Days 10 and 11: The Red Sea, Aqaba and Snorkeling

Ahhh, Aqaba. After our adventures in Petra, we were were ready for a few days of r&r. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the Red Sea in the city of Aqaba. It was beautiful! Although it wasn't as warm as we all would have liked, it was still nice enough to sit out on the beach and enjoy the view.  Our first day we did just that. We just hung out, relaxed, swam and ate. It was perfect!

CJ taking it all in.

View from our deck off of our hotel room.

The kids enjoying playing on the beach just as if they were back home. Except this is the Red Sea and across the water there is Egypt!

The girls enjoyed sitting at the beach bar drinking smoothies.

They hung out here quite a bit.

Mike, CJ and I sat at a table and just enjoyed the sunset. 

So happy!

The kids loved playing with the giant chessboard by the pool.  They could have stayed and played all day, but it got cold and dark fast.

 The next day, we headed to a different beach away from our hotel to go snorkeling. Once we got there, we found a guy who was willing to take us out on his glass bottom boat.  We figured this was a good option because it was cold and we weren't sure how good the snorkeling would be. This way Sebi and Brooklyn could enjoy the day too and we were guaranteed to go to a good spot to see fish.

Sebi heading out to the boat.

Checking out the fish using the glass bottom. The kids LOVED this! 

Mike and Stella heading out to snorkel.

Stella and our captain looking at pictures on his phone.

The snorkelers trying to stay warm on the boat after they went for their undersea adventure.

I love these guys. They honestly are so much fun and happen to be the best vacation couple.  We love traveling with them and their family and can't wait until the next adventure!

After snorkeling and on our way back to Jerusalem we had to stop by CJ's favorite Shwarma place for lunch. It was delicious.

Day 9: Petra

When we arrived in Petra late at night, we had no idea what beauty was around us. It was dark and raining so hard, we were thrilled to just have made it to the right place and to have a warm, cozy bed to sleep in. When we woke up and looked out our window, we saw an incredible view. The hotel we were in (Marriott) was placed right in the heart of red rocks and a big canyon was just below.  It was amazing! After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we packed up and headed out for a long hike with the kids into Petra.

At the entrance, ready for a day of adventure!

Stella and Brooklyn hand in hand walking through the canyons.

Action shot of the crew on our way to the Treasury.

Always on her mind, Stella had to "surf" while exploring the canyon.

We made it to the Treasury! It was so incredible.. The Treasury is one of the most elaborate temples in the ancient city of Petra. It was carved out of a sandstone rock face over 2,000 years ago.

The kids had done well on the hike so far and so we decided to go for it and continue hiking on past the Treasury on to the Monastery. Here's a view of the "city" within Petra on our way up.

This is as far as the camels will go. We promised ourselves and the kids that if they made it all the way to the Monastery and back without whining that we'd ride camels.

Silly girls inside Monastery.

Kari, me and all of the girls at the Monastery. This really shows how large it was. 

Another view of the Monastery, before we hiked further up to get the "best view"

Pro hikers.

I'm so grateful we hiked all the way up, the view up there was unbelievable. You felt on top of the world.

We made it to the top! (Monastery behind us)

Our only group shot of the whole trip - one of the best trips of our lives (the other being Croatia/Slovenia with the Baltz's as well)

Stella getting on her camel - a much deserved reward!

The Day Family on our camel ride. This will go down in the books as an incredible memory that I will never, ever forget!

The whole crew on camels. Unfortunately, Hannah and Brooklyn were on donkeys and already got off before we got our group shot. The kids were all awesome - We hiked 6.5 miles with a 2 year old in the backpack and a 4,5,6 and 8 year old on foot. Not one whine or complaint = A much deserved camel ride!

After our amazing, long day we headed back to our hotel and enjoyed the fresh Bedouin tea. 

Day 8: Drive to Jordan and Madaba

We woke up this morning all packed and ready to head out on our road trip.  On our way to Petra, we made many stops and in fact, although we left at 9am we didn't arrive in Petra until after dark around 7pm.
Our first stop on our adventure was at the River Jordan to visit one of the baptismal sites that is currently used today. Of course, they aren't exactly sure where John the Baptist performed his baptisms, but it is believed to be in this area of the river.  After this stop, we went through numerous border crossings to enter Jordan, the whole process required about an hour and 30 minutes. Once, we reached Jordan we headed up into the mountains where it was just as you'd imagine the Middle East to be. Miles and miles of dry, desolate desert land with a random sheep/donkey/camel crossing here and there.

