Odds and Ends - Dick and Carol's Adventures

Carey, Chad and the kids were the best of hosts! They had a ton of stuff going on, but seemed to take care of us first. We thank them for a great time. They had report cards due and Carey is traveling to Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday with her Destination Imagination teams for competition. She will be gone for 4 days with 10 students!

This one is for you, Meredith!


This is the ceiling in part of the Wafi Mall in Dubai -



Cell phone towers in Dubai are cleverly disguised as extremely tall palm trees.


Cameron doing his C3PO imitation - saying "wait for me, R2!" Not a very good video, but had to share it!

Fallon lost her 6th tooth while we were there!

We came across areas where fields full of standing up rocks were found. We did not find out what it was about, and will check into it further. It seemed so strange as though they were placed on end on purpose.

Travel Back to Wisconsin

As the last day continued, we were faced with the dreaded time - 9:30 PM - time to leave for the airport. Our bags were packed and repacked, by far lighter than when we came with all the dried black beans, mac and cheese, homemade pickles and salsa and jelly beans. Saying good bye to everyone is always the worst thing.

We traveled for our last time through the traffic of Muscat, however it was not that heavy at that time of night.

We were stopped in airport security for a couple of things - there was metal that needed to be dug out of the suitcase - it was a bag of decorative metal locks from the souq that triggered the detectors and also some medical equipment that I carry that includes a battery pack, was suspicious and they would not allow me to carry it on the plane, maybe not at all on the plane, in checked bags either because I did not have the prescription with me from the doctor - note to everyone - take copies of prescriptions with you when traveling with prescription meds or equipment. After about a half hour of discussion, it was determined that the equipment would be allowed to continue with us but had to be in checked baggage. There was not a problem with this equipment coming through Chicago and Heathrow because they had the equipment to test it to see it was not dangerous, but the Muscat Airport does not have the ability to do that. Thankfully Carey was with us through security and could help us sort through the options.

After saying our goodbyes to Carey, we journeyed through the rest of the airport to find our final resting spot until our flight was called.

There were a lot more people taking this flight than when we came in. This flight makes a stop in Abu Dhabi (40 minute flight) to drop people off and pick up other passengers before it continues to Heathrow Airport in London. Thought we were home free because no one had taken the aisle seat after it appeared everyone had boarded. Suddenly, out of nowhere - a large man appeared. He walked past our row, only to return a short time later to sit in the aisle seat next to me, Carol. We were very tired and slept as well as we could for the start of the flight. An hour or two into the flight, it became very apparent that large aisle man had turned into large SNORING aisle man. He had his noise blocking Bose headset on for good reason. Several people turned around to see where the snoring was coming from. Needless to say, the rest of the 8+ hour flight was not very restful. He slept - and snored - through meals, drinks - all of it. He continued to sleep through landing, travel on the tarmac and only woke up when they turned on the overhead lighting and people started to make noise getting their bags out of the overhead compartments. It was an experience. Had it been Dick, or someone I knew, I would have given an elbow in the ribs.

Our layover in Heathrow was 5 hours long. We had coffee and a macaroon in a coffee shop, walked to the couple of shops and sat in Gate 46 for the wait. We were right by the window and could watch the goings on of British Airways loading and unloading freight and food into planes. I read a book.

Finally it was close to loading time, only to realize they changed our gate sometime after our arrival. We now had to go to gate 34 and it was packed. No wonder there were not many people in gate 46!

We were fortunate enough to sit with a very friendly lady and her friend from the UK who were traveling to Chicago on "holiday." They enjoyed a bit of the "bubbly" and were very pleasant to talk with.

Dick enjoys sitting on the window seat to watch all that goes on below - not me, he can have the window seat anytime. The pictures are of Iceland, Greenland and the final one is the shore of Lake Michigan and Chicago.


No worries coming through customs, Chris was waiting for us at the gate and we were out of the airport and quickly on our way home.

