A little more Muscat in your life

Sunrise over Musqat

at the beach

This cool pile of small sandballs is made from a crab. It looked awesome in person

the pretty and shallow warm waters

The Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said coat of arms looks freshly polished!

 Al Alam Palace also known as my new Flat ;)

 

Darren's not so under the water, under water-anchor photo.  This was an awesome find that ended up on Darren's garden paradise patio.

 

the back side of the Qaboos' (pronounced like the last car of a link of trains) palace.  So i guess you could say it is the qaboos of the Qaboos' place!!

 

this was funny once, when I expected to see the family of stick figures...

 

That's why is made it more funny to see a second car right next to the first Camel family car portrait!

 That is ice cream shaped like a flower on top of an amazing mango smoothie (it was like 115 degrees outside)

Omani Dumpster Kitty

Everywhere you go, There you are!

So my friend Darren who lives and works in Musqat (or Muscat), Oman took me to the Omani equal of  Super Walmart!  I was walking through, and though the names and faces were changed, I had been here before!  There was a bakery, meat case, produce section, and dried date kiosk!  Any type of date you'd fancy was there.  It was funny most of the dates were from outside Oman, but having sampled all of them, Omani's were superior!

Wadi Jumping

in search of Wadi Habib (wadi = small natural pond usually back in valley) we found wild hiking, Omani neighbors and singing gypsies, not to mention a rad swimming hole!

the teal blues of the Gulf of Oman

Darren with his Arabian 4 wheeler

Due to recent rain, we weren't able to drive all the way to Wadi Habib since the waters leading up to it were too high.  That then allowed for our adventurous hike to the wadi.  This guy however thought he could - his wife knew better!  Some things translate in any language

Tiny tadpoles :)

The Wadi we got to swim in was the freshest, clearest water, and perfect for the 105+ degree weather

this tiny water fall packed a surprisingly strong current punch!

One of the local houses in the middle of no where.  And one of their goats!

So I say to Darren, "it's kindda creepy, how quite it all is out here.  There could be people watching us from behind the rocks like that one scene from Star Wars where those guys are hiding in the mountains and then they ambush the people"  Next thing you know, as we are walking back to the car, we hear the echoings of someone singing a song (at first is actually sounded as if a goat was dying, but we soon saw the lady walking high in the hills) She was so fast!  She ended up at the car when we got there.  I think she tried to cast a spell on us and the next thing we knew, she was up on top of the next hill!

Can you see her in Blue?  She was so high up there

Workers Union Mass: A mass of hard working men

Walking!  Walking makes New Yorkers some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen.  I am serious!  LA has nothing on the amazing bods that New Yorkers rock.  My biggest goal while in New York was to walk.  Have a look at the ground I covered while experiencing all that NY would share with me.

The day I was heading Uptown from Steve Griffin’s house in Greenwich Village to the Met, I was fortunate enough to walk upon a mass of Union Workers in front of a glorious old church.  It was barely debated in my mind before I crossed the street and jumped into the masses of hard hat-toting men.  I began to snap away.  I even climbed some scaffolding.  One man asked me if I was with the Daily News I laughed and said no.  Then some how the fib began that I was a freelance photographer - I went with it and got a little more bold, beginning to then ask the men if I could take their pictures.  Between their razzing of various co-workers ugly-factor breaking my camera, I found out this was a mass for the fallen workers of the past.  That made this wonderful happen-stance a powerful event in my life.  If only I were really Catholic, hadn’t realized I had left my sun glasses at the shoe store I had been in 6 blocks before and wasn’t trying to get to, I would have stayed.  Until my next wonderful luck of stumbling onto a powerful congregating group, the pictures I got will have to suffice.

I knew I'd like it, but I didn't know how much I'd love it!!  I <3 NEW YORK!!
between the walking, the fashion, the food, not too much of the smell, the random acts of unsuspected kindness, sights and the people in general, New York is now my favorite city I have ever been to!!

A walk on the Brooklyn Bridge

A Stroll through China Town

Standing south of Houston

A NewYorkers roof top looking at the new World Trade Center

the Empire State Building at night

Empire State Building going crazy

The Boys - Take 1

The Boys - Take 2

Brian and Steve! :D (Steve my childhood friend and High School Prom date was the best host ever!!)

What a beautiful building for a Home Depot

That's how they park 'em in NYC!

the 9/11 memorial: a fall of depression

In my opinion the memorial was genius in that is incorporates the footprint crater, where once stood New York’s twin towers.  The massive falls on all 4 sides have such power and strength from the amount of water pouring down and the beautiful crashing, white noise it creates.  However, as the strong drops near the inner square fall and dump into a place you cannot see, that strength switches to hopelessness.  There is such a strong cultural association to the negativity toward deep crevasses, black holes and hell, that this was all I could think of.  How hopeless and sad this space was.  And yes.  There is no doubt that this tragedy and the people lost was a horrible event, but the American Spirit is built on more resiliency than falling into dispare.  Maybe the creators could have added a powerful shooting geyser to illustrate our will to live and overcome? 

they found someone they knew

 

Jesus

 

Someone who is loved still over 10 year later

Lady Liberty and the gateway island: she is a massive Amazon Beauty but that Ellis Island was powerful!

What a lady!  That massive Amazonian Beauty has a permanent and enduring grace surrounding her.  Her patina is the richest verde and at the her density is light at the same time as being so weighted, it’s inexplicable.

On top of the power of being in her presence, looking back to the skyline of Manhattan and Brooklyn is magnificent.  To imagine the history the statue’s eyes have been a witness to over New York’s development blows my mind. 

 

It is a gorgeous city!  

Dreaming of the history by the incredible experience of touring through Ellis Islands immigration building.  To think, ancestors on my father’s side walked in these same halls where i see children uninterested, playing tag was so impactful.  The filtering of people through this space has colored the cultural texture of our nation. 

It seems as though social consciousness was birthed here, by the groups that formed to help these green minds adjust to their new world.  I was personally so excited when I saw that a woman named Ludmila Kuchar Foxalee (what a great name!) who worked with the New York yWca helping immigrant women and children.  I of course felt instantly connected to this woman’s enormous heart to uplift fellow women in need.  It is a great reminder that the choices you make will change the world!  Who knows!? Maybe, had  Ms. Foxalee not supported this organization at its start, there would not today be a Santa Monica/Westside yWca and I would not have had the chance to help young girls in my community.  Suddenly, that history string was folded in half for me.  Incredible!