Oh man, is it salty!

..the sea, that is.  Just back from an overnight camping trip to Qantab, just a bit from Jerry's.  We hired an open fishing boat to take us to a secluded beach on a small cove, where we pitched three tents on the sand, dug a firepit and had a wonderful night under a full moon.

The cove was surrounded by high walls of sandstonish rocky cliffs, really jagged and overhanging our beach - amazing place - the water so blue, goats clinging to the rocks high above us, the beach littered with small sparkling clear jellyfish. At midnight, a turtle washed up ashore and we were pretty excited that it might be there to lay her eggs, but unfortunately, she was dead! Some bad luck out at sea.  A boatload of locals stopped just outside the cove and let off a beautiful red flare that hung in the sky forever before dropping into the dark water.  Orion was hanging over us, but thebeautiful full moon actually made the other stars  little a hard to see! Wow, tough luck, hey? This morning we shared pomegranites and cold pancakes with pb&j and instant coffee - one of the best, most beautiful breakfasts I have eaver had!!! Jim, Elaine's husband and I snorkeled in the bay,(y'all know how I feel about snorkelling) and bynoon it was soo freaking hot we had to get the boat to come get us early.  What a wonderful experience - they just keep on coming.

This is actually the third time I have tried to blog and got booted off both times, so I'm gonna keep it short just in case!  First, sending out my love and support and break-a-legs to Nicole for her audition at UBC and to Megan for opening night of her play at U of W.  Good luck girls - I'm with you in spirit!!  Shawn , you must be in Winnipeg now - representing the far-flung Sekiyas!

Oman as been absolutely amazing -- really. It islike no place I have ever been, in so many ways.  We arrived last Sunday night, actually Monday morning, at 4 AM after 4 airports and 25 hours of flying - a little ragged but Jerry's beaming face at  Muscat swept it all away!  Arrived at Jerry's beautiful home to a balmy starlit night and sat on his patio with a glass of wine. At five-thirty, my first experience hearing the Muslim call to prayer, projected 5 times a day over loudspeakers all over the country from the mosques.  It is a beautiful sound, very deep male voice chanting - Jerry says that the hope is that soon no one will ever be more than 200 meters from a mosque!  The Sultan sounds like a very amazing ruler - benevolent dictator but very much concerned with the welfare of Omanis - he has make sweeping changes in the last 40 years.  We toured the grounds of his palace a few days ago - not a huge palace but very beautiful, grounds and architecture, some of the ruins of the old Portuguese fort are right beside it  -we tried to climb up but it is temporarily gated off.

Oops - gotta run and eat - will finish later!  Hoping all is well!  Tonight we are eating Turkish - tomorrow off to Mussendam to the fjords and a dhow ride and the next day to the turtle refuge where we will go to the beach in the dark at midnight to see them lay the eggs and then back at sunup to see them hatch.  Yikes - this is just tooo amazing a trip.

Love to everyone - will try to be more consistent but we really are aso very busy! Janeece is only here for 2 weeks so we are trying to do as much as we can while she is here.  Having a spectacular time.

Love Hol