Steve and I took the opportunity to take one last vacation, just the 2 of us, before I get too far along to fly (Qatar Airways gets to be a pain to fly with after 32 weeks). We spent 5 days in Jordan and met up with one of Steve's Jordanian friends. We flew into Amman and spent the night there before heading to the Dead Sea.
At the Dead Sea we stayed in a beautiful resort called the
Kempinski. We relaxed (Steve tried too but those Blackberries can get reception anywhere) and enjoyed our time at the beach and in the sea. Floating in it is quite an experience, I had an especially hard time since my center of gravity is all wrong. You have to float on your back but I could only stay upright by taking more of a fetal position on my back.
What's a trip to the
Dead Sea without some mud and time at the spa. It's actually quite entertaining to watch a bunch of adults cover themselves in mud and walk around the beach likes it a perfectly normal thing to do. Oh yeah and here's a belly picture for those who've been requesting one...
We also took a day to visit
Petra. This would be the place from the Indian Jones movie Last Crusade. As we walked up to it I kept expecting knives to come at us or rocks to chase us down the valley but I guess they took all the props with them. Petra is an amazing place and is a lot more than just the rock carving from the movie. It's an entire valley full of carving where people lived for hundreds of years.
Not only are the carving beautiful but the sandstone itself it quite beautiful. This is natural...
After Petra and the Dead Sea we went back to Amman and had a wonderful dinner with Steve's friend Omar. His parents cooked us a traditional Jordan feast of lamb and rice cooked in the ground (along with all the traditional Arabic Mezzah). Omar and his family are all engineers so they have built an elaborate under ground oven in the backyard out of tile and bricks. The food was amazing and we really enjoyed sharing stories and enjoying the view from their yard.
On our last day in Amman we went to the ancient Roman city of
Jerash. It is claimed to be the most well preserved Roman city in the entire world and we had another perfect day to enjoy the ruins and walk around the site.
We've heard it from all our friends but can now confirm that Jordan is a must see and you can't miss experiencing the Dead Sea! More pictures of the trip are on
Shutterfly if you're interested.
Shortly after returning from Jordan (i.e. the next day) we did Thanksgiving again at our house. Steve rotisseried another turkey (no flames this time) and we had a great evening with lots of food. We invited along some of European friends too so they could experience a real American holiday (centered around eating...imagine that). We also had fun trying to explain what the holiday was for. However, I suspect this is not what the doctor had in mind when she said to take it easy, 16 adults + 4 babies squeezed around 2 full size dining room tables is quite a house full.
