Fore? (as in golf!)

 I made my first rather big shopping trip last week. There are a few things you need to understand about shopping here. I can never get everything I want at one store--sometimes it's lack of availability, sometimes it's just not ever there, and sometimes it's just me being picky about quality or brand. Another thing that's different from home is that there are stores like a Target inside the malls. Kind of convenient, unless you parked down a level, and you have a huge cart-full of purchases to somehow move from level 2 to level 1 and there's no elevator! They have escalators here in all the shopping centers, stores, and malls that instead of stairs are ramps with "teeth" that grip shopping cart wheels. I've used them many times with Don along, but now that I am mobile, it was time for my first trip on my own. Here's a picture:

The people in front of me have NO IDEA I'm about to lose the
cart because I'm fiddling with trying to take the picture plus the fact
that it is darn hard to hold on to it anyway since gravity is
working against you and my cart is VERY heavy!

I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of the other people at the
mall--going up to shop while I am going down to the parking lot.

The picture below was taken in front of the second store I visited that day. It is a stand alone store, 2-story, carrying both groceries and goods. I like this store a lot; it carries lots of US products that I can't find elsewhere, imported produce from around this half of the world, and it is as close to one-stop shopping as I can get! They have home goods, school/office supplies, toys, appliances large and small, and holiday decorations on the second floor. The parking is close and convenient. I frequently see police cars cruising through the lot when I am there. One thing I don't understand is why people continuously park in the No Parking Zone in front of the store. Tickets are never issued, so I guess that's why they keep doing it! Also notice that the shopping carts are stored outside under the tent. I wonder how hot they will feel this summer........

I have never been to this stand-alone store without seeing at least one car parked in the "NO PARKING" zone!

She's Here!

Okay, I've slacked off a little bit from posting lately, but I've had a good reason--and her name is Julieanne! Let me introduce you to my first grandchild:

She's a sweetie, and even though I haven't held her yet, she has stolen my heart. She came home from the hospital today and is getting ready to spend her first night at home. She eats well, sleeps well, and has her daddy wrapped around her little finger! I'm sure you will see more of her in these posts as time goes by. I can't wait to visit her next month and hold her myself! Mimi loves you, Julieanne!

Arroyo, valley, channel--a wadi by by a different name!

So, my last post was the first half of our Friday trip. We had reached our southern destination on the coast, Sur, and had turned around to go back home. Not really having much choice, we went back the same way we came, knowing we had missed a few sights along the way.

When we stopped to take pictures of the camel (shown at the end of my last post), we noticed a small cluster of homes off the road in the background. Did you ever read the children's book, "Mr. Pine's Purple House?" It was written by Leonard P. Kessler and published in 1965 (I'm dating myself now--my mom must have purchased it right after it came out!). Here is a quote from the beginning of the book:

 Mr. Pine lived on Vine Street in a little white house. "A white house is fine," said Mr. Pine, "but there are FIFTY white houses all in a line on Vine Street. How can I tell which house is mine?" 

Not to ruin the story for any of you grown-ups out there, but Mr. Pine eventually painted his house purple to differentiate it from all the others, which led to even more changes in the neighborhood. I immediately thought of this book when I saw these houses. Can you tell why I am including this picture?

The houses are all virtually the same, except there is the yellow-green one, and
if you look way down the block, you can see the pink one!

After seeing the dam, the camel, the goats, the beach--we thought we were ready to go home. We were passing a wadi we had seen on the way down, and we pulled over for a better shot at it with the camera. (We were going so fast, I missed the water the first time. Don's race-car driving with no stopping had become a minor point of contention, but like a good husband, he's a quick learner!) Don got out of the car and took the pictures below of some old buildings in the village of Tiwi.

We were intrigued by the  water, so we exited the highway and drove down to the village. The road was under construction, and I was a little apprehensive, but we were rewarded by this view of the "mushroom rock" at low tide:

We parked the car and went to investigate what the guys with the boats were doing and why all the people were down here. We discovered there was a state park of sorts called the Wadi Shab. There was a big group having a cookout, the boats were transportation across the water so you could trek back through the wadi to the waterfalls.

Large group cooking out on back left of picture. These mountains are huge--I'm not sure the picture does it justice!

Rules of the Wadi Shab

Being the adventurous tourist as always, Don got us on a boat to cross the river.

This is a close-up of the driver of our boat.

 We took off across the water, and started our climb back into the mountains. Just for the record, I made the climb just fine! I took pictures of Don when we got to the first set of waterfalls--I just didn't go out to the waterfalls! I couldn't believe how many people were out there that afternoon.

See the young men in traditional dress that we rode the boat over with? 

Beautiful vegetation at the base of the mountain, watered by the wadi.

I was glad they had reinforced some parts of the rock so that there was usually some solid footing. We are past the halfway mark of our trek here.

Just around the bend beyond our sight is a small pool where lots of people were swimming.

Don at the first waterfall.

Walking back to the boat.

A boat full of young Omani girls getting out as we were heading back to ride to the other side.
Like typical teenage girls, they were giggling and talking non-stop!

