Snorkeling in the Red Sea & a Morning at the Beach

 We spent the middle of our trip in Aqaba, on the Red Sea.  The snorkeling there was supposed to be awesome, so Nate organized a day trip for us to what was supposed to be the best beach for it.  We got all packed and ready to spend at least several hours playing and seeing underwater awesomeness.

 Not to be a complainer, but our expectations were set WAY too high.  The dive club was a bit on the rundown side, which was fine, and it was deserted, which was to be expected based on the time of year, but when we got to the actual beach, that was where things really went south.  You can see the tent in the background - apparently the dive club is situated on a public beach, and some people actually live there.  There were equal parts sand and garbage, so we spread out the ragged towels the dive club provided and tried to touch as little as possible.  We knew going in that April was not going to be the best time to snorkel, so the wind was not a surprise, but Finley was really not a fan,  and she also got freaked out by all the flies - every time one got close, she would cry - so she spent a lot of the morning crying.  I spent a lot of time trying to sift out the largest pieces (and sharpest) of garbage from the sand while they were filling their buckets.

Nate returned from snorkeling, and had good things to say - the coral was impressive, and he saw some cool fish and sea urchins (the spiny things).  Will was excited to hear all about them.  I have some serious "face in the water" issues, so I was getting up my nerve to go in - and brave the chilly waters.

I made it out, and saw some good stuff, but didn't get out as far as Nate before my intermittent panicky moments started to take up more time than my actual snorkeling, so I headed back towards the shore.  Finley had been watching from Nate's lap, wrapped up in a towel, and had fallen asleep, so when I got back she just wanted to snuggle away from the wind.

We tried to convince Will to go out with Nate and try to see some of the cool stuff, (this was before the stinging Dead Sea incident), but we only got as far as getting the mask on his face long enough to quickly snap a pic. Oh - we were super happy to have brought our own snorkeling gear that we bought at Costco and have only had opportunity to use twice now:)  But if the dive club's snorkeling gear was anything like their towels, I don't think either of us would have ventured into the water.  Nate went out one more time to try and get our money's worth for the trip, and the kids jumped on the rocks, then we packed up and got out of there, crossing our fingers that we hadn't been infected by anything nasty in the sand.

 The next morning we went to the beach at our hotel, and it was great - just sand, no refuse, and nice lounge chairs, towels and shade.  Yes, we are snobs, but seriously, that public beach was DISGUSTING!!

 We could have stayed out there all day, but we had to check out at 11, so we had time to relax for a couple of hours, and build a cool sand shark.

 Will fished a little - there were lots of little guys swimming around.

 Good times were had by all on this morning, then it was back to our driver, Kamel and our van and we headed to the Dead Sea - yep - posts are out of order...