Dead Sea and thousands of years of history

When our glamping plans fell thru, we booked a last minute all inclusive resort at a Dead Sea hotel. Heaven has arrived as we stepped into the beach oasis with unlimited beverages, meals, a gorgeous swimming pool with water slides and steps to the salted sea. Miss T took a brief dip before decided it wasn’t for her. The boys and I loved the mineral bath, floating and enjoying the salt embrace. We finished a delicious meat dinner and headed for drinks in the theatre with live music and lots of action. A late night had by all but it was worth it ;).

The morning brought us to a Moroccan decorated lobby and a warm breakfast of eggs, cheeses and so many breads. We lounged in the spa of heated Dead Sea water, a hot tub and sauna. Very relaxing since the minimum age required was 16 ;). After the spa, we slathered in mud for the obligatory pic. One tiny family member refused . The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging poolside drinking kiwi margs and enjoying the pristine pool. We lunched and left for Masada immediately as quickly as time allowed and made it up on the last trolley. Exploring thousands of year olds history, thinking about what life would have been like living between 37 and 31 BCE period when  Herod the Great built two palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada Really peaked our historian imaginations. Nothing to complete a trip south quite like a parking lot camel ride, a first for B and T. No one else opted to ride!!

It was such a pleasure spending time with our aunt and uncle that we opted to have dinner with another set and a half! Cafe Ramon is our new fave dinner place. 

Our last day together in Israel, Joe and the crew spent the day laughing and playing in the Mediterranean and walking around the artistic Tel Aviv, while “some” of us stayed behind doing school work with a feverish little. We reunited at Omi’s for a Shabbat feast with cousins and aunts and uncles. True to a Jewish mother, we were overstuffed with homemade fish tajin, roasted vegetables, potatoes, delectable salads and so so much more! We said goodbye to Omi and Saba with the promise to see each other soon. 

Saturday we all took a tour of the Memorial Tank Museum in . Old and new, Israeli tanks as well as other countries, we climbed and played mixing history with modern moments. The kids and I also found some stray cats and loved them up as much as they let us! We took a late lunch in Ramle eating at an Arab eatery filled with Shabbat rule breakers feasting on typica Jewish fare. We’ve eaten more hummus and salads in the past ten days then in the past ten years :p. We said our short goodbyes to Nina and Dunc with promises to reunite the next day and dropped the kids off at a cousins so we could head to the bar to watch Ariana perform. The icing on the top of the cake, a child free evening out with friends and relatives, dancing to Ariana’s fabulous band perform and fun food to fill us up. Another late night, but an enchanting one!

The next day, we packed our bags carefully, said our goodbyes and drove to the airport.