LAST DOUBLE SCOOP DAY
GOOD-BYE OKINAWA!
We had spent 2 wonderful years on this beautiful island and it truly felt like our home. It will always have a special place in our hearts. We are grateful for the friends made, the lessons learned, and the experiences had while living in Japan.
It felt good to be back in the U.S. after over 2 years even if it was only in the airport.
Quick stop in Qatar.
SWISS BEL SUITES ADMIRAL JUFFAIR
View from our fancy hotel
It's strange to look out and see almost no green after living in Okinawa for the last 2 years.
The beach was fun, but not super impressive after what we are used to in Okinawa. The water is a lot saltier than what we are used to and there weren't really fish or anything interesting, except for sand dollars. We found a lot!
MARASSI
NEW FRIENDS
Brooklyn and Audrey made friends with a fellow homeschooler. They put on a puppet show for us in the playroom of the library.
FINALLY LEAVING!
We ran into a lot of trouble with making it to Bahrain. First there was the situation in Iran which caused them to stop allowing military dependents to enter. Then there was a problem getting dependent entry approval because IPAC issued us another set of no fee passports rather than the Official passports we needed to enter Bahrain (despite me telling the worker 3 times which kind of passports we needed). We also ran into issues with getting Maddy's harp shipped to the U.S. After a lot of waiting and stress we got approval to leave. Of course this was right when we all got sick. Brooklyn had it the worst and had to get on antibiotics for pneumonia. We felt bad for our fellow passengers, but we had to travel while coughing. Of course the military decided to fly us around the world the long way. First we flew to Yokota Air Base, then to Seattle, then to Qatar, and finally to Bahrain. It took almost 45 total travel hours from when we left our hotel in Okinawa to when we arrived in Bahrain. We were exhausted!
We spent lots of time in airports. Luckily the Seattle airport had a nice USO lounge with food, and comfortable chairs.
SWISS BEL SUITES ADMIRAL JUFFAIR
THE GRANDE MOSQUE
They asked me to wear a head covering to enter the mosque.
THE ALKOFLEA RESTAURANT
THE BAHRAIN NATIONAL MUSEUM
Traditional wedding clothing
A model of a traditional Bahraini house
Bahrain used to be know for it's pearls. Boats of pearl divers would go out often to hunt for pearls.
It was fun to see this carving of the Epic of Gilgamesh in person since we have a picture of it in one of the kids' homeschool history books.
Ancient tools
It was intersting to learn about the anceint Dilmun civilization. The built interesting burial mounds that can still be seen today.
MARASSI GALLERIA
We enjoyed trying out the traditional middle eastern food. We especially like Manakish Za'atar.
We visited one of the many very high end malls in Bahrain. Everything was out of our price range, but it was interesting to see what all that oil money can buy.
MARASSI
AQUARIUM
The aquarium seemed tiny compared to what we are used to in Japan, but it was still fun and interesting.
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