Sorry, correction, this is the best!

Yafah, yafah, yafah! What a beautiful little GIRL!!! I thought seeing the breathtaking views of Petra was the highlight of this month, but seeing our little bun in the oven this week, beats Petra hands down. Our doctor measured and probed every inch of our little girl, and declared her right on schedule. Well, except she measured about three weeks older in height (huh, I guess no one told her she's suppose to be short).



It's amazing to me how defined her facial features are already. Obviously, most babies look the same about this stage, but it seems to me that she looks a lot like what Anabelle looked like in her 4D ultrasound. They seem to have the same button nose and cleft chin (it's much more clear in the other views we got of her). Anabelle has made me go through the ultrasound printouts several times in the last few days. She loves, loves, loves her little sister. I can't say I blame her, it's hard not to fall in love the minute you set eyes on her (I might be a little tiny bit bias though, but not by much).

A day in Petra

The hike into the city of Petra took about 30 minutes including the Siq (you can see the beginning of the Siq and Maria below).



Due to the extreme dryness and lack of water sources, the Siq was equipped with small aqueducts all along the way. Below is a carving of a camel and its handler (only the feet are clear now). Such engravings of camels usually marked the presence of water. If you look closely, you can see the aqueduct running behind the legs of the handler and camel. You can't see it in the picture, but to the right of the handler there is a small canal that descend into a small pool area where I assume rain water was collected.





Does this look familiar to any of you Indiana Jones fans? Immediately after the Siq, you will find the "Treasury" which is the most photographed and recognized building in Petra.




If you turn right from here, you'll head towards the Street of Facades, with tombs flanking both sides.








At the very back of the city, past the trail to the Byzantine Church, we found the trail up to the Monastery. It is said that there are about 800 steps. Maria and Karla were too busy holding on to the donkey for dear life and Nate was too busy playing donkey to a demanding Anabelle to notice (so don't take our word on that number).


Too late, Maria realized this was not the brightest idea, nor the safest way to get up to the Monastery. Although she probably would have never made it up there on her own with the scorching weather, so... would she do it again? probably not. Is she glad she got to see the Monastery? Oh yeah!!




So the big smile you see on Maria here, is not because of the beautiful view, nor because she was glad to see her handsome husband again (although she was happy to see him). The smile was due to the euphoric feeling as it dawned on her all the things that could have gone wrong on that donkey but didn't. It's good to be all in one piece.


As we came around the last bend to the Monastery, the view took our breath away. It was awesome!!






We had a really long stop at the Monastery, re hydrating and having lunch. By the time we made it down it was time to start heading out.

Of course, Nathan being the energizer bunny that he is, couldn't resist hiking up to the "Urn Tomb" while Anabelle took a nap on her carrier.







Unfortunately, the day went by faster than we had planned. As soon as Nate came down we had to head out.


We were running late enough that while Nate ran through the Siq (energizer bunny, remember?), Karla, Maria and Anabelle caught a carriage at the Monastery and rode out in style (well... not really, but we'll pretend).





Anabelle and Maria were exhausted and while they regained some energy we ran into the taxi driver that drove us in from the border.



He took us back to the hostel and after a few goodbyes to our new friends (Naser and his wife, owners of the Petra Gate Hostel ***** stars for service) and a stop at the taxi driver's home for fruit punch with his family, we were headed back to the border.



It was an amazing experience, which we will not forget anytime soon.

P.S. If the pics seem a lot better than previous ones, it is thanks to Maria fiddling with her new trial version of Photoshop Elements 7 (some of the "before" and "after" pics are so shockingly different it is unbelievable). Who needs a good camera with Photoshop!

Saved the best for last

thanks Wikipedia for the image


We finally made our way to the Rose City of Petra in Jordan. We've been wanting to do this trip ever since we got here, but wanted to make sure to plan it well. The trip was amazing and despite kicking ourselves for not having a good camera, we are so glad we went. Our good friend Karla joined us in this whirlwind adventure and we were glad for her companionship.

Originally our plan had been to take a bus, but luckily things didn't work out at the last minute and we had to rent a car. Good thing too, because we would have never made it back in time to catch the bus back home. Plus, the weather was scorching hot and parking right next to the Israel/Jordanian border was definitely a plus.


We stayed in a small hostel named Petra Gate, where the owner went all out in helping us get the most out of our time there. This is the view from our little room.


Because of our little mishap with the bus in the morning, we got into Wadi Musa (the name of the town next to Petra)a bit later than planned. Naser (the hostel owner) suggested we visit Little Petra since Petra was already closed by then. I must say, if you ever visit Petra, Little Petra is well worth the trip, especially if you end up signing up for a dinner package (which we didn't have time for since we were signed up for the night hike into Petra later that evening).



Anabelle loved Little Petra, especially because there was no hiking involved. The entire sight is pretty flat, and the only strenuous activity was going up stairs to look into the one temple that had a pretty well preserved Fresco still visible on the ceiling.




After about an hour in LP we headed back to Wadi Musa and had a very quick but delicious Jordanian dinner of Mandi at the El Siwani Restaurant. It was delicious and much better priced than most of the other restaurants. It came with three different types of rice, salad and pita on the side.

(picture owned by oldstock.blogspot.com)
We ate so fast I didn't even have time to take a picture.

Our helpful cab driver picked us up at the restaurant and drove us over to Petra five minutes before the night tour began. The 1/2 hour trail into Petra was lighted by candles and it was super quiet, leaving us with feelings of wonderment and reverence.



Once we arrived at the Treasury there were hundred of candles surrounding a makeshift stage area where we were entertained by two talented local musicians playing traditional music and later enjoyed a passionate rendition of a well known poem about Petra.



Nathan spend most of the time fiddling with the camera, trying to create wine out of water(it really was a miracle that we got any decent pictures out of that camera), and had great results in my opinion. Thank you Nate!!!

We were also very grateful to the friendly staff who gave us a ride back to the main gate since baby Lewis decided to give Mom cramps and make it near impossible to hike back out. I guess she didn't like being up past 11:00 pm. Go figure!

Stay tune for pics from our second day in Petra, coming soon.
-posted by Maria