As Different as Two Days Can Be...

Yesterday, coming off of our very disappointing trip to the "zoo", we decided to take a family outing to the Dead Sea. Given that we have three small children, El 3atal and I decided that our best bet would be to get a room for the day at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. As you may not be aware, they have a wonderful set of pools designed with kids of all ages in mind. For the very small, they have a pool about thigh deep on the twins. It had a whale that you could sit on, a rhino to bounce back and forth on, and a twisty snake water slide. For the slightly older ones, there was a second pool about the same depth with a Little Tykes type play structure. The main difference is that when you twist the various steering wheels, you start huge sprays of water. The 3 slides on it are all water slides. These proved too fast for ButterBean. The big kid pool had a huge water slide structure that was full of twists and turns. El 3atal and I definitely enjoyed this one greatly. They had a lap pool for the very big kids (read this adults) and steps down to the Dead Sea. We left a bit late (about 10 am) and got there in time to play for a few an hour or so then order lunch. After lunch, we took the kids to the room to rest out of the sun for awhile. El 3atal and I went into the sea and played on the big water slide for a bit. Then we went to the final pool on property which is a large, abandoned kidney bean shaped pool just behind the lobby. We had a very nice swim and were the only ones in the pool the whole time. Finally, we went back to get the kids and played on the snake slide for a bit longer. Then we took them down to the beach to play with their sand toys. While they played, I thought we'd give Miss Tess (our household helper) the (perhaps once in a lifetime) opportunity to swim in the Dead Sea. ButterBean decided she wanted to come, which caused JoojooBean to decide she also had to come. Then, of course, JuniorBean refused to be left out. This all would have been fine except that JoojooBean is unable to simply sit comfortably. As a result, I have a large scrape under my knee from a mean rock on the bottom and JoojooBean stayed in for about 5 minutes before she wanted to get out. El 3atal took the kids and ButterBean decided she wanted to go out too. Not wanting to cut Miss Tess' visit short, I stayed in with her (the only way I could convince her to stay in). Unfortunately, JoojooBean decided that she had to have Mommy, so our trip was cut a bit shorter after all. Miss Tess got to experience rubbing the nasty, snotty feeling mud on herself and floating in the surreal way of the Dead Sea, though. She said it was a really fun experience, so I'm glad she got to enjoy it as well. After that, the kids clamored to play on the snake slide again before we headed home. We played for a few minutes longer and then loaded into the car for the drive home. Although it was probably 50 times as expensive as the zoo, it was easily 50 times as fun as well. So, all in all, it was money well spent. After the fun we had there, maybe I'll convince El 3atal to join the Amman Waves after all :). Or maybe not...

Fun in the sun.