 We headed back after getting to just the first set of waterfalls because the boats stopped running at 5:30 and we didn't want to get left behind. However, we know that we want to go back and hike that extra 30 or 45 minutes even farther back to see more waterfalls where they hold cliff-diving competitions! I'll just have to save that for another blog--probably next winter as I surely wouldn't make this trek in the heat of summer!

A wadi by any other name...

We took off across the countryside yesterday, thinking we were going one place and ending up another, but it turned out to be a very serendipitous choice! We drove south out of Muscat, through the mountains, paralleling the sea coast. We came across two wadis, a dam with a park, an old castle, an ancient village, LOTS of goats, a couple of donkeys, a camel, and beautiful ocean and mountain scenery.

We traveled through the mountains first. This is just one of the many pictures we took. These
mountains are never the same color twice. It is a view that never grows old!

We came around a curve, and could see this magnificent view of the Oman Gulf.

Our first stop was at the Wadi Dayqah Dam. For those of you wondering what a wadi is: a dried up riverbed found in mountain valleys that fill with water from heavy rains. Some wadis are only full during the rainy season, some have water year-round to support the vegetation.

The dam holds water back from the Wadi Dayqah. The color of the water is simply inexpressibly beautiful. What an imagination our God has!

Driving around one mountain to reach the dam--straight ahead, even though we can't see it yet!

Don on the wadi side of the dam.

The wadi leading down between the mountains.

The water on the other side of the dam! Have you ever seen such a beautiful color of water?

Park at the top. Lots of families were out enjoying the beautiful vista. 

Don made a new friend who was very anxious to get his
picture taken while we were touring the dam!

We left the dam and continued on south. We made it as far as the town of Sur before turning around and heading back. A few surprises still awaited us!

We caught this herd of goats trying to scramble up the side of a small hill after running across the four-lane highway.

I called "Beauty" to this goat, who graciously paused, turned and posed for my camera while were pulled over at the side of the highway. Something tells me that these scrappy creatures have very interesting personalities!

Our next stop was a small village right on the gulf. The tourist attraction sign (brown, just like in the U.S. !!?) said "Ancient Village". We had to off-road it, but we drove up to some beach camping structures and nosed around a little bit. It was low tide, and so it was just a little stinky in spots, but the beach and ocean views were fantastic!

Beach structure behind the car. There were several along that area of beach. You can see today's village in the background. Can you imagine living here centuries ago?

We continued on down the road, saw this sign and thought, "why not?" 

This was at the back side of the castle. Obviously, not in the best shape.

We discovered as we drove around to the front of the structure that it is in the process of being renovated. Probably won't be here long enough to see it competed!

This was a section of very old wall in the village area around the castle. People are still living in and around here.

Heading on down the road on the return trip, we came around a bend and saw this camel running alongside the pick up truck. They were running inn an oval in an empty patch of land. What a hoot! I'm sure this is an every-day occurrence around here, just like a Texan seeing cowboys on horses and Texas Longhorn cattle, but it's new to us, so we found it fascinating!

Camel training. See where the camel is tethered to the truck?

Stopping to make an adjustment for the next part of the lesson.

 Okay, this is getting really long and I don't have nearly all the pictures loaded. I'm going to post this today and then post the rest of it in a few days. We still have another old village and wadi to share!

Visiting the Grand Mosque of Muscat

My friend Wanda and I visited the Grand Mosque last week. It is elegant and beautifully appointed. 

Corner gate 

Men's Entrance; closed at the time we arrived.

Then, we had to cover ourselves before entering.

The dome of the Grand Mosque is in the background. The
dome is over the main Men's Prayer room, or musalla.

Removing your shoes is required before entering the prayer rooms.

Wanda

Me

So, you see us here removing our shoes and placing them in the bins. There are lots and lots and lots of bins!

We visited the Ladies' Prayer Room first. 

Visitors are allowed except during services. The blue carpeting is
where you are allowed to walk when visiting.  It's a beautiful room!

One of the stained glass windows up-close.

There were many panels of intricately carved wood all around the room.

After visiting the Ladies' Prayer Room, we walked around through the outer courtyard to the Men's Prayer Room. The gardens were gorgeous, as was all the marble work.

You'll notice the arches on the left. It is like a long, covered hallway. Niches such as the ones below line the entire length of the hallway.

The tile work is exquisite!

The view looking out from the long hallway towards the Ladies' Prayer Room.

View from the hallway to the entrance (ahead and to the left) of the Men's Prayer Room.

The Men's Prayer Room can hold over 6,500 worshippers. The carpet took 4 years to weave and was transported by plane to the mosque and then pieced together inside the musalla. The chandeliers are made of Swarovsky crystal, the large one inside the dome being the second largest crystal chandelier in the world!

Chandelier in the dome.

Just one half of the room. Note how small the people in the distance are to help give perspective on the size of the room!

One example of the tile work adorning the walls. The reason you see so much tile, mosaics, and woodwork carvings is that human images are forbidden inside a mosque. They have for centuries used these d=type of designs to adorn their places of worship.

Yet another view of the dome.

These are just a few of the pictures we took. I hope you enjoyed this small tour of the Grand Mosque. It was certainly an interesting tour!