Lunch With the Babes

If memory serves we had planned to eat at a different place in Pike Place Market but when we got there it was booked, which was annoying but it led to us trying a place we'd never dined at before: Shama. 

It was a modern Moroccan cuisine type of joint. Sadly Lydia has never been to Morocco but luckily she could rely on my knowledge of the country to make her menu decisions.

My very good boy ordered Lydia milk for lunch. Great choice.

Ernie is the perfect lunch date. He doesn't eat food and he never interrupts my stories.

I had the shakshouka "scented tomatoes, bell pepper, olives, cilantro oil, baked egg & pita." I recently had my first shakshouka in Israel and I am now a convert, ordering it wherever it appears. They were kind of stingy with the pita so I ordered another side of it.

Lydia went for the "M'killa: prawns, calamari, roasted garlic, sharmoula, dry harissa, Atlas olive oil & pita."

Look!

I have some monster feet so I'm curious to see how big the pup is going to grow.

Goodbye Israel, Hello Saudi Arabia

We ventured from our Tel Aviv hotel one last time to get some lunch.

We spotted this little place called Urbano that had a nice little glassed-in patio for some people watching while we ate.

I had my first shakshuka which was absolutely amazing. I had to ask for another loaf of bread to help mop it all up.

Our flight to Saudi Arabia was about to occur and we got a charming email from the hotel about which times which gender was allowed to use the pool and fitness center.

A group of very embarrassing Americans were sitting at a table nearby and got into an argument with the waiter about why there was sales tax on their bill since they were foreigners. These people were clearly idiot amateurs and needed to hurry back home ASAP. You only get duty free purchases on things that you physically take home with you. Not friggin' a salad at a restaurant. 

Both the food and the location made this lunch the perfect way to wrap up our time in Israel.

I'd heard a couple of stories about Israeli immigration being tough and not being shy about detaining Americans for random interviews. We'd crossed the border a few times now without much incident so far, but our luck finally ran out. First of all the lining up thing at the airport was very strange. They had everyone in one big line, then you talked to these security goons, then you got in another line for your actual airline in order to check in. So when we got to the front of the line they pulled us aside, made us wait to be interviewed by their manager which took a long wait. Then asked a bunch of questions about where we were going, where we had been, our jobs, our marital status.. just a bunch of knucklehead crap. We were almost late for our flight but we finally made it past those geniuses and boarded the plane.

Men and women had separate security scanning lines.

The King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was nice.

I always love it when other countries use Uber. It really simplifies our lives.

Tonight our residence would be the Aloft Riyadh.

I could barely sleep when I was hit by the culture shock of the exotic flavor of these Arabian Doritos.