The Dead Sea & Mt. Nebo

Our hotel in Aqaba, Jordan - pictures are all out of order for the next couple of posts...

 Sunsets from Petra - so awesome.

 And one from Aqaba.

Advice:  Before you go into the Dead Sea, do a full body check for ANY skin abrasions, rashes or other bumps or things that may potentially sting (like crazy apparently) in water with a 30% salt concentration.  In case you are wondering, most bodies of salt water have about a 3% concentration of salt.  The first time we went to the Dead Sea, I thought 18 month old Will would like to float in the water.  I was mistaken.  On this second trip, I thought he would be older, and would think it was cool to float in the water.  We didn't get far enough to actually find out, as once he got in up to about his waist, the small rash on his legs started to sting from the salt, and we spent the next 30 minutes trying to get out of the water without falling in (the rocks are kind of slippery), showering off, then using our water bottle to rinse again, then showering again, all to a lovely (repeat) soundtrack of crying.  Yet again, other bathers tried not to stare at the horrible parents who try to torture their children in public.

It's hard to tell, but this is Finley in the water with Nate - we mostly kept her out of the actual water:)

Nate, doing his dead man's float.

I took advantage of the pot of mud - have to admit I didn't really notice any major benefits, but maybe I didn't give it enough time to really soak in.  I did a mud wrap once at a spa, and didn't really love that either - I just don't think I am meant to play in the mud and enjoy it.

Will still doesn't believe that NO animals or sea creatures live in the Dead Sea, and it is still strange to see the complete calm, flatness of the water (other than the ripples from bathers).

Will and his elephant also tried out a bit of mud - we were looking for any kind of distraction from the residual stinging - it kind of worked.

A short detour on our way to the airport to Mt. Nebo, where Moses was shown the Promised Land.  The church built on the mountain top was closed for structural renovations, so it was a quick stop.

The Promised Land off in the distance...

Finley's favorite spot on the trip.

St. GEorge's church in the town of Madaba full of mosaics - kind of cool to see, and we ran into Will's principal, Mr. Scott and his family - Jordan is a small place when it's spring break in Dubai:)

A 6th century mosaic map.

We spent our other day just chilling at the awesome pool at the resort - well actually just in the kiddie pool - the others weren't heated and were freezing!!  But the kids loved it, found fun friends to play with and fell asleep on our laps while we were waiting for our lunch.