A bowl is formed by attaching four regular hexagons of side $1$ to a square of side $1$. The edges of the adjacent hexagons coincide, as shown in the figure. What is the area of the octagon obtained by joining the top eight vertices of the four hexagons, situated on the rim of the bowl?
[asy] import three; size(225); currentprojection=   orthographic(camera=(-5.52541796301147,-2.61548797564715,1.6545450372312),                up=(0.00247902062334861,0.000877141782387748,0.00966536329192992),                target=(0,0,0),                zoom=0.570588560870951); currentpen = black+1.5bp; triple A = O; triple M = (X+Y)/2; triple B = (-1/2,-1/2,1/sqrt(2)); triple C = (-1,0,sqrt(2)); triple D = (0,-1,sqrt(2)); transform3 rho = rotate(90,M,M+Z);  //arrays of vertices for the lower level (the square), the middle level, //and the interleaves vertices of the upper level (the octagon) triple[] lVs = {A}; triple[] mVs = {B}; triple[] uVsl = {C}; triple[] uVsr = {D};  for(int i = 0; i < 3; ++i){   lVs.push(rho*lVs[i]);   mVs.push(rho*mVs[i]);   uVsl.push(rho*uVsl[i]);   uVsr.push(rho*uVsr[i]); }  lVs.cyclic = true; uVsl.cyclic = true;  for(int i : new int[] {0,1,2,3}){   draw(uVsl[i]--uVsr[i]);   draw(uVsr[i]--uVsl[i+1]); } draw(lVs[0]--lVs[1]^^lVs[0]--lVs[3]); for(int i : new int[] {0,1,3}){   draw(lVs[0]--lVs[i]);   draw(lVs[i]--mVs[i]);   draw(mVs[i]--uVsl[i]); } for(int i : new int[] {0,3}){   draw(mVs[i]--uVsr[i]); }  for(int i : new int[] {1,3}) draw(lVs[2]--lVs[i],dashed); draw(lVs[2]--mVs[2],dashed); draw(mVs[2]--uVsl[2]^^mVs[2]--uVsr[2],dashed); draw(mVs[1]--uVsr[1],dashed);  //Comment two lines below to remove red edges //draw(lVs[1]--lVs[3],red+2bp); //draw(uVsl[0]--uVsr[0],red+2bp); [/asy]
$\textbf{(A) }6\qquad\textbf{(B) }7\qquad\textbf{(C) }5+2\sqrt{2}\qquad\textbf{(D) }8\qquad\textbf{(E) }9$
We extend line segments $\ell,m,$ and $n$ to their point of concurrency, as shown below:

We claim that lines $\ell,m,$ and $n$ are concurrent: In the lateral faces of the bowl, we know that lines $\ell$ and $m$ must intersect, and lines $\ell$ and $n$ must intersect. In addition, line $\ell$ intersects the top plane of the bowl at exactly one point. Since lines $m$ and $n$ are both in the top plane of the bowl, we conclude that lines $\ell,m,$ and $n$ are concurrent.
In the lateral faces of the bowl, the dashed red line segments create equilateral triangles. So, the dashed red line segments all have length $1.$ In the top plane of the bowl, we know that $\overleftrightarrow{m}\perp\overleftrightarrow{n}.$ So, the dashed red line segments create an isosceles triangle with leg-length $1.$
Note that octagon has four pairs of parallel sides, and the successive side-lengths are $1,\sqrt2,1,\sqrt2,1,\sqrt2,1,\sqrt2,$ as shown below:

The area of the octagon is \[3^2-4\cdot\left(\frac12\cdot1^2\right)=\boxed{\textbf{(B) }7}.\]
~MRENTHUSIASM