The 24th is a go....hopefully

Well, hopefully this long process of getting our visas in order is coming to an end. Our flights have been reserved anyway for the 24th of June and, although I am looking forward to getting on with the next phase of this adventure and having the family together again, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tad bit nervous.

Last night it hit me...what if I can't find anything to do with the kids??? And when I say kids I mean our 5 year old girl.

The first thing that poped into my mind was her new found desire to learn how to play golf....so, I googled golf in Riyadh. One of the larger compounds actually has an on-site golf course..but it is difficult to get an idea as to whether this is open to people outside of the compound or if play is restricted to residents only? There is also a course a few miles outside of Riyadh, Dirab Golf Club. It looks as if women and juniors are welcome but,much more info isn't really available. There are also two Riyadh golf courses, The Greens course and the Desert Golf course. I'm not sure if women are allowed to play at these. The on-line membership information page gives one category of member---MEN. The Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh also has a 9-hole golf course...but, who gets to play? At the end of the day, I can't imagine that a 5 year old would ever be allowed to play on a golf course but...what do I know, I've never played golf.

Some other activities I found were the Riyadh Zoo. In my very quick search, I couldn't find a homepage for the zoo but, through tripadvisor I did find the following description: Saudi Arabia’s largest zoo, housing some 40 species of animals, permits either a mother or a father to accompany children but does not allow the whole family to vist together. Upon further investigation I did find a homepage which, in addition to the "men's" hours and "ladies" hours, listed "family" hours on Tues, Wed, Thurs and Fri....Thurs and Friday are weekend days in Saudi.

In addition, there are:
Amusement Parks
Horseback riding
bowling
Museums
Castles
Site-seeing
Shopping
and, if we get tired of the desert we can visit the snow park

After this midnight "panic" and short investigation I felt a little bit more at ease about the move. There will be things to do...our compound has a spa, pool, tennis, basketball courts, playgrounds, an indoor children's play center and raquetball/squash courts.

I'm not sure that this is all that Riyadh has to offer us but, if so, is this enough??

At the end of the day, what do we do with our time here at home? Well, aside from work and pre-school we spend time with friends at our home or theirs, our oldest has swimming lessons one half-hour per week, and we have "play dates" with other children. When the weather allows we go to the park to either play at the playground or look at the animals at the petting zoo and we walk down to the lake and take a swim or walk through the woods. For a majority of the year, weather does not allow and we may go to the local science center/aquarium. So all in all, I think Riyadh has plenty to offer our family!

Whew, I wonder what the next panic attack will be about?