Q8cation

These past 5 days we have been on a vacation -- a vacation in Kuwait.  Originally we had a 3 day break of 1 day off of school plus a standard weekend in honor of Eid.  Then, last Sunday it was announced per the Ministry of Education, that all schools would also be closed on Sunday and Monday.  Due to this late announcement and due to prices of travel being extremely high in Kuwait, we decided to be fiscally responsible and stay in Kuwait for our holiday.  To say that we were a little bummed to miss out on a traveling opportunity would be an understatement.  However, the positive people that we try to be, we quickly re-framed our thinking and decided to look at our break as if we had just purchased tickets to Kuwait and we decided to be tourists in our own city.

So, what exactly does tourists in Kuwait mean?  Well, we were able to do the following:

• Find a new breakfast location and visit there not once but twice.  (For people who never ate breakfast out in the states, we sure are developing this skill quickly).
• Lounge on the gulf by the pool while drinking overpriced coffees
• Check out the sales at three different malls where the items purchased included a wool winter coat, running tops, and more delicious yet overpriced coffees
• Battle the Eid crowds at the grocery store -- we thought Thanksgiving and Christmas crowds were bad times to shop!!
• Visit the Kuwait Aquarium where we were able to view some interesting desert animals and gulf sealife all the while cursing the crowds and deciding that we hate kids!
• Have delicious dinners with friends which kept us up way past our 9:00 bedtime
• Experience our first desert rain/thunder/lightening storm and while we don't have the views we did on floor 17 in 'Nam, the view from floor 8 proved to be just fine
• Revisit the Shake Shack to order and share a burger so that all those who had negative comments about us eating a veggie dog at a burger joint can put their commentary to rest

Perhaps it doesn't sound as exotic and thrilling as a true vacation, but we were pleased with our ability to explore our new home and make the most out of our time off work.  Kuwait-cation ... success!!

At the Cocoa Room -- our new favorite breakfast joint in Kuwait.  They are BRILLIANT in handing you an iPad menu with all the food items photos.

Heidi seriously debated ordering the Red Velvet Pancakes -- for Nikki, of course.

Smoke and Fire Benedict might be heaven on a plate.

And the Cinnamon Roll French toast was just an excuse to eat a hot, egg battered cinnamon roll topped with cream cheese frosting for breakfast.

One of the many coffees consumed over this trip.  If we added up the coffee prices we might have been able to purchase 1 plane ticket to Bahrain.

Looking at the old wooden fishing boats outside of the aquarium.

Awesome schooling fish. 

Adam dreaming of being a pirate.  He did hum the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song all day.

We were unaware that penguins lived in the desert.  We were also unaware how to pronounce some of their names.

There were some crazy sharks.

But this guy (an eel?) was more scary than any shark there.

On the gulf before almost getting plowed over by a rogue bike gang.

Shake Shack take 2.  Is this burger better?