Ringing in the New Year at the Dead Sea

Last night I was reading about Abram and Lot. A verse mentioned the "Salt Sea" and in a footnote it said Dead Sea. I was reading a story from the beginning of time and could now picture the vibrant, lovely light blue of the Dead sea and the huge salt crystals it leaves after time. In fact I could picture myself back floating in its therapeutic mineral-laden waters where I had been a few days ago, and could even still feel the sting of it in my eye (when I absentmindedly itched my eye-ouch)! The only thing that has changed in thousands of years is the water level; it's gone down 40 ft. since the beginning of the 20th century because its main water source, the Jordan River, has been over-exploited for irrigation purposes. It's endangered. There are still many many minerals in it, and it's still the lowest point on Earth. I was just thrilled that I could read and think, "Yeah, I've been there too Abraham!"

Nothing beats celebrating New Years' at the Dead Sea (except having our families there with us). Warm temperatures (60s), mini road trips, and reflecting on God's faithfulness over the past year sum up our weekend. We drove through rain the first night to our hotel. Rain in the desert-how refreshing and very rare! The Dead Sea Gardens, our hotel, left much to be desired, but we still enjoyed the 2 indoor Dead Sea pools, jacuzzis, and good meals. We stayed in a town called Ein Bokek.

We took off for Eilat (pronounced "a lot"), the southernmost city in Israel, for an afternoon. It took about two hours to drive through the Negev Desert to get there. It was surreal to see where the Israelites had wandered for 4o years. It's called the "Desert of Zin." Acacia trees are quickly becoming my favorite, and their heartiness allows them to withstand the harshest of desert conditions. I loved seeing many of those. Eilat is quite touristy, but we quickly scooted through the main part of town to the beaches. Eilat is on the Northern tip of the Red Sea. At one point we were looking at Jordan to our East, Saudi Arabia to our Southeast, and Egypt to our West. It was unbelievable! Technically we stood on part of the Sinai Peninsula too. We hope to visit Aqaba and Petra in Jordan one day (Aqaba is the famous city T.E. Lawrence conquered for the Arabs from the Turks- for all you "Lawrence of Arabia" fans-like my husband) We were SO CLOSE to Egypt too. We're anxious to get there, too.....
We stopped by a coral reef on our way back to the hotel. It was too cold to go snorkeling unfortunately. Doug had snorkeled there before, though, so he told me about the sea life down there. It looked very cool.

The drive back to the hotel through the Negev was my favorite. I watched the mountains of Jordan turn from a dark brown to a light brown to a light purple to a purplish-pinkish hue all in the span of 5 mins. The fiery orange sunset to our left just capped it off. We'll send pictures, but they won't do the scenery justice. It was breathtaking. We ended our day relaxing in the jacuzzi, as always:-)

The next trip was to the Western coastal city of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean Sea. 3 bodies of water in 2 days-not bad! For all you Michiganders, it reminded me of Lake Michigan, a bit lighter blue:-) We visited there on our way home. Much history to be seen. We toured the National Park where a 3rd century Roman basilica was partially excavated. Also, an antilia (town meeting place) was discovered. Lots of big columns and even goddesses were found. (see pictures) We get all excited when they're still in the excavation process! We wish we had a day or two to poke around in there. (Doug's still on the hunt for his coin)

Our next stop was at the Elah Valley, where David fought Goliath. The brook was all dried up, but we gathered five really smooth stones, the smoothest of which Doug is certain killed Goliath.
Supposedly, the valley stretches East all the way to Bethlehem! We read the story before leaving so we could put it in context. All the battles fought covered much ground, but this particular valley is so big that you could picture the soldiers camped there 40 days. We had driven through Gath, Goliath's town, on the way to the valley, so we were able to get a sense of how far the Philistines had traveled to get to this point. It is amazing the amount of legwork, or camel work, these people did! I pictured in my mind this small area where all the action took place, when in reality they covered a lot of ground. It's impressive.

When we reached Jerusalem to return the rental car we stopped at a traffic light. Now mind you, it's like rush hour out there. Doug says, "Look." I glance over to the left and who comes across the street but a man on a donkey! Doug says, "There are things that people wouldn't believe if you told them." Now, I've gotten used to seeing some pretty unusual things that not much surprises me anymore,(like donkeys walking on sidewalks) but this struck me as funny. He's not obeying the traffic laws because he just barges in front of traffic (well, I suppose the donkey took charge) and people just sort of shrug, like no big deal. I don't even think I heard horns beeping. I mean, what can you do? I watch them get across the street and proceed to walk down the sidewalk. Not so much as a doubletake from the passersby!

We had an awesome weekend. Yea for vacation! The beauty of this land never ceases to amaze me. I think I've seen the most beautiful site, and then there's always more. We will send pictures of Ein Gedi and Qumran soon. That's for another blog.........