The last nine months

Spring 2011

Well we are finnished with one more year in Saudi! It has been a wonderful year and we have so many great times to look back on. Here are some of the highlights from the spring of 2011.



The end of spring means one thing for us: CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! We are leaving today (6/28) and will land in the good ol' US of A at around 6 pm tonight! We will spend a few days in New York visiting family and will land finnally in California on July 2nd. Can't wait for the summer and to see you all soon!

Trip to Jeddah

Hello all! Well it's been awhile since we posted last but we've stayed really busy. One of the things we got to do was spend a weekend in Jeddah! It was our first time traveling inside Saudi and hopefully it won't be our last. We loved it! Here are some of the highlights

 We flew on Saudi Arlines and it was great. One interesting thing is that happened was that they read a prayer over the intercom that was intended for travelers. Never seen that before on a plane! The food on the plane was definitely Saudi too with kabobs, falafel, and humus!

We are not sure how many stars our hotel was but we are guessing it was on the lower end of the scale. However, they did have a very unique fountain in the lobby.

Next we had an amazing beach day with friends! First time to the Red Sea for us!

It was so nice going to the beach and realizing the water was warm! You can see how there was a really long shallow area and then it drops off about 40 feet. Right at the drop off there was the most amazing reef and fish! There were fish everywhere!

Here are some of the fish we saw when we were snorkeling! It was unbeleiveable how colorful the fish were and there were hundreds of them!

After we finished hanging out at the beach (and getting really sunburnt) we drove around exploring Jeddah a little bit. One thing that really stood out and that was differnt from Riyadh was there was so much art around the city. It seemed like almost every roundabout had some new sculpture or statue. We really liked this gaint camel one.

This is King Fahd Fountian and is a cool attraction in Jeddah. We were pretty far away, which shows how tall it is. The fountian shoots up 1024 feet in the air!

This was definatly a big highlight for us. Name that restaurant...

It was so nice having good Mexican food again! We ate way too much and left moving much slower.

This was another restaurant that we sort of discovered because every taxi driver we talked to said that we had to eat here. I guess "Al Baik" is one of the most famous food places in Jeddah.

They are most famous for their chicken so we had to give it a try. We really liked it!

Next we got to explore the old city of Jeddah. This was one of the old city gates that originally was built by the Ottoman Empire.

 

These were some of our favorite buildings in the old city of Jeddah.

Many of the buildins date back to 1800s. It's amazing that people are still living in them today.

We also learned that the white stones you see are actually made of coral bricks! I guess that is what you make your houses out of if you live in a desert next to the sea.

We absolutely loved our trip and hope to return again soon! Love you all and see you soon! July 2nd!!

Mud Brick Houses and the Attack of the Killer Horse

Charlie and I got to go out with some friends to a small town outside of Riyadh a few weekends back. We meet a Saudi man that was from this town and he wanted to show us around how Saudi living used to be. Hard to believe that as little as 50 years ago the even wealthy people lived in mud brick houses! The first part of the video was the tour of his house that he grew until he was about 10 years old.

The second part of the video shows the epic horse bite (go to about 10:00 min in). He took us out to a horse farm and as we found out, not all the horses were too friendly.

The last part is one of our favorite parts of being in Saudi - desert camping. We drove out to a quiet part of the desert, threw out the blankets and BBQ, and had some amazing kabobs, humus, fresh dates, Arabic coffee, and tea. It was a great night and is one more thing we have to to love about Saudi!

Also if you have not seen our other video with Saad, here is our dune bashing adventure

Dessert Camping

Two weekend ago we were able to do some more camping in the Saudi dessert. The weather is still nice so we wanted to get one more camping trip in before the weather becomes unbearable haha! Here are some pictures of our adventure!

So the first thing we saw was a herd of goats. We were excited to see some animals in the desert.

Next, we started setting up camp in a wadi which is a dry river bed. After setting up camp we decided to go for a hike up to these plateaus. The view was absolutely beautiful!

We had a good time climbing up to the top!

  

Soon after the guys returned we had some unexpected visitors to our campsite!

The camels were actually quite friendly and quite smelly haha!

The guys with there newest friends

The camels came through a couple different times with their herder who rode on a donkey.

Here is a video of one of times the camels came through 

Camels in our camp from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

After the camel invasion we sat down by the campfire and had some delicious Kabsa (chicken and rice). When we had finished the Kabsa we busted out the S’mores!!! 

After some amazing food and great conversations we headed for bed – our sleeping bag under the stars!!! Yep, no tents! I have to say, I did have one worry……. I kept thinking about the camels and I was hoping we weren’t going to get trampled haha! Luckily they waited until the morning to return and we were able to move our stuff out of the way for them. 

The camping trip was so much fun but it wouldn’t have been the same without the amazing people we spent it with! We love our new friends here and the old friends who have now joined us!

