Jerash is one of the most complete roman city ruins discovered which means the entire city has been recovered, not just a few buildings or a single church. 
I saw it last time we were in Jordan and highly recommend the visit. 
It's an easy hour drive from Amman and well worth the trip. 
Grandma saw the sights and made friends with some of the local Jordain school boys practicing their English.
This is one of those places that every one must see - and no the Indiana Jones movie doesn't count. 
We strapped Jaydon into his backpack and headed out for a day in the desert, rocks, and ruins of Petra. The first attraction for Jaydon was all the horses and donkeys. Since donkeys sound so much like doggies he was content to call everything a doggy. 
The weather ended up being perfect with just a little chill to make long sleeves comfortable to help protect tender skin from the intense sun. It's a fairly short and easy walk to the first ruin known as the treasury. 
You see all kinds of interesting people on this part of the walk from the back packers (like us) ready for a full day of hiking to the leisure tourists who just jumped out of their car and thought a quick hike in flip flops and sun dresses (and usually no water) was a good idea. 
This is the ruin used in the Indiana Jones movie. Every time I see it I expect big stone balls to come rolling out or big knives to come jutting out of the walls. I think Jaydon was impressed all same. 
From the Treasury the valley opens up and you can see ruins of an entire city that used to thrive here in the rocks. These are small houses carved into the rock. 
They even carved out an amphitheatre (it was later 'remodeled' by the Romans). 
The further you walk down the valley the more interesting ruins you see. All of them are perched up in the cliffs so the residents must have appreciated a good view. 
And with the beautiful patterns that the sandstone makes in the area they didn't even have to decorate the walls. 
It was about a 2 hour walk to the place where we had lunch. After getting refueled and rested we started the big climb up to the monastery. 
My goal for this trip was to make it to that ruin since the last time I went to Petra I was 7 months pregnant and was not able to make the climb. The hike was very interesting and a little tricky at times. 
Jaydon had spent all morning in the back pack without an issue and was content to watch the world go by from his perch. 
The climb was intense and I was happy it wasn't a step further then it was. When we reached the top we were rewarded with the magnificent ruin. 
It was well worth the climb! 
After all that hiking it was time for a break. Jaydon happily played with the rocks and sand for a good hour while we regained our strength for the hike back down. 
We also got a show from one of the local boys who had climbed the facade of the monastery and was standing on top of the main steeple (yep, that's a person up there). 
He was doing tricks and flipping off of it to the gasps of the tourists and cheers of his buddies down on the ground. 
Since we had accomplished our goal of hiking to the Monastery on the way back down we were a bit more relaxed and took the time to chat with a few of the locals. We met Ahmed, who was just a few months younger than Jaydon, and his mother and grandmother. 
We sat and had tea and let the little boys play. One of Ahmed's cousins came by on his donkey and gave Jaydon a ride. 
He wanted to trade me the donkey for Jaydon but I didn't think the donkey would fit in the plane very well. 
On the way back down we got to see all of the neat ruins again and enjoy them in the cool afternoon light. The camels were getting ready to call it a day and Jaydon had finally seen everything he could manage and fell fast asleep. 
Napping in a backpack is pretty tough, his poor head was flopping everywhere but he got in a good 20 minutes and was ready for more sight-seeing. 
We got one more good look at the Treasury and called it a day. 
Said good-bye to the doggies and hiked back to the hotel for a well deserved rest. 
Not much to look at but it was a nice walk to get there and was the first time we were able to use the backpack for Jaydon on the trip. 
We also went down to the Jordan River which denotes the border between Israel and Jordon. 
The river is really small, really more of a creek but in the dessert if it has water all year then it's a river. 
That's Israel in the background there. Grandma also did some water playing of her own in the holy water at the river. 
Next stop was lunch. 
Our driver took us to a local restaurant which ended up being catered for the tourists so we got a picture of Jaydon at the tourist table. Next stop was Mount Nebo. 
The day had turned to cloudy for us to view the 'promise land' but it was a beautiful drive up the mountain (though a little too curvy for those us who get car sick). 
We also got to see some very old mosaics dating back to the time of the bible. 
Jaydon was a trooper for all the sights and had the most fun playing in the dirt and rocks.
It was a very beautiful site with amazing views. 
It was a little chilly up in the mountains so I happy to have the extra heater on my back. 
After we left the castle we had the most difficult part of the trip - the long drive to Petra. Jaydon hates any car ride longer than about 30 minutes and he screamed for a majority of the drive. It was nerve racking for everyone, especially our poor driver who had quite smoking about 3 weeks earlier and used to smoke almost 2 packs a day. When he dropped us off at the hotel in Petra we were sure that he was off to have a smoke. Hell, after that drive I even needed a smoke :) Oh yeah, and did I mention that Jaydon threw up in the lobby of the Kempenski while we checked out from the Dead Sea and just before getting in the car. He also threw up that night at dinner - the joys of traveling with a baby...
It's a beautiful hotel with great architecture that is very modern but inspired by the old structures you might find out in the desert. 
The Dead Sea is a very neat place because it feels more like your visiting the moon with almost no natural vegetation. 
One thing that struck us was how quite the sea is. 
Usually when your that close to a large body of water you will hear boats and jet skis all day. In the Dead Sea there is not a single boat. Our driver told us that the border patrol (Dead Sea is on the Jordan Israel border) runs a boat twice a day to do patrols and they immediately remove it from the water and wash it after each run to reduce corrosion. As you may have heard, the water is so salty that you float with no effort, but be careful not to get it in your eye. As Grandma found out it really hurts, her eye watered for good hour after getting the burning drop in it. 
Here she is enjoying a relaxing float in the water. 
We spent most of our time playing in the nice (fresh water) pools. This is the second time I've been to this hotel (Steve was supposed to be with us too but had a last minute work trip to the UK and US come up) and this time I really appreciated how they designed the pools. They have a large portion of it just at ankle/calf depth which is perfect for a little guy just learning to walk who loves water. 
The new word we learned was 'pree' because all that nice stone around the pools was very slipPREE. He had a great time splashing around and enjoying the cool water. We also learned that Jaydon likes to play in the sand almost as much as he likes to play in the water. 
We headed down to the beach and had fun getting sand everywhere. 
On the very last morning before we left we had to make one last trip to the beach so that Grandma could go and play in the famous Dead Sea mud. 
She wasn't into it at first but got the hang of it once a nice British lady helped her out. 
Jaydon was not sure what to think about his Grandma covered in black mud and being all "dirt-tee". 
We all got a pretty good laugh from his reaction to the whole situation. 
And no he didn't get to play in the mud for the same reason that he didn't go in the sea - to much salt (not exactly the 'tear-free' version).
