They have three different hotels on the resort that cater to different audiences. We mostly ate at a buffet restaurant that was in our hotel. They had such a variety of food it was ridiculous. For breakfast, you could choose from a traditional Western breakfast (including an omelet station), an area with yogurts, nuts and berries, an area full of baked goods like croissants, buns, etc (including a pancake station), and you also had the changing station which would focus on different ethnic food. Maybe they served Indian type, Arab type, East Asian or something of that sort. Luckily for me, another permanent station was the sushi and dumpling plates. The picture I just uploaded reminded me that they had like seven juices available at a time, of course any hot breakfast drink you'd like and my favorite was the hot chocolate station with pink and white marshmallows (which N was also a fan of).

unfortunately I didn't take pictures of lunch and dinner, but they had a killer desert menu each time. Anything you can imagine. They also had a variety of foods, A LOT. One night I had such a first world problem. They had sashimi (including salmon) and classic sushi rolls as an option, they also had butter chicken, rice and naan, and the pasta station where they had made the best pasta I had in a while (apart from much more but these were the options I was interested in). I honestly could not decide, but in the end made ate lots of sashimi and sushi, ate some pasta and sacrificed the Indian food. 

One Thursday the 18th, N's grandfather picked us up for the afternoon and evening back in town. That day is His Majesty Sultan Qaboos' birthday (75 years old) and is Oman's National Day (45th). They light up the main portion of the city's streets and most government and big businesses are lit in Oman's flag colors (white green and red).

When we were leaving town that evening, there was sooo much traffic into town. We were stuck in a bulk of it when passing in the middle, but left it behind when we were on our way to back to the resort. I will be so honest that I felt such a pang in my chest when leaving. There are reasons I love things like the World Cup or anything that involves community because I love the hype and the unity. I hope it makes sense. So as we're leaving traffic is stopped at some points and around there are people and kids either sticking their heads out of the sunroofs, or waving their flags, playing music, just being festive and I just really wanted to be part of that somehow. I don't remember if I shed a tear or they just welled up in my eyes, but I totally felt sad. Maybe I was being dramatic but whatevs. 

So how did we celebrate National Day? With beach, sun, and sand at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa.