Oman Day 2- Dolphins and forts

On our second full day in Oman we made a reservation for a dolphin watching boat ride along the coast. Our original plan was to just have John and Peyton go and enjoy some time together. But when we realized how far our hotel was from the marina and how there was nothing to do in the areas surrounding our hotel we decided to do a shorter boat ride trip that didn't include swimming and go ahead and take Graham as well. The boat ride was only going to be two hours so we figured that we could make it work with him. 


We woke up incredibly early to drive to the marina and we just kept the kids in their pajamas and let them sleep in the car on the way. The boat company we were originally going to go with never showed up....so we really were not sure what we we were going doing since this was the one thing that Peyton was the most excited about. Another boat company was about to leave and had space and so we went ahead and went with them. I am so glad that we had decided to bring Peyton's lifejacket with us because they didn't have one that would have been appropriate for him. 

Graham did great on the boat..he ate, looked around and then had a little nap. Peyton was fussy and a little whiny throughout partially because she didn't have enough sleep and we gave her life jacket to Graham BUT once we saw the dolphins she was beyond excited. She kept wanting to run from one side of the boat to another and to the front. I was worried that it would be hard for her to see the dolphins but there were so many of them that everywhere you looked there were tons of dolphins and they were jumping and it was beautiful.

After watching the dolphins we had a brief tour of the coast line and sites along there. It was beautiful seeing the cliffs against the water and then the buildings hidden in little coves off the ocean.

Peyton was pretty tired after an early morning and then the excitement of the dolphins and she just cuddled with daddy on the ride back to the marina and Graham slept in my arms. 

After our boat ride we got everyone dressed and then headed to get some lunch and off to see a fort in the town of Nakhal on the way back to the hotel. It took us about an hour to get there so of course the kids napped in the car and everyone was ready to get out for some exercise when we got there.

The fort was surronded by palm orchards and wonderfully restored. It was a little hard carrying Graham around in the Bjorn and I was pretty tired by the end of it! After we walked throughout the fort and saw all the various rooms we headed back to the hotel and ordered room service and then we all went to bed pretty early.

Peyton refused to take her picture with me and was being little Miss Attitude so this is the picture I got....she also came up with a hilarious story about how Princess Anooza was trapped in the fort and we needed to climb to the tallest tower and rescue her from the dragon with two heads. Her imagination  is so much fun to hear and I love the stories she comes up.

 This was the ceiling in one of the rooms. The patterns continued throughout the whole room.