A Piece of Home

I've woken up several mornings and thought, 'Zaxby's'. I never care that it was 7 AM. I equally crave Chic Fil a. Remember those chicken minis? Of course you do.

The truth is that you can always break routines, adapt to new ones, and survive... but some things stay engraved in the mind and the stomach. I was lucky enough to have Chad, his sister Caren, and his wife Cathy come over in early March. I had them bring over lawry's season salt, garlic salt, and greek seasoning. It's bittersweet, because I know they will just run out...

I was able to take off a week for Chad's trip over in March, which consisted of snowboarding, a desert safari with dune-boarding and dune bashing, a trip to Musandam in Oman, a trip to the Dubai markets (both the modern and shady), and to the beach. Dubai is the only place you can go from the snow to a sunny beach in one day. Two of my favorite parts of their trip was going to the mall to buy bags of gummies and staying up late playing the Wii (a longstanding tradition of ours).







Musandam was one of the most scenic and beautiful areas I've seen in the region- we drove around the fjords by the ocean, drove through small mountain villages, ate lunch with wild goats by the water, and drove very steep mountain trails with no guardrails. Chad and the rest were worn out from all our activities by this point, so they slept through most of it. On the way out, we stopped by a beach to look for shells, where we found a gold mine of intact spirals and other unique shells. Some people on the beach took an interest in our stock pile of shells, but with determination, Cathy stole them back.







Apparently, as you go closer to Oman, the establishments tend to disfavor toilets, so you are required to use a hole in the floor. I resisted at first, but not having to share a toilet seat also has its perks. Just need strong calves to support yourself. Despite that, I was hoping to get back soon and take a snorkelling or diving trip since the water is warming up, but no luck so far.

It was great to have the Chinichs here- of course afterwards I remembered the long road of adapatation and how separated I am from home. You feel the distance all over again.