A Day in the Desert

Last weekend a group of friends (plus our drivers) went out to the desert in search of these special crystals called desert roses.  Armed with shovels, buckets, water, cameras, and high hopes, we took our 4-wheel drive SUVs into the desert about an hour outside of Jubail. 

We found a place that looked good to us and started digging.  It wasn't long before we started uncovering these buried treasures!

How to find a desert rose:

Step One:  Dig.  There were plenty right on top, but some really great ones were 2-4 feet down.  Try not to crush them with the shovel!

Step Two:  Rinse.

Step Three:  Admire.

The before and after pictures are pretty incredible!

Before

After

 The fruit of our labor...

 

This one actually looks kinda like a rose!

Then of course we had to have a photo shoot!

Double double toil and trouble...

 

After a couple of hours of digging, we were starting to get tired and hungry, so we decided to pack it in and head back to town for lunch.  On the way back, we saw a group of camels on the side of the road and we jumped out for photos. 

This little cutie was the first one who decided he was going to check us out, too.  He wasn't a baby camel, but he was definitely smaller than the others.  A tweenage camel!

Well, hello there.

Heeeeeey

Photo Bomb!

Brian was the first one of the group brave enough to touch one.  They are furry!  Then we all wanted a turn to touch the camel.

Tweenage camel's friends decided they wanted us to pet them, too. 

Even our drivers were excited to hang out with the pack of camels.

The camel herder eventually came by, and looked up from his iPhone long enough to move the camels along (true story).  Cassie and I were sans abaya so we hurried back to the car. 

We capped off this incredible day by going to a pretty great Mexican restaurant!