I have gotten out and had some fun with my new camera... both my D80 (I am SO in love!!) and my couple-months-old Canon Powershot A720, which is also a pretty nice little piece of equipment.

So, here are some of the pictures I've taken from my roof over the last few nights:

That would be the Grand Mosque towards the left, the same one from the pictures inside from when I first got here.

Life in the desert means swimming pools are very popular, of course. It's often too hot to really sit outside during the day in the peak weeks of summer, though some people with pools in the shade go swimming more often. Most apartment buildings have pools on the roof, and they sure do look inviting! When I took this picture at maybe 9pm a few nights ago, it was probably nearly 100 degrees and about 60 percent humidity. The moment I stepped outside, my camera lens, eyepiece, and LCD screen all fogged over and took a while to adjust. I'm glad that the equipment is ready to handle those tempuratures! (I couldn't take it out midday when the temps are 130 to 140, though.)
Here's a skyline from another view to the right of the Mosque. The dark area there is water, and the little extra-dark spec you may not be able to see is this old boat sitting in the middle of the shallows.

This, of course, is that old boat, and this is the first time I've seen people wading out to it, though I've often been tempted to do so myself. The kids were running up playing around it (I couldn't see from my angle if they were actually getting into/onto the boat) ... the figure in the upper left is a woman in an abaya who hiked the bottom up a bit to wade in.

There were two guys who walked all around the water (pretty far out at points) and took some dunks. A few people swam in it, too. I'll let you know what the water's like whenever I do get to go see it close-up. One of the Prayer Times was happening just after this, but I couldn't tell from where I was if any of the swimmers/waders were praying from their watery locations.

And to give you an idea of the rest of the surroundings.... The water is most often further out (most of my pictures of this boat show it surrounded by dry land) but you can tell it also can get much higher.

As you can also see, the architecture here is quite impressive, and there are buildings around town that probably wouldn't be legal in most places in the US. Very daring and very unique!

So this is where I live... anyone gonna come visit?