Cyclone Holidays

so Samuel took his SAT just in the nick of time! Cyclone Shaheen has wreaked havoc on coastal Oman.  Our Saturday was half spent taking exams. Samuel and I both had our entire mornings taking tests. By the time we were done it was sprinkling. 

We had differing opinions about what we should do afterward. Samuel hadn't slept the night before so he was exhausted. I didn't feel like driving for 3 hrs to the wadi Matt wanted to go to, I wanted to go to the shore and so did all the girls. We wanted to see what the storm was doing. Sam did want to go to dinner to celebrate and that ended up making the decision to stay and check out the beach.

Also, I had bread ready to be baked that needed another 45 minutes. We gathered ourselves, bread and all and headed to the coast. Nobody was in the water, except us. We decided to try out behind the embassy where there were no rocks to be thrown into and where there were also no people. The fight to get anywhere near the good waves was intense and more than I could really succeed in winning. The current was powerful up the beach. I did help the girls catch some fun smaller waves in closer. Elise has a love/hate relationship with boogie boarding. It goes from "That was the best one yet!" to " I HATE these waves!" She didn't appreciate the wipe outs. 

While Alena and Brigham tried the ocean on for size briefly, they spent most of their time in the sand or beach combing. There were some very interesting finds including a load of sand toys and a "dragon bone" that Alena found. Don't believe me? Please give me another option because we can't seem to identify it and Alena insists.

Matt had fun fighting with the ocean with me. He kept his footing a little better than I could. I somehow manage to take the best photos of him. haha. poor guy.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and just as we were packing up to leave the ROP came by and told us there was a storm and we weren't allowed to swim. HA! 

I was stuck watching the storm from my window since they also blocked off all the roads along the coast.

Alena stayed with Elise and the rest of us went to celebrate the SAT being over at the Turkish house. Nobody liked their meals except Brigham. 

Omani lobster is supposed to be all that but they overcooked all the seafood so we only really liked the appetizer and drinks.

After a VERY LONG NIGHT of wind lashing my penthouse windows. I got up and out to take Sam to watch out for the animals and home of some friends who somehow managed to fly out during the Cyclone. I was driving along taking pictures of the flooding and almost ended up flooded myself!

 Later in the day when the rain finally lessened my friends the birds came for a rest in my window looking completely haggard. At least I spent my restless night in my nice cool, dry house. Many people spent their nights fighting flooding and leaks, without power and with water coming from power outlets and windows and doors. We fared very well and hope Oman can recover quickly.