When Nick opened the curtains this morning we were amazed by the view. It felt like a real surprise after not seeing anything when we arrived after dark last night.

We moseyed down to breakfast and sat outside. It’s much cooler up here so it was pleasant to sit outside.

The hotel had a craft activity for kids and after a tiny bit of shyness, Millie was all in. Nick and I enjoyed the brief alone time and discussed the topic we have needed to discuss without her present: her behavior. It always comes back to the damn iPad. We thought we were pretty strict; movies are only allowed on planes or car rides >2 hours, but she has found every loophole and we’ve allowed the slippage. An example… She found “Disney stories” (short stories of Disney movies) on Spotify and will listen to those in the morning. At first this was great, we could sleep in and she wasn’t watching videos! But we’ve found that it makes it impossible to get dressed or to leave in the morning. And she has stopped listening to them all the way through and just browses them for fun, like mindless TikTok scrolling. This is just one example of the many “workarounds” of our rules that she has found, and we have allowed. This is probably so boring for anyone who doesn’t have a 4 year old in the year 2025 so I will stop.

Anyway, we agreed to get stricter. iPad gets entirely put away unless we are on the plane or on an extra long car ride.

After a very long breakfast in which she made a million crafts, we headed up to the room. I took Millie swimming and to the hotel playground while Nick researched some itinerary things for the next couple of weeks.

Check out the view of the pool. Breathtaking. Hardly anyone is here and it’s quite affordable. I’m not sure why this isn’t a more visited destination.

We played fake restaurant for a while and then went up to the room. After some more playtime and showers we headed out to a nearby hike. Every direction we looked was beautiful. I was especially in awe of the manmade terraces that were green. This area grows a lot of roses to make rose water.

We made it about 30 minutes before hitting construction on the trail where they are paving a new area, and we had to turn around. This sign made me laugh.

We walked back past piles of fermenting pomegranates, another thing that grows everywhere here.

We started getting sweaty and tired and decided to stop in at the 5-star hotel that is next to our hotel for a beer. We had heard they had the best view and we figured we could get a drink there. We turned around when we saw the beer prices were $15 each, but not before taking a photo at the “Diana viewpoint”. Named for when Princess Diana visited this hotel before I was born.

The man in their lobby seemed quite confused by us walking in and right out again. We made our way back to our hotel, where, just like in Muscat, we seem to be some of the only guests. We had a light dinner on the rooftop and watched the sunset.

Before coming to Oman, we worried 8 days would be too many. What lunatics visit Oman in August? But now we have found that there are so many more wadis to swim in, beaches to snorkel at, and mountains to cool off on. Beyond the natural beauty, the people are kind, it’s easy to get around, and the food is good. We are regretting not staying longer.

There was a 17 mile hike along the wadi we visited yesterday. Obviously we could never do that in the summer, but in a more temperate time of year, with an older kid, maybe. I have a feeling we’ll be adding Oman to our very short list of “places to go back to”.