Summer 2006: Oman, Milan and Canada

Not snow, but sand blowing across the road as we travel into Oman.	15+ hours by bus got us to Salalah Oman, the most southerly city in Oman.	The temperature at night!	The Crowne Plaza hotel where we stayed for 5 days.
Clouds make the temperature relatively cool in this region.	Soft limestone is dissolved by the sea and creates blow holes.	Some of the vents have covers for safety.	The outside of the tomb.
Inside to tomb. There was a carpet over a mound of dirt with two end 'things.' They were burning frankincense.	Landscape	Isaac (one of the friends) catches a shark.	The ruins of a 0 BC town being excavated that was supposedly a Hebrew frankincense trading port.
Aramaic writing from 0 BC. No transcription available because of Oman being an Arabic nation.	Italy! 6 hour flight from Dubai, we are in Milan.	Wonderful colorful quite city great for walking.	The details! Look at the street surface.
Aven stops for a rest in one of the many open areas.	The day we were here was one day before the day that Italy won the World Cup -- the calm before the storm.	The Duomo church. Each of the spires has a 2 to 3 meter tall figure.	The one on the wall with kids below give a good idea of their size. There are more than 3000 of these on the church.
Aven had a three-high stack of birds -- on each other's backs -- at one time.	On to Edmonton where we went to see the Street Performer’s Festival.	Another short flight took us to see Mom and Dad where the kids always look forward to crafts.	A wonderful teaching opportunity that will be remembered for a life-time.
Saskatoons!	A short hike in Mom and Dad's backyard valley-park. Here is where Aven and I brushed against some poison ivy.	Back through Edmonton and by road to Saskatoon where we spent the rest of the summer with Mel who is terminally ill / cancer.	Rail trestle in Saskatoon. We had a wonderful walk across this one day.
The family went to the zoo.	Most all the Affleck family gathered for a weekend.	Mel always has a smile on his face these days. Generally, these are wonderful times for him.	Back in Edmonton for one day, we went to the Heritage Days festival.
Garnet tackles an 'elephant ear' pastry. He found so many food tickets on the ground that he treated us all with food and drink	In transit on the way back.	The Sforzesco castle.	We went on a tour bus to see the city.
Lush and green which is so different from Dubai.	Garnet realizes for the first time how large dinosaurs really were -- what a reaction he had!	We take and elevator to the top of the Duomo Church and walk around on the roof. Awesome.	At the peak. The 'shingles' were 4x8 huge slabs of marble.
A view of the city.	Inside.	There were many corpses in boxes in alcoves around the church.	Aven crashes as we wait for our flight to Dubai after 12 hrs of sightseeing.
Back at home and Garnet is not able to stay awake for supper the first evening.