AFCENT Band in Muscat/The Aquarium and More

The AFCENT Band came to Muscat to perform for the Independence Day Celebrations. One day the performed at the Mall. That happened to be the only day I could really go see them because the Embassy celebrations were being held on Friday and the even on the 4th was for dignitaries. That is the job of the Mission. The only problem with this was that it was ALSO, the sacred basketball/frisbee Wednesday night. So I did a brave new thing and took a taxi with Sennia. Taxi was simple, band was nice, got a few things done at the mall. All was well.

We decided to take the kids to the Aquarium in the afternoon one day with everyone was released from the Embassy early for the Independence Day weekend. There was this whole theme of Achmed bin Majid that Fahad from the boat trip had been talking about. Someone brought up Sinbad the Sailor who had traditional stories taking place in Oman. Fahad suggested we become familiar with Achmed. Next day here we are learning his impressive story. He was a pretty interesting person who wrote a lot about his life story.

My friend the black-tipped reef shark!

I've met the brother of this giant puffer and his friend with the yellow and black. Sadly there wasn't information on many of the fish so I was google lensing the place because I really want to learn the names of the fish I see when I'm snorkeling.

For an Aquarium in a Mall it was pretty enjoyable if a little pricey.

I spotted a much smaller guitarfish like this when we were staying in Khlouf.

Brigham's swim coach Tina got the boys into a triathlon group practicing their open water swims. Eli seemed ready to kill me at first but he was as happy as I've seen him when he was done. It made me realize how much he needs this. Our family is happy when we're intensely active. I know this feeling. It's hard to pass it on to the kids though. I had to do a bit of convincing to get him to go the next week but I think I made the point pretty well on the way home as he was SO happy.

The current group of YSA in Oman branch. I wish Eli had a little more time to get to know them all. Those are Stake reps that came to visit.

Sennia and Elise had a playdate with Sayuri and Moa and the KK girls right before Sayuri and Moa departed for Tokyo. I hope we see them in a couple of years in Japan!