Sometimes You Get Waffles, Sometimes You Get Steak, Sometimes You Get Waffles & Steak – But If You're Cute You Get a Rib Bone

Kuwait can seem like the Atlanta Airport of the Middle East as a lot of folks transit through here on their way elsewhere.  In the past week, in fact, we had two major reality stars come through. Kim Kardashian and my second oldest son.  Kim was on her way to Bahrain to market milkshakes and was greeted by protestors, and my son was on his way to Afghanistan to help a nation stand up and defend itself, he will be greeted with open arms by the guy he went there to replace.  Both are realities, but in my mind there is only one star,  the other is a pariah.

Son flew in to catch a connector flight, so I drove out to Ali Al Salem to see him,  at the time we were not sure how much time we would have since his ongoing travel arrangements were not concrete.  In the end he spent two nights here, staying in my guest room instead of a 15 man tent at the base.  Since he had some free time and he arrived on my day off, we took in a few sights.

Before coming here last March, I had been in and out of Kuwait many times and even during the last nine months (yes, nine months), I have never been to their Hard Rock Café.  So we went and had lunch there.  The hamburgers,  were – as usual for Hard Rock – expensive but awesome.  The building has a gorgeous view of the Gulf too, well worth a stop if you are in town.

From there we went down to the Kuwaiti Towers,  the major landmark in the city.  There is a restaurant and observation deck in the Towers, but they are currently closed for renovation.    Note: I didn’t write about it when it happened,  but Kuwait celebrated the  50^th Anniversary of their Constitution a few weeks back and that included a $5 Million fireworks show that was held near the Towers.  I did not go to the show, I can only imagine how bad the traffic was, but it is now in the Guinness Book as the most expensive ever staged.

That evening we went back out to base,  and again my son did not make it on to a flight.  I had to go to work the next day,  so the Son watched TV,  did homework, and gave Falkor a bath – up until then Falkor enjoyed the idea of company –after the bath,  not so much.  I took off from work early and we went to one of my favorite restaurants,  Waffle and Steak.  We took Falkor along with us and sat at one of the outside tables,  since the weather was nice.  The manager was immediately taken with Falkor and brought him out a rib bone,  he then packed up another one for the dog to take home.  The manager even took Falkor  for a short walk while we ate.  Whereas many Arabs seem to have dog phobias,  the Filipinos and Indians working here seem to like dogs a lot;  I think it may be memories of owning dogs of their own at home.    Falkor is welcome inside a few local eateries and stores – which blows me away when you consider a few months ago he was considered a mongrel who was thrown out into the street.

Speaking of being thrown in the street,   I drove my son back out to the base and this time he made a flight out and I have email that he safely made it to the other side where is now sleeping in an unheated tent with no bedding waiting for the final leg of his journey to Leatherneck to begin.

13931