Hello dear friends from around the world. When you last checked in with ActiveSteve, I had managed to successfully avoid creating a full-fledged international incident, but only barely. I can happily report that the next few posts will likely not contain anything quite as nail-biting, but will nonetheless be interesting posts about my activities over the last several days of our time in Saudi Arabia. The next chapter of our travels includes continuing our progress westward towards the ocean port of Jeddah , which also happens to be the city nearest to Mecca, that mysterious, mystical place completely forbidden to visitation by non-Muslims. No worries, I didn't use my rapidly-growing beard as a disguise to penetrate the security there, as that would be sheer madness. The flight from Al-Ula was quick, efficient, and non-eventful. It was a pretty small plane, and surprisingly, we didn't even get served a meal, which was quite a surprise to Patrick, who was of the belief that regardless of the flight duration in Saudi, you always ate ;-). Anywho, before reading on, check out the pictures from Jeddah that we took, then immerse yourself in my thoughts on this big seaside city.

Welcome back all. I'm sorry if you're all reading these one after the other, as I know that the text of my narrative can sometimes drag on. Just remember that for every 5 paragraphs you read, there's probably another 15 paragraphs of memories and thoughts that I'm sparing you. I kid you not when I say that it takes me at least an hour for each of these posts. And that's only if I sit and write them straight through... This tale revolves around another magnificent adventure that we had in Saudi Arabia. Namely, the visit to the Kingdom's first, and so far only, Unesco World Heritage site, Mada'in Saleh. Many of you may have heard of a little place called Petra in Jordan, right? Well, Mada'in Saleh, is the 2nd city of the Nebateans, this one carved in to the rock hills very close to Al Ula. The stone in this area is actually harder than in Jordan, and as a result, some of these tombs are even better preserved. However, for reasons beyond the scope of this post, many Muslims have a beef with this site, and so they have tried to deface and damage it, and in many cases have succeeded. Read on for more great information about this place, and what we did there. As usual, make sure you check out all the pictures on flickr before you read on!

Well my friends, here it is. A worthy blog post about travels within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not only would Jody and I be undertaking internal flights, but we were actually bound for Medina, which is one of the two holiest places for all Muslims. In fact, the city centre is completely forbidden to entry by any non-Muslims. Luckily, the airport is located outside the city, and our transport would be taking us all the way to our hotel without ever entering the city. Of course, the actual purpose of our traveling to this area was not to visit a holy Muslim site, as that is a very bad idea. We were bound for two very special places, one known as Al-Ula, and one known as Mada'in Saleh. These are areas of archeological and historical significance. Mada'in Saleh in fact has just recently been declared a UNESCO world heritage site, the first one of its kind in all of Saudi Arabia. We would be visiting these two sites together on the same day, but I would argue that each of them on its own is worth a blog post, so that's how I'll write them up and present them to you. For your pleasure, I have of course put up a whole boat-load of pictures to check out on flickr. So why don't you do that, then read my story?

When you last left ActiveSteve, I had filled you all in on the excitement of Christmas in the Kingdom, which had us wending our way through the camel souq, and then dining as we watched the horse races at the Riyadh racetrack. As you might imagine, after several days of action, it was time for a little bit of downtime on the homefront. Luckily, Boxing Day is just the sort of thing for that. So, although I do have a little bit of storytelling I can share with you, for the most part it was a chill day, with time spent with family. In spite of all this, we were set for a supper gathering with more of Andrea's friends, in particular, we were dining with some Swiss diplomats, and as you might imagine, Fondue was on the menu :-) yum yum. Read on for a little bit more about our day, and don't forget to check out the album of pictures up on Flickr.

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas. By the time you actually read this, it will of course be late on boxing day, but I have a good excuse for being a bit behind. I'm in the magical Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and have better things to be doing than blogging all the time. However, I can't seem to help myself. When everyone else has gone to bed, or whenever I can steal a few minutes, I try to fire up the old computer machine and try to dash off a few lines, which brings me to this post. I wanted to get this fired up and online before we left for some internal trips for the next week. We'll be away from Riyadh, and I'll be unable to do any blogging while on the road. So this post will have to keep you entertained until we get back here to the Diplomatic Quarters. However, I can assure you that this will be a great little post, as we did some pretty unique things on Christmas day over here. Last year, I found myself at an all day cricket test in Auckland, NZ, and this year, I have a similar experience to share with you all, but you'll have to read on to find out exactly what it is. You might also want to just check out the pictures on flickr that were put up from the day!

Another day, another series of little stories to share with you all. I'll try not to get too long winded as if I do that, I'll never actually get these posts done :-) At the end of my last tale, we had just wrapped up day 1 with a great view of Riyadh at night, and head headed off to slumber to get ready for another day of fun. Andrea had to work once again, but only for a half day, but it was long enough that we had a chance to head out for a little more exploration with Patrick and Helena in their SUV. The target of our exploration this time around was to be the Wadi , or creek-bed that lies around Riyadh and the DQ. This area only gets rain a few times in the year, but when it does, it causes flash flooding sometimes. This is the area where it would happen, but for most of the year, it is actually a roadway of sorts. Read on for a little bit about that as well as some other things I did on Christmas Eve. As usual, don't forget to check out flickr for more great shots!

Hello everyone! I figured it was time to give you all an update on the happenings of me over in Saudi Arabia. As you likely pieced together from the last couple posts, we had a very smooth arrival in the Kingdom. Unfortunately, the Internet connection from here is rather slow, making it difficult to fire off too many emails or do other things. In spite of this, I've still managed to post quite a few pictures on our flickr page, so feel free to head over to our sets page and check out the latest while we're over here. I will also attempt to give a little insight into our first few days over here in Riyadh and the Diplomatic Quarter. I've decided that although these are the same physical place, life is much different in the DQ than in Riyadh. Namely, I am on 'Canadian soil' when I'm at the embassy and in the house here, so we have a lot more breathing room in terms of what we can do while here compared to traveling around the city. I'll try to keep this post on the short side, as we are leaving shortly for the camel souq and the horse races, and I've only got a little time to sort out my thoughts. Read on for the details.

Hello hello my dear friends. Hope you're all doing well. As for me, well, it's been a whirlwind 24 hours in jolly ole England. I've just cleared all the security hurdles, and now find myself with a couple hours to kill before we board our flight for Riyadh. What better time to fire off a blog post than right now? I've even had a chance to download the pictures from my camera and get them captioned, so hopefully I'll be able to upload some of those in the near term as well. If not, then I apologize. At any rate, the arrival into London went very smoothly, and there were no issues getting our bags and getting through customs. Before we knew it, we were starting the longish trek to find the tube station which would whisk us into London proper. We decided to just buy some day passes so that we could get to a few of the sights a little easier than on foot. Read on for a full dump of the day, and what we got up to in our brief time, made even more complicated by the fact that we were a little tired. Click here for pictures.