Pink cheeked at Al-Zubara Fort

"Atticus, why are you putting a cheese stick down your pants!?!?"

My plans were foiled last time I planned an adventure, but we still adventured. This time my husband joined our adventure so if we broke down I wouldn't be all alone out in the boonies with my "battery" of boys. Plus, I think he enjoys spending time with us.

We drove north, stopped in Al-Khor, got lunch (the first time we actually encouraged Hector to eat McDonald's chicken nuggets. Ugh!), and then set out on the open road. Free from all cares, free from all life, free from everything except the sound of Atticus saying things like, "Why do we have to go to this place?", "When we get there can we just look at it for one second and then go home?", "Are we half-way there yet?" Knowing that once we got there, we would have plenty of fun, I tried to stay positive and just wait for him to get tired of complaining.

The first time we stopped the car was for me to go out to some nearby sidra trees and have my picture taken. OK, I don't know if they were real sidra trees. I just had my picture taken with them just in case they were and then I would have my own picture of real live sidra trees from Qatar. The fact that anything grows out there is a miracle to me. What also was a miracle was that when I told Jonathan to stop the car so I could have my picture taken with the trees, I said,"Anyone want to come with me to see the trees?", Atticus and Sherman came with me. No coaxing, not even waiting to see if they would answer. They both followed me. Atticus kept saying that he saw a scorpion. I looked around and saw no life except for the trees. I thought I would see something when I flung into the air a plank of wood that was sitting there crisping in the sun. I said, "OK kids, watch and be amazed! When this wood moves, you will see little animals scurrying out from underneath!" The suspense was high and I'm sure the kids believed me, but we were all disappointed when there was nothing nestled under the wood. We did find some cool rocks on the way back to the car. Cooler than anything else (rubble from old cement houses) we've ever found in Qatar. These were real sedimentary rocks.
Then we drove on a little ways and saw a massive fort on the right. Except it looked newish. It was actually a sports club. The style was quite fitting for Qatar, however, I wondered why such a huge sports club would be built out on the northern tip of the peninsula when hardly anyone lives out there. We finally got to Al-Zubara Fort. It looked a lot like the sports club but smaller. It was safe enough for little Pink-cheeked Hector to waltz around in. We looked through every little hole in that fort. Some of them had lizards in them, others had birds' nests. There was a nice room for my kids to imagine was theirs. My favorite part about the fort was that we basically had it to ourselves. Some other visitors came and left while we were there but they didn't seem to mind how loud we were. Jonathan just had to play his favorite game with the kids. Hide and seek.
On our way back we saw a caravan of camels in the distance. We got a picture but I'm too lazy to add it now. If you go to Al-Zubara take lots of water and pray you don't have to go to the bathroom! It's worth it since it's one of the only places that I've felt that sticky dryness in my mouth from lack of water. You can partly imagine what you would feel like living (I mean really living) in the desert and appreciating every drop of water you feel on your lips. You can sit in the entryway of the fort and feel the slight breeze cool your skin. Cinci is letting the breeze skim his pink cheeks while shreiks and screams echo off the walls of the fort. It's a pleasant place.