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Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! We hope you are enjoying the holidays with friends and family and hopefully the worst of this pandemic is behind us. This blog will focus on a "Plan B" trip we had to Las Vegas...story to be told below. But first...off to a road trip at the very unique cultural museum near our house. Enjoy this session of the blog...  Ithra - King Abdulaziz Centre for World CultureJeff's work team took a trip to Ithra, the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture. This impressive structure has been listed by Time magazine as one of the world's top 100 places to visit and had over 1 million visitors in 2019. The building has incredible architecture throughout it's 80,000 square meters. There are many cultural exhibits, some rotating exhibits like the optical illusion art, a few restaurants, and many halls and auditoriums that host music events. Enjoy some of the cool items we got pics of. Las Vegas - Welcome to Sin CityWe had planned a 2 week vacation at the end of November/early December to go to Vienna, Austria for a week and Budapest, Hungary for a week. We had booked an orchestra in a famous Vienna church, a "Sparty" (spa party) in Budapest and were so excited to meet Anita for another couple weeks of shenanigans. Then we went to some friends place for a US Thanksgiving dinner and heard "Austria is locking down Monday!" This quickly detoured our plans. We tried to focus on enjoying the night, then spent Saturday rallying to cancel plans, get refunds, work on other travel plans. Figuring out travel ideas during the pandemic is a bit tricky - "where can we go?", "what is their quarantine?", "what is the risk?"....but it's the risk for trying to travel I guess. Sunday morning..."what do you think about Disneyworld?" "We've never been there!" Wait..."How about Vegas - Disneyworld for adults???" Now, we have been to Vegas many, many times. This was not new. But we were both so excited to get there, walk the strip, people watch on Fremont Street in old Vegas, see some NHL, see some NFL, maybe some shows. All booked. The National Rodeo was on so that meant that every major country star was playing, as well as Rodney Carrington, one of our favorite comedians. Booked! The Calgary Flames were playing the Golden Knights and we heard their atmosphere is amazing. Booked! "Can we go to the Neon Museum where they take all the old neon signs?" Booked! "Anita, want to join for Plan B?" Booked! Blue Man Group. Booked! Here are a few random pics of a great 8 days in Vegas. Neon Museum The Neon Museum was founded in 1996 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying, and exhibition iconic signs. Trivia Fact - Great Big Sea filmed their music video for "When I Am King" here! (video link is here - https://vimeo.com/21923377) A very cool walk and lots of pics before heading to nearby Fremont Street for drinks and people watching. Glad we took the time to see it! Blue Man Group We’ve always heard great things about this show but didn’t know much about it. Pretty unique show. Mysterious, yet funny. Such an impressive display of choreography, sound, and lighting! NHL - Vegas Golden Knights vs. Calgary Flames We started the day with a “hangover lunch” of Crackshack chicken, then found a pub (Beerhaus) to watch our Riders lose in the CFL western final (congrats Bomber fans!). The city was alive as the NFL Raiders vs. Washington game was live nearby. Then the hockey fans started arriving. Amazing outdoor and indoor atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena for the game! Christmas & New Years in BahrainWhile all of our friends ventured home to see friends and family, we stayed back in Saudi but did cross over to Bahrain for Christmas. Christmas Day tradition at home will be some perogies with bacon and onions. Bahrain is alive with many brunches - around $80 USD for all you can eat & drink for 4 hours. Merry Christmas! Afternoon brunches on the 24th, evening on the 24th, afternoon on the 25th, and then New Years Eve. Here are a few pics... Upcoming Travel Feb 10-17 - T&A 2022 visits Cabo San Lucas - we finally get to see our T&A friends after missing 2021 (F You Covid) and skipping 2020 when they went to Costa Rica. Can't wait to see everyone in the birthplace of T&A on the west coast. So far, we have the following trouble makers meeting us down there - Mark, Gayle, Vern, Noreen, Anita, Joe, and Meghan. Hope Santa brought tickets for a few more of you! Feb 17-22 - South Beach Miami. Been here many times. Love the people watching, beach, shopping, restaurants, and bars. Excited to get back. April 29-May 4 - Maldives or Seychelles? Not sure yet. July 8-17 - Canada August 1-10 - Tanzania and Zanzibar possibly ...safari and beach time Sept 12-Oct 5 - Spain Nov 9-14 - No plans yet Well, this blog closes out 2021. Even though it wasn't back to normal, things seemed a lot more normal than what we dealt with in 2020. We are very grateful to have made it through the year healthy and to be lucky enough to have travelled and seen friends & family. We hope you all had a great holiday season...wishing you all the best in 2022! Love from L&J  
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