Beach and Sardines

In the afternoon of the day we were leaving, we went to the beach a few miles from Carey and Chad's house. There we found many shells that had washed to shore during high tide, although Carey said there were probably more earlier when the high tide left and were already picked up by other people. We wanted to fly a kite, but no wind. There were men with a boat, a truck and large nets on the beach. They were netting sardines out of the ocean. Just over the ridge on the other side of the beach road, we saw hundreds of thousands of sardines laid out on the sand drying. The fishermen load the nets into the back of pickup trucks and haul them over the drying area to dump them out and spread them out to dry. We watched as the fishermen tried to launch their boat by pulling it with the truck, but when they were not successful, they decided to push the boat out into the water with the truck instead!The seagulls are helpful to the fisherman to show where the schools of sardines are.

Nizwa - Souq and Goat Market

After checking into the hotel in Nizwa in the foothills of the mountains, we traveled to the downtown area where the souq was located. We walked through part of the souq marveling at all of the silver and gold, intricate designs on pottery and wood, fabrics and some shop items that seemed to not fit in with their "made in China" stickers on the bottom. One of my purchases was a silver fish bracelet and another was a finely woven basket with camel hide sewn to the bottom outside - a camel milk basket it is called - woven fine enough to hold milk. Dick got a hanging clay pot that is used as an air conditioner - when filled with water, the evaporation given off will cool a room - I am guessing only one pot will not do much to cool a room, but the thought of carrying more than one on the plane prevented more from being purchased.

We went to a small diner on the main street in search of good food - we were shuffled off to a side "family room" to be seated. Food was ordered - too much as usual - but good, although Carey and Chad say they have had better, we did not know any different. I, Carol, was comfortable eating rice - it looked safe. You can never be quite sure what the meat is...

As we were leaving, the moon was rising over the mountain tops - it was quite a site to see Again - you cannot ever capture the true site with a photo. By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were able to see the moon come up a second time over a different part of the mountains.

The next morning, we made our way back to the souq area of town for the 'goat market'. Hundreds of people were there along with their most prized goats and cows to sell to the highest bidder. Several men at a time would walk their animals around a large circle to show off their qualities. We are not really sure how the bidding or selling works, but saw money exchanged somehow for animals. There were hundreds of animals. Along with the Friday morning goat market, a farmer's market of sorts is set up in a parking lot - with lots

of rugs and housewares being sold. The fruit and vegetable market is also going on in a building in the souq. There is also one whole building just for the date souq, with bags and bags of dates stacked up to be sold.

Next, we went to the Nizwa Fort - it is a museum inside of an original fort - the largest fort built in Oman. Built in the 1660's, the Nizwa Fort protected it's city which is located in the interior of the country and the ancient capitol of Oman. Hot date syrup was used as a weapon - poured on unsuspecting intruders through holes in the ceilings above.

Nizwa -

After the mountains, we went to Nizwa - and checked into a hotel. It was a very nice hotel with a pool. Of course, that was the furthest thing from our minds that there might be swimming - so of course no suits were packed - it did not stop the kids from going in their clothes...
we were treated to a dolphin show and a deep sea diver - although the deep sea diver gulped too much water and was forced to "puke" it up on the pool deck - poor Cameron loves the water so much, but has to learn to keep his mouth shut!

Travel into the Mountains

We set out for the mountains on Thursday, March 12. The plan was to travel to 8,000 feet up. It was truly mountain "climbing." You must check in with the guard post to let them know you are going up and drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Some of the grades were extremely steep. Unbelievably though, there was a full paved highway, complete with passing lanes, with guard rails and cement fences, along with electric lighting all the way up. Some of the switchbacks were so tight, you literally would "crawl" around the corners. At the level we stopped at, amazing things again were found...

a pomegranate plantationbuilt on terraces cut into the mountain sides - the pomegranates
are highly prized from this grower and bring in a lot of cash.

fossils of shells and coral from the ocean - as stated earlier in the blog, the mountains of Oman are unusual because they were formed from a collision of plate tectonics pushing the ocean floor up to form mountains, instead of being shoved deeper in the ocean. Imagine seeing ocean fossils 8,000 feet up.



I, Carol, was pretty much a chicken and preferred view the mountain sites from inside the car. The thought of looking over the edge was a little much for me...

Poopie Trucks

Because there is not a sewage system in the city of Muscat, they have trucks working nonstop to pump holding tanks of all buildings. Cameron is very quick to point out the "poopie trucks" driving around town. The "poopie" trucks are yellow, while the potable water is in blue trucks and the desalinated non-drinking water is in green trucks. Carey said the poopie truck makes stops at their school at least once, if not twice daily...