We prefer to drive on Saturday mornings because the traffic is light and it takes 1/2 the time to navigate the city. Jeddah was not designed well for the amount of traffic that occurs each evening. It is not the worst country for driving but it is tense at all times. Bryan says he has to drive it like he stole it in order to navigate us safely through the city. It just isn't a great time for our marriage so we try to avoid evening driving if at all possible.
Here are some sights of our drive today. The sky was unusually cloudy and the weather was quite cool (Probably high 70's to low 80's). We have been expecting rain this weekend but it hasn't happened yet.
This is the typical landscape outside of our compound. There is not a lot of development for the first 45 minutes when driving south.
Construction Zone
Greenery!
There are lots of goats in Saudi and they are usually transported in back of these Toyota trucks. These Toyota trucks are very popular.
This is a monument for the King. You can find his picture in many places around the city.
I don't think we will be going but you can find many food chains that are found in the States.
Driving nicely in the city. Everyone is in their lane and there are no motorcycles riding a wheely down the middle of the street. It was a nice morning for driving.
The Cheesecake Factory is not my first choice at home but it is my first choice in Jeddah. Jeddah actually has many nice restaurants and the service in these restaurants is amazing. We often feel like royalty by how the wait staff treats us. We went here today for brunch. Yum!
When it is dark this building is a full t.v. It shows advertisements on the entire side of the building. It is very distracting for drivers.
Jeddah is known for its sculptures. I would like to take a morning and photograph all the sculptures.
It is nice to grocery shop at a new place every once in awhile. When in Jeddah we enjoy going to Manuel, and Italian grocery store.
We have to travel upstairs to get to the grocery store.
Our recent discovery here has been Life Cereal. We usually only get it on our summer holiday but now we have found the 1 store that carries it. We spent a lot of money buying Life Cereal today.
This is one of my favorite sculptures. I wish I knew the story behind it.
This is a mall and a landmark that Bryan uses to find many of the stores that we often have on our list for shopping.
This is our favorite framing shop. It is so cheap! We are framing everything! We are trying to buy something from each country we visit and also the kids are doing some excellent art in school. Our walls are decorated with a collection from all over the place.
Of course you can always find the arches! However, this is a rare stop for the Johnsons. We are not going to travel an hour to eat at McDonalds.
When traveling in Saudi you have to be aware of the prayer times. Everything closes during prayer, so you have to plan things just right. We often plan on being in this store that is similar to a Home Depot (on a small scale). They have the most comfortable bean bags, so we sit for about 30 minutes and just relax. All of Jeddah is closed during this time. Sometimes we plan to be in a restaurant or driving to a new location during prayer. It is important to have a prayer app on your phone because it happens 5 times a day. Often stores are closed after the lunch time prayer and will not open until 4:00. You have to have a plan when you travel in Saudi.
This is the Royal Terminal for the Royal family. They enter the airport through this gate. I am wondering if the Royal family realizes that the rest of us get to experience the World's Worst Airport.
This stadium has opened since we have lived here. It has hosted many soccer matches and even the WWF. However, this place does not allow women inside. Hopefully someday this rule will change.
Mosques are everywhere.
We are approaching the security on the freeway. Usually you just have to pass slowly through the gate. We do see cars being pulled over but we have always been lucky.
Camels on the side of the freeway.
Camels and garbage. Plastics are a real problem in Saudi and blow all around the desert. Some say the National flower is the plastic bag. So sad.
This Mosque is right outside of our compound in a fishing village called Thuwal.
Some sights in Thuwal.
Kaust has given a lot of money to the outside community since the compound was built right on top of this land. The King chose this site to build Kaust because it is believed the first school of wisdom was build at this location. This fishing village has been able to build some new buildings. This is the new fire department.
Our compound is surrounded by this wall. It is supposed to withstand a tank. Hmmmm. I am not sure if that is true but I like to think that we are really safe. This wall surrounds our entire community, which has about 8,000 residents. We are a small city inside that includes grocery shopping, restaurants, pools, beaches, schools, university, movie theater, bowling alley, recreation centers, vet, and our home. (I am sure I could keep adding to this list). We really don't ever have to leave but we seem to go a little crazy when we stay too many weeks in a row inside the compound.
I know the wall seems a little much but that is how expats live in the Middle East. We all live in compounds. I have never felt unsafe outside of our compound but it is nice to know that we do have this protection if ever needed. When we were making a choice of whether to accept our job offer we skyped a family that lives here. When they said it was the safest place they could ever imagine raising their kids, we knew that moving here was the right decision.
I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our Sunday drive. The boys sat in the back of our car and watched Gulliver's Travels as we cruised down the highway.
