex.

Ball night. Number 18 for us. Not our 18th ball, but Josh’s 18th birthday in the Marine Corps. I loved my dress because it had a great story to go along with it. Who finds their ball gown at a garage sale in a pile of clothes next to the live turkeys? 

The sister necklace went perfectly with this dress — Thanks Wendy!!

The food was great — especially the potato leek soup with basil pesto oil. 

Also a highlight? The cheese plate that came as part of the dessert course. Most people were full by then so there was plenty of cheese and grapes for us. A peppered gouda was my favorite. It felt like we were back in Crete eating grapes and cheeses for dinner. 
The waitress saw that we were enjoying it so she kept bringing Josh the untouched platters from the other tables. 
Then we danced along with the live band until my feet gave out and we headed home. And to end a great night on an even better note, we came home to four sleeping kids in a silent house. Only two more birthdays before retirement . . .

Crete, glorious Crete (Souda Bay, Aptera)

The weather keep getting nicer and more beautiful. We arrived to overcast weather and some clouds, but each day has been getting warmer. This morning we got up for a hike in the hills overlooking Souda Bay, the site of ancient ruins, a Turkish fort, and remnants of German occupation during WW2

It was a morning with lots of walking in the sunshine. This is the entrance to the ruins. They did a great job in the restoration process by delineating restored walls from original (with a bold grout line that would zig zag up the various walls). This obviously is all original and contains historical information of what we’d be looking at. I loved travel planning on the go, but it forces me to rely on my memory for blog posts, which isn’t nearly as fun or as exciting as the words spilling out of me every evening after a full day. Normally I would google more about Aptera to refresh my memory, but I’m half dressed for the ball tonight and hoping to get this posted before I leave. I’m ready except for my dress, but it’s a bit too early to put it on so I’m killing time, but not enough time for a history lesson. 

Beautiful headlands with a warm breeze. It felt like a California day.

Tromping around the Aptera ruins. There were cisterns and public baths, old steps and it didn’t matter what we were looking at, it was just nice to be exploring outdoors. 

The entrance to the cisterns

It is so similar to the large cistern in Istanbul with the narrow archways, but without the tourists. 

Leaving the cisterns — Carter was parkouring all over the place. I fear that these structures have lasted hundreds of years, but my kids will be the end of them. 

They believe the cisterns were built to feed the public baths. The baths are a short downslope away — easy to direct water there. 

New entryways support the old walls

a door just her size!

fall wildflowers

The harbor has an island in the middle that is surrounded by turquoise water (because of the shallows)

The Turkish fort perched overlooking the harbor.

The thick band of rocks on the right is part of a huge wall that the Romans built. Layers of history and wartime all converging on this hill. There were also remains of German gun turrets that had been created back in the 1940s with machine gun cutouts. 

The fort — we couldn’t go inside, but it was impressive.

After the morning of hiking and exploring it was time for a relaxing afternoon so we headed to . . . the beach! Surprise, surprise. 
Cinderella is off to the ball, so part 2 will come later . . .

diamond in the rough

Josh is home and today was our last Saturday before another sports season begins (6 Saturdays of flag football games) so we took a family field trip to the Isa Town market. On the weekends they have a flea market where people sell everything from pirated movies (3 for $2.50) to old shoes to parrots.

Supposedly it’s the place to be at 7am, but the only place to be for me at that time is in my bed, so we headed over there at a more tolerable 10am. We may have missed all the best stuff, but there’s nothing I need that badly.

Ready to shop!

Did I mention they have an entire section dedicated to birds? Happy Thanksgiving, gobble gobble!

These turkeys don’t look so hot . . .

A guy buying chickens — holding them by the feet as he picks them out. 

The kids were drawn to the guy with the parrots and lovebirds — they were trained to perch on their fingers and shoulders and he let them hold them. 

Anyone up for some clothes shopping? Various vendors had piles of clothes laid on the ground waiting to be dug through. This is not the way I like to shop. I pulled a few pieces out of the piles when a flash of interesting fabric caught my eye, but wasn’t searching seriously until I happened upon a beaded 2 piece gown. It was tied together in a knot so the pieces would stay together. I was intrigued by the shape and the color (and the beads!). I held it up and it looked like it might fit . . . when the guy quoted a price of $4, I had to take it home. 

Guess what I’m wearing to the ball tomorrow night?! It fits like it was made for me. I rushed it over to the dry cleaners and they should have it back tomorrow afternoon. No alterations needed. It’s amazing. Fingers crossed it works out to wear it for the Marine Corps ball . . .