Our next stop was a quick one. On top of the mountain overlooking the valley we stopped at Mount Nebo, the place where Moses looked over and found the promise land. Just outside of Mt Nebo, up high in the mountains, was our next stop - Madaba. In Madaba, we met up with a friend of CJ and Kari's, Osama (self proclaimed George Clooney of Madaba- haha, and he really does look like an Arab version of him). Osama owns a mosaics business and came into the shop today after suffering a heart attack YESTERDAY! He is truly an amazing person, very kind and generous and obviously dedicated to show up the day after suffering a heart attack.

After meeting up with Osama, he quickly whisked us away to an incredible lunch.  It really was more than a lunch, it was the most amazing authentic Middle Eastern food we had during our entire trip.  As soon as we walked into the restaurant, he had us go into a little room of curtains and sit on floor cushions.  He wanted us to relax and enjoy our meal so he asked if it would be okay if the kids sat in their own room and he assured us that he would watch them and they would be fine. My brother and Kari (having known him well already) were totally comfortable with it. Mike and I on the other hand, were terrified. Here we were in the middle of a random town in Jordan and they wanted to take our kids to another room next door? Once we sat down and realized they were literally a curtain over and we could peep over and look whenever we wanted, we relaxed a little bit. Of course, Sebi isn't old enough to be on his own yet so he was in with us and we called out Stella's name every 30 seconds or so to be sure that she was there and ok.  Once we settled down a little and the food arrived, we were able to enjoy the most incredible meal ever. We had so much fun talking and eating the food from the floor.  Although we already celebrated Thanksgiving, given that this was the actual Thanksgiving day made this over indulgent meal all the more fitting.

After we left the restaurant, Osama took us to his Mosaics factory for a tour.  Mike and I aren't really the Mosaic type - it's not really our style, but once we stepped foot into that factory and saw the intricacies and detail of the work we realized that it was some of the most beautiful art we have ever seen.  The workers were great, they let the girls help them add a few stones to a piece they were working on and they served us amazing tea and Arab coffee.  Following the factory, we headed back to Osama's store where we picked out a Mosaic for ourselves and one as a gift for Mike's dad.  In addition to our mosaics, Osama sent us packing with more gifts than we could have imagined for ourselves. He gave each of the kids a stuffed camel too.  Madaba was amazing and having Osama there to give us the proper tour made all of the difference.

We had to get on our way so that we would get to Petra before it became too dark, so we had to be on our way.  And I will tell you that the drive to Petra was probably one of the most stressful, dangerous and scary journeys of our lives. It got dark fast and there were no lights to light up the roads, it was literally just a long stretch of single lane highway in pitch black. In addition to the darkness, it was a torrential downpour.  It rained so hard it was unbelievable and there is so much dust that the windshield was covered in mud and we couldn't see out of it. The pickle was a great car and all, but the headlights were so dim and there was no wiper fluid so every once in awhile we had to roll down the windows and wipe off the windshield with our clothes so that we could see! It was crazy!!!  We did eventually make it to Petra late that night and we were so exhausted we couldn't wait to get to sleep so we could wake up the next day to discover... Petra!

Stella joined the girls in the minivan and CJ let Mike and I borrow his sweet commuter car, which we adoringly refer to as "The Pickle". 

The river Jordan. We are on the Israeli side and just across the way is Jordan. There are some serious border patrollers with machine guns on each side. You are definitely not allowed to cross, either way.

At the baptismal site, The Jordan River.

Crossing the border into Jordan.

A small town along the road in Jordan.

Another small village on our way to Madaba.

The view along our drive, just as you would imagine... miles and miles of desolate dirt and desert.

This is the place where Moses looked over the valley and declared this to be the Promise Land.

Sheep crossing!

Crossing over Mt Nebo to get to Madaba.

The pickle in the city of Madaba.

Shops.

Walking into the restaurant in Madaba.

The kids had a room and a feast all to themselves. As you can imagine, it was a little scary for us as we were in the room next door. The walls didn't go all the way up so we could hear them, but we couldn't see them...

Sebi LOVED the food here. We can hardly get him to eat, but he was shoveling the rice in his face and literally didn't stop until we left!

The kids finished eating first and came in to join the adult feast. 

Stella adding a few stones to a mosaic at the factory.

Hannah adding her personal touch.

And finally, Haydin placing a stone on this tile.

Cheers! Here we are enjoying the gifts from our hosts - Arab tea and coffee... different and delicious.

The kiddos in the mosaic factory with their new stuffed camels from Osama.

This is a wood table that they made in the factory by hand.  They showed us how they add each little piece of pearl and wood to create this design and the amount of detail and work put into each piece is unbelievable.

The wood area of the factory where they make the pieces shown above...

Stella and Osama walking through Madaba.

After a very crazy/sketchy drive, we finally arrived at our hotel in Petra and relaxed with a hot cup of the most amazing Bedouin tea.