The Dead Sea

My first group vacation: a day trip to the dead sea. This involved an early morning trip to the bus station where we first located and then boarded our chariot, which took us on a forty-five minute ride down to a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. From here we chartered two taxis down to the string of resort hotels lining the beach, paid to use one of said beaches, and quickly joined the half-naked European tourists bobbing like buoys in the salty water.

Yo! We have arrived! (Stephanie and David dominate this photo - great hat Steph. - while I am clearly having issues with the sun, and Ryan may be trying to proposition someone behind the camera)

Beach chairs, palm trees, a stretch of sand, and the West Bank rising in the background - Welcome to the lowest point on Earth.

The beach was usually dominated by a large and roving herd of mud-people. Here David has his picture taken with them.

We tried to warn him - they can be ornery when provoked (could it have been that large and menacing one behind him?)

Ryan becomes the first of us to go native and convert to the mud-people way.

Here we see him and his people in their native habitat.

No! Stephanie has converted and she is coming for YOU!

I tried but I just couldn't get to Ellie before she and Kat did.

They actually seem pretty happy ...

Ah, what the hell, when in Rome. (By the way, that bathing suit took for-ev-er to get clean!)

Now come the idyllic beach scenes.

Ellie, caught in a moment of slightly grumpy cuteness. And could that be Stephanie actually doing homework in the background? Who would have thought?

David, in a rare moment of tranquility

I promised myself that I would never post this, but it is too characteristic. I, of course, am sprawled out and snoring in complete disorder, David has returned to a fetal position, Ellie sleeps not but rather stares sassily into the camera, Stephanie is at her neverending homework, and yes, Ryan does sleep in a Zen meditation pose.

Before leaving we return to take pictures of the bobbing.

Look mom, no hands!

Damn it, I tried to prove that Nell was actually on this trip with us, and of course the photo won't stand upright.

Homeward Bound (which was a great movie, by the way, you can not beat talking dogs, and that one scene at the end when the old golden retriever runs home to his boy - face it, you cried.)

There's Nell!