Gritty thoughts

This week brings cooler weather and fall winds. Unfortunately all that moving air stirs up the sand until it looks like our island is covered in a blanket of fog — until I walk outside and have to brush the dust off of my iPhone screen every 5 seconds and wear sunglasses well after dark.

Right now I am walking the track at the boys’ football practice, pushing my way though the haze. It’s only 5:30 but it’s been nighttime-dark since 5:00 because we live on Saudi time. Really. According to our place in the world, we should be an hour ahead like Oman and UAE. When we traveled to Crete we flew 4 hours and were still in the same time zone. We were eating dinner at 7:30 because it was staying light until then. Our sun sets here at 4:30pm. In October. It’s pretty funny to think that we sit in the dark so the Saudis don’t have to change their clocks when they come across the bridge to play. On the flip side the sun comes up at crazy early O’clock in the morning, but that doesn’t help me. Thank God for blackout shades.

As I walk I can hear four or five different calls to prayer all overlapping each other in an a cappella chorus. It’s something I’ll miss when we leave the Middle East. The singing is haunting, reverent, and beautiful all at the same time. I’ve become so used to it as a background sound in daily life that I might only notice it once or twice out of the five times a day. It’s a special call tonight because we are in the period of Ashura, a time when the majority of Bahrainis mourn and remember their martyr, Hussain. 

Now there is sand in my lipgloss and I feel the grit as I purse my lips together, but it’s a small price to pay to be standing where I am. I still wonder at the life I lead and how I got here. At the pieces that fell into place to point us toward Egypt and the revolution that changed the course of our history along with the rest of the Arab world. As I walk I wonder where we’ll go next? Josh is in Abu Dhabi this week living the dream, working with the Emirati military. It’s near the top of places he would like to live in the world. Maybe we could do a trifecta in the Gulf: Oman, Bahrain, and finish it off in UAE?

Inshallah. God knows I couldn’t have planned it up until now. I can’t even imagine what is coming next. 

turquoise water and pink sand

I had a small list of things that I wanted to see while we were in Crete and on the top of that list is Falassarna Beach, one of the 100 most beautiful beaches in the world (according to CNN). It was about an hour drive from our villa outside Chania so we packed up our swimsuits, sunscreen, and beach towels and headed to the west coast of the island. 
Rolling hills, beautiful countryside, gorgeous skies
The western coast of crete

This blog post is going to have a bazillion photos, but it still won’t show off the beauty of this place adequately. 
Before the kids ran in separate directions I corralled them up to make sure I got at least one shot with all 4 of them in it. 

Top 100 for sure

This warm lagoon was perfect for Camille to play in. 

This time of year the Mediterranean is warm enough to swim in (75 to 77), but not as warm as the Gulf which feels like a bathtub in the middle of summer. 

The kids swam, jumped in the waves, tried to see how far out they could go and still touch the bottom, looked for fish in the crystal clear water, and built sand castles. 

Camille ran back and forth between the shore and her lagoon, jumped the baby waves, and dug in the sand.
I discovered the beauty of the European beaches where you rent an umbrella and 2 lounge chairs for around 5 dollars. A way to lie on the beach but not get sand in every crevice and shade whenever I want it. I read my book all day and took breaks to get my feet wet or walk down the shore or watch Camille dig a hole. It was a perfect day. 

Reading a chapter or two in the water

Her own private swimming pool

When the tide started to come in, the boys (including Josh) all went body surfing. 

The sand along the water’s edge is pink from the red coral that grows in the area. It’s beautiful. 

The edge of the beach is tinged with pink all along this area of the coast. 

I went in the water too, but mostly just up to my waist. I’m a baby about “cold” water.
More bodysurfing

Jumping waves with Daddy
There was a small beach shack type restaurant nearby so we walked over and ordered Gyros. For around $3 each, we ate flatbread stuffed with sliced pork, fried potatoes, and salad with garlic yogurt dressing. I thought beach food was going to be overpriced and not very good, but I was very wrong. Our meal there was as good as any of the excellent restaurants we ate at throughout our trip. 
A little Micah statue at the Gyro place

burying big brother

Carter building a pool for the tiny fish he caught

Camille watching the naked boys running along the shore

Bye, bye Falassarna! We love you!

Definitely top 100
It was our favorite beach of the entire trip. It had the best of it all: gorgeous crystal blue water, pink sand, not too crowded or touristy, a lagoon, and small waves. We’d love to come back and spend a few more days along this coast.