Barbie, Beaches, and Birthday

This morning I woke up early to skype home and see the family.  What a great way to start my day!  It was the first time we had really been able to talk since I have been gone.  Then I had to have all of my luggage downstairs to load before breakfast so that we could hurry off to the airport.  When we arrived, we scurried through security. We had to actually go through traditional security screening this time.  It was interesting to see how segregated security works.  The women were sent through a special cubical room to be searched and cleared.  Then the two groups were able to return to their nonchalant mixing.  We greatly enjoyed our flight across the country, from one coast to the other.  Upon arriving in Jeddah, we went to our hotel.  Our rooms were not ready, so we were taken to the hotel restaurant that only opens for Friday brunch.  Friday brunch?  Friday is the end of the Saudi weekend, the equivalent of the American Sunday.  People will go to the mosque and then out to lunch just like Americans going to church and then out to eat.  It's funny to think that they dread their Saturday mornings like we dread our Monday mornings-only while we are enjoying our Saturday mornings.  We had a chance to get settled in before we went to the Red Sea Mall.  It became our mission during our mall visit to find a culturally acceptable Barbie.  We had heard from one of the other fellows that a Barbie wearing an abaya and hijab existed, so we knew it would not be an impossible mission, only a challenging one.  We had looked in one store at the last mall, but didn't find it.  Well, tonight we did.  We found one (pictures to come tomorrow) that was a little pricey, so we searched the entire mall.  In our quest, we also found morning prayer Barbie and Barbie clothes with a hijab too.  We are still in the search for a reasonably priced, culturally appropriate Barbie.  We will find one, inshallah.  After the mall we went down to the Red Sea corniche. It's what I kind of imagine the Jersey shore boardwalk to look like.  There were people selling balloons, paddle boats, families picnicking, little food vendors, carnival rides, and the shore.  It was actually quite enchanting.  We are going to try to go back in the day light so that we can get better pictures.  We were quite cute walking in the sand in our abayas.  Now we are getting ready to celebrate one of our fellow's birthday with a simple little party.  It's been a great first day in Jeddah.  We are greatly looking forward to the grand finale of our trip and hopefully plenty of shopping in the markets!