The Dead Sea

Sunrise at the Ron Beach Hotel

Our first stop was at Best Shean. Paul preached here and Jesus probably did. The ruins are cool. Dad said this was one of Brett's favorite parts of the trip last year. He was running up and down all the ruins.

John & Renee

Stephanie

We didn't realize this was the back of the lady at first hahaha

 Stephanie ~ front of the lady

 Jordyn

 Dad, Stephanie, Rachel, Steve, Sharon, Jordyn, John, Renee, Mark

 Jordyn, Renee, John

Rachel wanted a picture with Rachel. She didn't even realize they dressed like twins until she looked at the picture later. Hahahaha

Rachel & Rachel

 Amphitheater

 Possible site of Mount of Temptations

 There is a monastery up there

 And a restaurant

 You take a gondola to get up there. We didn't do that, but my dad was excited to see two cars cross

 Amazing structure at the top

 Random tires at the bottom

It's crazy that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River when it is so gross! There were flies everywhere! The buoy line you can see in the picture is the border between Israel and Jordan. No one is allowed to cross.

 My dad teaching

 People on Israel, people on Jordan ~ everyone coming to learn about Christ

 Mark getting some Jordan River water to take home

 Jordyn

While my dad was teaching all of a sudden people came from everywhere and started baptizing each other. It was the craziest thing. Everything was so peaceful, then people started walking over us while my dad was trying to teach. It was pretty funny though.

 Jordyn, Stephanie, Rachel, Mark

 Stephanie

My dad wanted a picture of me pointing at this sign

Dad getting Jordan River water

We had lunch and went shopping at Jimmy's Bazaar. I had planned on buying an olive wood nativity while I was here. We had one growing up and I thought this was something I wanted to do. I am not a haggler. The set I wanted to buy was $250. Jordyn told me that the guy said he would give it to her for $200. While I was looking at the pieces he told me he would throw in a free camel, so I didn't want to try and get the price down. They let me mix and match pieces so I could get the wood grains to look how I wanted them to look. Jordyn helped me with this. My dad was watching and the guy helping me kept telling him he needed to buy this for his daughter. I kept laughing and told him he should buy it for me. Haha ~ Anyway, I wanted to look at some more things, so they took my stuff to the front of the store. There was something I was interested in, but it didn't have a price. I took it up to the front to ask how much it was. Rachel was talking to me while I did that. The boy said it was $80. I told him never mind and I was ready to pay for my nativity. He asked me how much it was and I told him $250. The guy that was originally helping me came up and took the $80 item and started wrapping it up. I was thinking, "Shoot! I don't want to spend $80 on this. I hope he throws this in for free or super cheap." I knew he had given Brett some pieces for free. Still, this was $80! The guy asked if Rachel was my sister. I said she's my sister-in-law. He grabbed everything out of Rachel's hand and started wrapping it up. Rachel and I didn't know what was going on. Then the guy handed me my two bags, and Rachel hers and said, "Your dad paid for you." I laughed and said he didn't and handed him my credit card. He said, "Your dad paid for you." He kept talking like this and I was so confused. He came around the counter, put his arm around me and said, "This is a gift from us, but shhhhh" Then he ushered me out of the store. WHAT THE HECK? He just gave me the entire nativity set for free! He gave Rachel her things for free too, but she had just randomly picked things up and hadn't decided what she was going to buy yet. She was just talking to me in line. I definitely got the better end of that deal. Rachel is convinced that my mom is giving me a present. She said that lots of my mom's family is here and she hasn't been able to give me anything for years. That's a nice thought. I can not believe I walked away with a nativity set for free. (I knew they sometimes gave my dad's relatives good deals....but this one....)

Our last stop for the night was the Dead Sea. That place is BEAUTIFUL! It was so much fun! Getting in was cold at first, but then it was great once we were able to get use to it. I brought my phone to take pictures. I'm so glad I did!

Mark & Ron

Stephanie

The Dead Sea was so much fun. It is weird how you just float. I was standing without touching the ground. Mark was touching, but I was taller than him. Steve was the one who went floating position first, but he splashed so much on the way down that he got salt in his eyes and mouth.

Steve

 Rachel

 Sharon

 Mark

 Jordyn

 Jordyn & Rachel

 Dad

 Sharon

 Jordyn with the Rachel photobomb

 Jordyn

This sweet Japanese lady is traveling with us. She is a widower and is traveling by herself. We convinced her to try and float. Mark and John helped her.

Mark, Hidoko (I think), John

 John

 Renee

I asked a lady to take our picture together. Didn't turn out, but we tried!

Mark, Rachel, Stephanie, Jordyn, Sharon, Steve, Dad, Renee, John

 Stephanie

 Jordyn, Stephanie, Rachel

I took pictures of other people in our tour group and then put my phone away, hoping no one would take it out of my bathroom pocket. Spoiler alert: no one did.

Tiny Parry heads

 Stephanie's face covered in salt

My dad, Mark, Rachel and I went to the spa. We swam in big hot tubs, there was another salt water pool, but heated. That one kind of hurt. Rachel thinks it's because we were in the hot tub and opened up our pores. We went from different pool to different pool. Rachel even liked the cold one! Crazy!

We had a delicious dinner and then went walking after we got back. We walked to some stores. While I was waiting, Rachel suggested I play with the cats. I don't know about playing with them though....

And that's it! What a day! Gotta get up early to start again tomorrow!