Friday, we started off the day by snorkling....toughing out the waters of the Red Sea. I will say that all the girls chickened out at the last minute except for me and Kerrie Curbow. After having said that, I will be the first to say IT WAS ONE OF THE SCARIEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE!!!! We went at about 9:00 am and the water was FREEZING. The waves were very strong and we crawled out to the end of a pier and just jumped in with nothing but a mask and a snorkel (no flippers and no life jacket). We were told NOT to touch the buoys along the path because they had coral reefs growing on them so it was like we were stuck out in the ocean just treading water in lots of waves. For a second, I totally panicked. I jumped in first before anyone and once I did there was no turning back! I tried to look at the fish underneath and water got in my mask and my snorkel so I was left feeling like I was in the middle of the ocean and I was about to breathe my last breath. I was picturing in my mind the headlines, "Girl goes to Israel on a mission trip and dies...snorkeling in the Red Sea!" I finally got control of myself and calmed down and then I was able to swim and look at some of the fish. The ones I did see were absolutely beautiful! I love going to aquariums and this was up close and personal. There were so close that I felt as if I could reach out and touch them. Of course when I tried, they swam away. We finally made it to the next pier (that was about a football field away that we had to swim) and I was never so glad to see those steps than anything in my life!!! Overall I was glad I did it but I will probably not do another snorkeling adventure like that one again.
We then toured Solomon's mines and then we saw a replica of THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. It was neat to see what I have tried to picture from the scriptures from so many years. WE left there and rode camels in the dessert. The ride lasted about an hour and a half and we rode all through the mountains to a lookout mountain where we could see another country (Jordan). It was very peaceful. We then went to our Bedouin tent where we would spent the night. It was a very large tent (almost like an open air log cabin). It slept about 9 rooms and all 15 of us slept in one of them. That tells you how big it was. Everyone just got mats and made their pallet on the ground. They also served us dinner along with many others. I think they ended up serving 90 including us. They just had round tables on the floor with mats beneath the tables (similar to a Japanese restaurant where you sit indian style). It was Shabbat (Jewish holiday) so alot of families were having their celebrations. They turned off the electricity at 11:00 and everyone went to bed. We all slept ok until a baby started crying at 6 a.m. It was a great experience!
Today, we had a 2 hour bus ride to the dead sea. We did float in the dead sea and laid out at the beach for a couple of hours. We came back to the hotel and took showers and that brings us up to this point. We are about to eat dinner and then our tour guide is doing a Passover meal with us so that we can experience it . We are all looking forward to that. Tomorrow we are going to Masada, En Gedi, and Qumran (where the dead sea scrolls were found). We will then shower at a beach and then get on a plane for 12 hours. We are hoping to sleep the whole way! We are loving this and learning so much although we are missing home and the kids! We can't wait to see them! We will not have internet any more until we get home so until then, we love you guys and can't wait to share about 500 pictures with you! :)
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