ivy press: dead sea

Vadim's parents have come into town so we decided to take a vacation to the "mineral beach" on the Dead Sea for the day, making it a day-cation! And oh, was it a wonderful day!

I realized that the Dead Sea is a beach bums haven. Why you may ask? Oh, I'll gladly share. The weather is perfect there, it barely ever rains and it stays warm not just dry. Also, the water is cold enough to cool you down but warm enough to make you stay in and soak. The best part though is that it is effortless, you simply float atop of the water and enjoy the feel of it all. Even though the water dehydrates you like crazy (it consists of 33% salt, compared to the ocean which is like 5%), I couldn't stay away. Also, the sea is DEAD. You don't have to worry about creepy, slimy things invading your space. You can simply relax.

Apart from the beach bum in me who was entranced, the girl in me indulged in the mineral mud. Such a great day with the husband and parents.

With parents being here, we have quite the itinerary planned for the next two weeks before we head home. We plan to visit Haifa (it has some sort of hanging gardens?) the Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Tiberias, Tel-Aviv, maybe the Dead Sea again (fingers crossed). But one that I am most happy to announce is that we are going to Egypt! We didn't think we would pull it off, but we are! Well, that is if we can cross the border, there seem to be issues with that. Nonetheless, we are going. We plan to stay by the Red Sea and hope to make it into Cairo to see some sort of pyramids.. Oh, the fun that awaits!

Isn't this the best place to study? I think so!

The mud is stored in these big jugs

The husband had no desire to partake in the bathing of mud, so I doubled the dose on myself.

Have you ever had a "oh-my-goodness, I-erased-all-the-pictures-from-the-camera-before-downloading-them-onto-the-computer" scare? Well, that's what I had with this set. My heart sank to my ankles, but then my short term memory decided that it would kick in (after I broke out into a sweat) and remind me that I indeed did download them already. Close call.

So this was our first overnight trip with the class. It was rather eventful. We stayed in a hostel for the first time ever, not too shabby; I was able to harass some sheep, also for the first time; we found some pretty ancient pottery pieces that we got to keep; visited the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea; hiked and climbed a lot, and then did it again and again.

UGGS!!! Just kidding, kind of. The truth is, the closest I have ever gotten to a sheep is by wearing Uggs. Don't I sound like a complete city girl? I was severely overjoyed when I saw this flock grazing 20 feet away from us, I simply had to touch one. But I couldn't get too close because they kept scooching away and I was ~~slightly~~ really terrified of the male sheep with the large horns, so I had to keep a safe distance:(

Me, excited? What makes you say that?

We visited Lachish (it is mentioned in the OT many many times) where a siege took place roughly in 701 BC. The professor said that hundreds of arrow heads were found here and that there were probably thousands still buried. With that said, the boys started to dig, no joke.

While they were looking for weapons, I found a handle to some clay pitcher.

The class

Sometime during the hike, Sam got a hold of our camera and decided to do a photo shoot with and of himself. This is one of the images we discovered later on.

Glorious view from above.

These are the images one gets when others have had a long day of hiking, climbing, and too much sun.

On top of that mountain stood one of Herod's great fortresses, Masada. Today it is one of Israel's "must-see" places. It was most gorgeous and with the absolute best view you could think of. Over looking a valley, the Dead Sea, and other mountains, this great fortress stood 1300 feet high. It, Masada, holds a great story that I will not go into, but highly encourage you to read up on it. You can do that here or here.