Week 111: Oh man, Oman. And various US locations.

It took me a while to remember this one.  Well, it goes to show you that no one wins when you procrastinate.  Shame shame.  Same same.  A friend from work had met a buddy who just so happened to live in Oman.  Why not visit there?  It was a relatively short trip, we were only there for a long weekend, and the concept of touristy items was not a major tick on the map.  Instead, we met with the well renowned hospitality of people from Oman.  We stayed at an a very nice hotel, about halfway to the home of our host Waleed.   The clubs were not open that night, as we had come in late, but we were still able to get some beer at the airport, and ended up watching a cheesy horror flick.  When we awoke, we found ourselves on a beautify beach location.

The sand was a bit rocky, but blue water in every direction.  From there, we took a fairly long drive out to Waleed's home, to meet his family, and to eat a traditional lunch prepared from scratch.  Amazing food, and a very cool kid.  Well, the one on the left is anyway.

From the home, we headed into Muscat, to check out the sunset, and the famous indoor souk.  Great views, larger than life boat, owned by the king, and has its own wikipedia entry.  (Yeah, it's that big!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Said_(yacht)

The souk itself was quite typical, all sorts of touristy items, random clothing, jewelry, both real and fake, depending on how good your eyes are.  And all sorts of junk, if you're into old equipment and antiques.

That's not me.  My head wouldn't fit.  

We headed into the nightlife, and checked out the local club scene.  Nothing too different or crazy.  It did go from empty to packed over the span of half an hour.  Unfortunately for us, we didn't wait that long to start the beers.  If you can't tell from the photos.

The last day we had was a beach day, and we headed out to to the "Oman Dive Club."  You could defintely dive there.  We chose to lounge and relax from the night before.

Gorgeous views, perfect weather, and we met a random friend who happened to be a travel guide.  What was awesome, was that he also had a guest pass into one of the nicer resorts that just so happened to be near there.

We were able to take in the last view of the night, before heading out to the airport.  What a great place to visit, such a friendly place, and a very memorable memory of the middle east.


Houston

So I took the flight back with Will, who was travelling to Houston as well.  He and his girlfriend were both nice enough to let me hang out for a day or so, until I could get a rental car and whatnot in Houston.  They were also nice enough to get me tickets to the Houston Rodeo cookoff!  How awesome is that?  It was just as I remembered, albeit a bit cold.  But that's what whiskey was invented for.

Great food, and I got to meet up with quite a few people that I hadn't seen for a while.  Got to see my uncle who had just moved down to Houston.  I mean all in all, a whirlwind in time, but all smiles.

Colorado

It was about this time that I recognized that I was in a different climate.  You know, when you walk outside, and it's snowing outside.  It makes packing a little more hectic, or you could just wear the same jeans for a few weeks.  Well, I'm glad, and I'm sure others are also glad that there's a washing machine for these types of occasions.  Nothing too exciting in Denver.  It had been quite a while since I was there, so there was lots to catch up on with family, and friends.  My cousin recently interviewed there, so we got to hang out for a bit as well.  I was just glad to see the snow again, and as always, so presently surprised by how big babies get, especially over a year or so.  With the last week going by as quickly as the snow was melting (fast in this case), it was time to head to the final layover point, Memphis to meet a good friend.  

Memphis

What's not to like about this area, Southern Hospitality, near perfection on pulled pork, and Graceland!  Sounds like a great time, and a fun weekend.  And that's exactly what we took advantage of.  The flight itself was a bit hairy, we were delayed going into Chicago, which had a connector to the airport.  As a result, I missed the flight by 1 minute.  The person at the ticket counter actually told me that.  A bit frustrating to say the least.  But they were at least nice enough to provide an overnight kit, and a hotel for the night.  It was cold, cold, cold.  The only available flight in the morning would bring me to Memphis a day later, so Allen, my buddy was kind enough to pick me up in Little Rock, about 1.5 hours away, and save some time, but losing 3 hours in the mean time.  What a good person.  Well it all worked out in the end, my luggage actually did arrive on the Memphis plane, without me on it, so we had to head down to the other airport to collect my luggage, and my Saudi package.  Nothing too extensive in the box, just some of the necessities.  I actually write a bill of material on the list, just to make sure I don't miss anything.  It's the little things life beef jerky and gummy bears that make all the difference.  Oh, and some stuff from Amazon.  Oh, how I miss 2 day deliveries.

Anyway, back to Memphis.  So we had to get some pork and beer in us, after such a long drive, and low and behold, we arrived at the Central BBQ, which, hit it on all points.  I had a baked potato with shredded pork, and a side of pork rinds.  Oh, and a sweet tea.  Yeah, I bet that sounds amazing to anyone who can't enjoy that right now.  Yeah.  I'll worry about morbid obesity later.  Pork good now!

On to the city, and happy hour!  Or at least a quick glimpse of what was around and available.  We checked out Allen's favorite bar, the Bar Dog, which of course knew him by name, not by the drinking but from his singing.  I wouldn't expect any less.

This wasn't the bar, but I'm assuming the facial expression is the same.  

After hoofing it a bit, we made it to a really good oyster bar, and prepared ourselves for the next day.

The next day, was of course the visit to Graceland, and the wonderful tour that you get to go to, seeing his influence over time, part of his home.  Oh, wait, insert giant plate of food first.

And now, with Elvis.  For me, it was startling to see how truly famous and award winning he was.  When you can mount multiple rooms with his records, and we're talking big rooms, you know you've hit it big.  It was an interesting story that I was glad to know a little more about.

We ended the night hitting the bar scene, doing a little dancing (of course), and it was time to go back to reality.

Alas, my time in the US of A had ended.  I had seen some new places, visited some old, reflected on what was, and what would come to be, but I had fun doing it all, and I couldn't have had a better time, meeting up with old friends, and making a few new ones on the way.