Winter 2010-2011

Wow it has been awhile. We are doing great here and tons of stuff has happened. Sorry it has been so long but here is a big recap of the last 4 months. Enjoy!

Winter 2010-2011 from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

We'll try and post a bunch of pictures and stories soon too. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Heading Back

Well believe it or not but the Hunt's are going back! I know you all had your doubts but it's official! We got our tickets two days ago and are heading out today. We leave this afternoon and should be there by about 9 pm on the 11th. Seems like it should be a nice and easy trip but we are going during the Hajj, which means a few extra million people traveling to Saudi! Either way we are headed back and looking forward to starting up again. Love you all and would love to keep in touch!

Summer 2010

Here are a few highlights from our summer!

Summer 2010 from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

What I learned on July 4th

Well everybody, Brendon's back!! Sorry there was no heads up beforehand but this was actually a pretty big surprise to all of us. I actually really didn't even find out about the flight until about 7:30 pm on July 3. That's 6 hours before I left!!! So in that six hours I scrambled around throwing the suit cases together, packed up the rest of Staci's bag (first time we have ever used skype to help pack), cleaned the apartment and tied up all loose ends before heading out. It was nuts but I got out just on time and I got home safe and sound on July 4th.

One of the things I enjoyed most on the trip was being able to come back to America on the 4th. Most of my life July 4th meant fireworks, family, and bbq, but this year was different. I got to see America more from the view of an outsider coming in. So for this post I'm going to list four different ways I appreciate America this year.

1. Freeways

I'm sure for most of you the picture above is not the most pleasant of sights. It probably reminds you more of headaches and long days than anything positive. But for us, what we see is: lines and order. It was almost funny merging onto the freeway once we got back and to see all of the cars completely in line, no one driving on the shoulder (or median for the mater) and everyone following the rules.

I got this next picture from the Holdermans and they took it in a parking garrage in Riyadh. Does anything look wrong with this picture to you? Looks like an open spot to me.

This is just one of those things you expect in a place where 4 lanes means 6, you can reverse on round when it's really busy, and where turning left can be done at a stoplight by jumping the right hand side median and swooping over four lanes before the light turns green (can't tell you the number of time we have seen this last one happen).

2. Ebonics

Oh ebonics, we missed you so much. Nothing says America like a good ol' foo, cap, or shawty. As soon as I heard the person checking my bag say, "Shevon, that is cazay" I felt right at home.

3. Reuniting with old friends

Sorry, I know that was cheesy. But seriously, this little toilet paper ring is AMAZING to see again. In Saudi you better have a back up plan because 9 times out of 10 you can bet there will be no toilet paper. Next amazing thing I saw... tissue paper seat covers. Is this heaven?

4. So excited that you can see fireworks from a plane!

I wasn't sure if I was really going to be able to see them but if look real close you can see little flashes of light below. I was lucky enough to be going over LA too, which I'm pretty sure is the city with the most bootleg fireworks known to man.

I didn't have my camera at the time but this video below shows exactly what it looks like from the plane. So crazy!

There And Back Again

Well this may be a surprise to a lot of you but I was in California a few days ago! It was a really quick trip and I did not get to tell anyone in advance. There was a good reason for the trip though… my sister got married! I was only there for 2 full days so I didn't have time to see anybody but family. Sorry for the late notice! It was a great trip though and here are some of the highlights.

The trip went as follows:

Departure – 7:00 AM Thursday April 8

Total Travel time: about 26 hours

Arrival in California – 9:55 PM Thursday April 8

If that looks strange to you, that’s good. The reason is that on the way back I gained 10 hours. It was officially the longest day I’ve ever had clocking in at 34 hours long.

It was a great wedding and my sister looked beautiful

The family and a few cousins

Me and my amazing sisters

The trip back was also pretty crazy with the total trip time at 31 hours. The reason for the extra hours was because I had a long layover in London. Definitely a highlight of the trip because during the layover I got to take a walking tour of London! I got to see a lot of big sites including...

Piccadilly circus

Big Ol Big Ben.

Big Brendon and Big Ben

Sorry about the sound, it was super windy on the bridge!

Found out that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the tower, not the tower itself.

Westminster Abbey

Trafalgar Square

Buckingham Palace

The gate to Buckingham Palace

A very tired Brendon in front of Buckingham Palace

Well those were just a few of the highlights of the trip. Sounds like I got out of London right on time before all the volcano craziness. It was a super fun trip and so glad I got to see my big sis's wedding. But have to say, it's great to be done with traveling and back at home with the Mrs again. Great seeing the family and we miss the rest of you all. Keep in touch!

Around the world in 36 hours

Here is our route to Riyadh. It will take about a day and half to get there if everything runs smoothly. We should get there about 9 PM (Saudi time) on Feb 13. Crazy news: The longest flight will be about 11 hours. Ughh! Remember us when you talk to our father!