Grocery Shopping and Eating at Chili's

I picked George up from work on Monday and we went into Al Khobar for some grocery shopping at the Safeway (we have a commissary on camp, but the Safeway offers a lot more). Keep in mind Saudis pray five or six times a day and stores shut down during prayers. Also, after the 11:30 AM prayer nothing opens again until 4 or 4:30 PM.

So, we arrived at the Safeway at 4:30 PM and I was so excited as it is huge and full of all kinds of products. Think: East meets West. This store has EVERYTHING. The meat looked really good and I found Zeina's formula; it was just great to see familiar products.

Then at five minutes to 5 PM they announce they will be closing for prayers. We scramble and purchase what is in our basket. We rush across the street (which is on the shoreline of the water and really pretty) and knock on the family entrance to Chili's. We can eat if we make it before prayers start. I don't really understand the whole thing. Everything is supposed to close down at prayer times, but restaurants only kinda sorta do. Anyway, the Chili's food tasted GREAT! They even have virgin margaritas, etc. We are at our booth in Chili's in the picture (note: this is not a good photo of any of us, but it does show that the restaurant looks just like a Chili's in the US).

So, after we finished dinner we went back over to the Safeway and purchased a few more items because they shut down again at 6:15 PM for more prayers. ARRRRGGHH! For people without children it is not too big of a problem because everything stays open till like 10 PM, so you would just go to the mall or grocery or whatever at 7 PM after the prayers are completed for the day. For us, it is impossible as Zeina wants to sleep at 7 PM!!

Anyway, it was fun and we laughed at our time constraints, baby constraints and my clothing constraints!!