World Travels - The Dead Sea: Spring Break Part 3

At Christmas time, we went to Oman and did a dhow cruise. I thought it might be fun for Will to come down into the water with me, and see the fish up close, but he didn't feel the same. He was equally unenthusiastic about venturing into the Dead Sea...

The final leg of our trip was back into Jordan to the Dead Sea. Of course, my pictures are out of order, but let's just say that a. the personal dvd player has been a lifesaver and b. we are a bit nervous about flying literally halfway around the world for our summer trip home. Will really is a pretty good traveler, but what toddler likes standing in lines? He did make friends with pretty much every other little person around - the little guy in orange in the background was trading hugs and kisses...

Sunsets are one of our favorite things to photograph, and the Dead Sea gave us two beautiful ones. We arrived there in the late afternoon and after a failed nap attempt, we ventured down to the sea for a look. It was a beautiful evening, and we just basked in the warmth after the rain and chilly temperatures of Jerusalem and looked forward to a day floating in the sea and hanging by the pool.

It's a bit of a rocky shoreline as you enter the Dead Sea, and the salt and mud make the rocks pretty slippery. It's also a bit surreal to see the water always just completely calm and flat.

Despite his requests to return to solid ground, I didn't want Will to miss the opportunity to say he had floated in the Dead Sea. I am a bad mother. He was terrified, and screamed and squirmed, and the other floaters couldn't stop staring at me, and once we got out far enough to try floating, I couldn't get my feet back under me to take us back to shore. The shot pretty much gives an accurate picture - if you could see Will's screaming face, it would be complete.

Will and I did finally get back to shore, and Nate ventured out into the salty sea. It's really hard to explain how strange it is - the water feels slick, and you just can't put your feet down. Kind of cool. I did venture back down later in the day to have a solo float, and it's just bizarre.

As we left the Dead Sea, and headed back to Amman to the airport, we passed hundreds of runners participating in the Dead Sea Marathon. It was funny to see all the different people participating - from school kids to moms in their head scarves pushing baby strollers, to the serious runners, to followers riding donkeys and even a camel. It was a perfect finish to our trip, and we made it out of the countries with only the stamps that let us back in to Dubai!