OCT 27, 16 .. ATTITUDE AND FINDING THE DOLPHINS

ATTITUDE

By Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One of my hotel managers told me that he would recommend I take a Dolphin viewing tour. I respect him and decided to do as he suggested.

MY ATTITUDE .. 

When I checked TripAdvisor about finding a tour and actually seeing some Dolphins, I found some reviews that were pretty negative about the trips because they never saw any Dolphins.

Sports fans you have two situations:

Winning 

Not Winning

Not winning is NOT losing, Not Winning is just that, you did not win.

So I made-up-my-mind that:

I see some Dolphins ( Winning ? ) 

I don't see any Dolphins ( Not Winning )

Win or Not Win ..

I do not care if we actually see some Dolphins or not, I am going to have one great 2-Hour trip searching for the Dolphins.

Here we go Loop De Loop ..

I am loving it here in the Mid-East. Come on now! Come over and spend a few months here. You too will greatly enjoy your adventure. I could live-my-life right here.

Today's Rhetorical Question: 

How do they decide who gets to sit with the Sahib and who sits in the back alone? 

Lord God Allah, I am just loving this!

I can NOT quite grasp having to deal with the logistics of several wives.

Below is our majestic boat.

 A look back at The Marina Administration Building.

Our Gulf of Oman Skipper. 

Below is where Our Skipper pilots our ship.

Here we go! We have pushed away from the dock.

Some day I am coming back to the above cruise ships.

You are looking at 450 Horse Power with two 4-stroke engines.

We were really moving through the water.

I can't resist. I wonder how they are doing.

Just move to the back of the boat Captain.

Our Skipper was really looking for Dolphins.

It is what it is. Not good. Not bad. We are heading home.

Truly we were heading back to Port. No Dolphins today.

All aboard were very mellow about it. Just the ride was really a lot of fun.

WAIT! TO THE STARBOARD! WHAT HAVE WE HERE!

Our Skipper spotted the Dolphins.

We have company. The tour companies work together.

I really like the fact that the tour companies support one another.

Below is what a near miss photo looks like. They dove just as I snapped the shutter. If you will very closely examine the very lower left part of the below photo you can see actually see the two dolphins under the water. 

Oh Yes! Allah is a good and a caring God!

My photographic success rate was, at best, 50%. You cannot see them through your camera lens so you just shoot and you shoot and you shoot some more.

I am like a true fisherman. "You should have seen the photo that got away."

I hope to shout! Everyone seemed to be having so much pure fun and joy.

Had I never seen one dolphin, the below photos would have paid for my trip. 

Before I finish with my Oman photos, you will have seen so many photos of The Incense Burner below you will want to flip out. Mark it. You have seen the first of the many to come.

Below is but one of many very remote beaches here in the Muscat area. One of the hotel managers owns a taxi. I hired him to show me some of his special places.

The following photos were NOT taken on the Dolphin Tour. 

However, showing them now of one of the remote beaches fits in perfectly. Here we go. Again thanks to my hotel manager who took-me-in-tow.

All it takes is money and connections to get where very few, if any, tourists visit.

Hello My Dear One. So nice to have you here with me. 

I texted Patti earlier today and told her I could live here the rest of my life. She was a tad shocked. NOW perhaps, after seeing this Post, Patti will have a different opinion about living in Oman.

I have a plane to catch to Dubai in a few hours. Here I sit, putting this Post together. I have not yet even begun to pack.

Back we hop onto The Dolphin Tour.

There is our harbor buoy. We are back in port.

Our Dolphin Tour is complete. We are now leaving the Marina.

I wanted to show you some of the beauty of Muscat, the capital city of the Sultanate of Oman, in the Middle East. I snapped the following photos driving back to my hotel from The Marina.

The Royal Opera House of Muscat is but a mile or so from my hotel. So I had the tour driver drop me off at the Opera house. I then did a tour here.

I have a plane to catch. So the Opera House will await its wonderful day.

It was quite a walk home from the Opera House let me tell you.

First I had to walk from the Opera House to the beach.

I had to eat some food and drink some water at the Costa Coffee Shop.

My sandwich cost US $7.81.

Time to hit the beach and walk home.

About a mile East is the CROWNE PLAZA. See it?

Such beauty. Oh My Miss Muscat.

I have to cross a bridge or two.

We are closing in on it.

You sure are looking good CROWNE PLAZA!

We are almost to my hotel.

Getting close.

Back home in Muscat.

I hate to eat-and-run but I have to do just that.

I sure hope you enjoyed our Dolphin Tour.

Smiling in Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman, in the Middle East.

I could live the rest of my life right here. 

Cap