Jordan (3/3): Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea

The day after Petra we took the morning off to relax and recover.  Even though the temperature was quite cool, our hotel had a heated pool.  I thought it was still a little bit chilly to be terribly comfortable but the girls thought it was great. After the morning swim, we loaded up and headed to Wadi Rum which is a beautiful mountainous and desert area not too far from Petra.  I think Wadi is really a valley but this must be a very wide valley as it had mountains along the inside as well.

We did a 1/2 day safari and saw some beautiful scenery and the girls loved climbing the giant sand dunes (and running down them and rolling down them).  We also saw a lovely sunset over the mountains.

The next day we drove to the Dead Sea for some R&R.  The Dead Sea area is much warmer (I'm sure that's somewhat affected by its low elevation) so even though we had sweaters on during the rest of our trip, we could don our swimsuits and hit the beach and pools at our hotel.  We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel which was definitely our favorite of our hotels there.

The highlight of our Dead Sea stay was, of course, getting to bob like a cork in the Dead Sea.  So how it works is that you slather your body with this black mud.  There were people who were covering basically every square inch of their body but Jake and I just elected to do our arms and legs.  Jane and Regan just did their legs.  Anna cried and didn't want us to put *any* mud on - I think it scared her to see our black arms and legs.  Meredith just observed all this craziness.  After it dries, you go float around the Dead Sea and rub off the mud.  I'm sure this all has some sort of medicinal benefits but I didn't quite get the details on that.  I will say that the big urn of mud was cold so putting on the mud wasn't exactly relaxing.  But the floating part was pretty fun.  You do just bob around with no paddling or kicking required.  It took a little getting used to the balance - sometime you would find yourself just flipping over.  If you paddled with your arms on your stomach, you kind of looked like you were paddling on top of a surfboard.  We were careful to not splash the water in our faces as supposedly it is pretty painful if it gets in your eyes.  Jake and I thought it was pretty relaxing but Regan and Jane didn't last long - they thought the water stung a bit.  We were still thrilled to have that unique experience!

After a couple of days of relaxing we then headed back to the UAE.  We did get some sad news on our second to last day of our trip.  Jake's grandfather died.  After a quick few hour stop-over at our house to unpack and repack, he was able to catch a midnight flight out and just barely make it in time for the funeral.  I think he was very thankful to be able to spend a couple of days with his grandmother and family to remember W.E.

Not a seat belt to be found in the old Land Cruiser we took
for our wadi safari.  The kids just bounced all around
the back seat while I prayed!

A big sand dune just begging to be climbed.

Even Anna made it to the top with a little help

The big kids and I kept going

Anna happily played in the sand

Another big dune.  Jake, Anna and I sat in a
bedoin tent and stayed warm with hot tea
while the big kids climbed, ran and rolled

Mere racing down while Jane and Regan rolled down

One of the sources of the Dead Sea

One of our first glimpses of the Dead Sea on our drive

One of the several infinity pools at our Dead Sea hotel

"Mud Man" - he was bald and completely covered from head to toe

Even we got into the mud action

The first steps into the Dead Sea

"Mud Man" again before he got in

Bobbing like corks!  We, unfortunately, weren't able to get pictures
of Jane and Regan floating as they didn't last long enough!

All the girls pile into Anna's crib and pretended to be babies

The golf cart kids' tour around the property

Our little dalmations

Sad about getting the puppy faces washed off