Wadi Rum

So, if you know me at all, you know I'm not terribly outdoorsy, but since we've been here and now have 2 dogs, I have become more adventurous by necessity. I bought Brian some camping gear for Christmas because I know how much he loves it! I think I once camped in my backyard at age 12, so we are quite different in that aspect.

Wadi Rum here in Jordan is probably the best place in the whole country to camp. It's a stunning "desertscape". Wadi Rum is located in South Jordan and is a large valley - the largest wadi (canyon) in Jordan. The movie Lawrence of Arabic was filmed here after T.E. Lawrence was based here and fell in love with it.

After traveling to get there for a few hours, we found a great place to set up our camp and turned the dogs loose. It was great to see them with so much space to run and play. The only tense moment all day was when a camel wandered into our camp. Neither dog was thrilled with this HUGE animal and barked ferociously at it. In return, the camel gazed serenely back at them and continued its exceedingly slow pace past us. Below are some pics of our camp and surroundings...

















We went back to Wadi Rum last weekend with some friends. We are sure this will become a staple to our weekends, as it tires the dogs out for the next WEEK! Now...off to order some air mattresses....

Birthday weekend in Aqaba

For my birthday last month, Brian and I went down to Aqaba to celebrate. Aqaba is a resort town on the Red Sea and is about 3 hours away from Amman. Brian had Sunday off, so we were able to spend two & a half days down there and loved every second!! We stayed at the Kempinski which was a very modern, brand new hotel. The food was great, the weather was perfect, and there was even live music every night for us to enjoy while drinking prosecco and smoking shesha (2 of our very favorite activities!)


This is a picture of our hotel room-- the bathroom was see-through. I was NOT a fan of that ultra-modern feature!



This was the view from our balcony. The pool was very interesting, with varying degrees of depth, along with separate kids pool (YAY) and hot tub (Which the kids took over anyway). Just beyond the pool area is the beach area and it's hard to see, but there is a boardwalk area tucked away behind the beach (technically under the pool)....with a couple restaurants, ice cream shop, etc.



This is a close up of the swim up bar. So lovely to have a lemon with mint in the sun while sitting at the bar!




Even though this is a tourist destination, there are still Muslims that adhere to their religious dress that vacation here-- that includes burqas on the beach, as well as burqinis...(unrelated, yet funny pic of burqinis follow....)






Brian and I at the pool.




A very creative pic by Brian. We were enjoying dinner out on the boardwalk.



We loved Aqaba and will probably go back before we head back to the States....it was a great birthday weekend and well worth the trip down!