Marhaba! 

We arrived in Bahrain after a long overnight flight – about 14 hours. All 3 legs of our journey went smoothly.

Some highlights:

When we landed in Bahrain, we were met by a person holding a sign with our names on it. I felt totally “Hollywood!” We were whisked away to a lounge, offered juice or water, and were told to wait there while our bags were collected for us. Not having to deal with baggage claim after 24 hours in planes was heavenly! We felt utterly spoiled.

Once all of our bags were gathered (for all of us who landed about the same time — 54 bags in all!! — we were taken through immigration. This is where we had our first true “New Griswolds” moments.

First, we weren’t provided visas for the boys. After some deliberation, we decided to pay for the required fee for them instead of sending the boys back to the U.S. 😉

Second, we were detained because, it turns out, Jim was Blacklisted! Well, not Jim. Another Jim Miller was and that had to be straightened out before he could enter the country. I was tempted to leave without him (hey, I was delirious from 24+ hours of no sleep!), but then I figured I’d better wait. After all, we’d just paid for the boys to come into the country, and since we hadn’t hired a nanny yet, I needed someone to help take care of them.

Once everyone was cleared, we were led to the bus that would take us to our home. This was the first time we spent any time outside in Bahrain. We were told to prepare for the heat. We were told it is sometimes humid. However, who would expect 100F+ temperatures with 50% humidity at 11:15 PM!?! Seriously, it was HOT!!!!

We couldn’t wait to get on the bus that would take us to our villa, especially knowing air conditioning was waiting for us. The bus ride was only about 20 minutes (Bahrain is a small island!). We got dropped off about 1/2 a block from our home, gathered our items (and our kids), and made our way to our new home.

Once inside, we were thrilled to find the beds were made, cupboards were stocked, and we had everything we needed for the first few days. We dropped our bags and went to bed. It felt great to finally be able to stretch out our bodies and sleep…without Van and Karston on top of each other this time.