After some time to reflect...

...here's the low-down on our recent travels. For once, Jon beat me to the punch of posting about a trip! I've found it hard to capture our experiences in words, but being back at work this week has forced me to try. So, I'll sum it up in 10 memorable memories (in chronological, not preferential order):

1. Riding a camel on the Giza Plateau

I was expecting the Great Pyramids to be impressive, but in reality they were magnificent. There are a few places like that in the world that you vividly remember studying in 3rd grade Social Studies - so, when you actually see them in person it makes you feel giddy like a 9-year-old. For me, seeing the pyramids was one of those moments.

2. Scuba diving in the Red Sea

When I got my scuba certification 7 years ago, it was really motivated by a check off my long "life list" but not something I expected to use someday to dive in the Red Sea. Thankfully, our traveling buddies in Egypt were also divers and made it a top priority to get underwater while we were there. Not long after we started our first dive, a pod of dolphins joined us underwater and playfully swam with us along the reef. This was another giddy childhood dream moment. I've always wanted to swim with dolphins, but I just imagined that to be in some pool at some wildlife sanctuary. I never dreamed someday I would encounter them in the wild and swim alongside them as if we were in the same pod. Super cool!

3. Crossing the border between Jordan and Israel

Not a particularly positive or negative experience, just memorable. My perception is that the Israeli guards intentionally make the process as vague and non-communicative as possible to ensure maximum control over the confused border crossers. We were stopped probably a dozen times at various check points to show our passports, hand over money, participate in one of several levels of non-sensical security protocol, then withheld at immigration for additional questioning, photographs, fingerprinting, and finally pulled aside as Americans to be ushered straight to the front of a large crowd at customs. Hmmmm...just interesting.

4. Wandering the streets of Jerusalem's Old City

I loved everything about the Old City in Jerusalem. It is so rich with history, yet still so vibrant with many cultures and communities "co-existing" today. We were lucky to have had expert guides while we were there (thanks Trey and Jessie!). Their knowledge of Jerusalem, Biblical history, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and friendships with people just about everywhere we went really made it all so much more meaningful. It is powerful to walk through Jerusalem from a Biblical perspective, but it is also eye-opening to learn about the history that is unfolding in that region today. "Peace in the Middle East" is no longer just a cliche bumper-sticker phrase to us now. Jon and I have come to really care about the history, the people, and the future of Israel and Palestine as a result of our visit.

5. Eating...lots of eating!

We had so much good food, but two particularly memorable meals were in Israel and the West Bank. One was the best hummus I've ever eaten - made even better because we ate it on top of a door made into a table inside a shop in the Old City. Trey and Jessie know everyone around there, and just asked one of their friends to let us eat in the middle of his shop. It's fun to shop in the old city, even better to eat on a door in a shop in the old city! Other favorite meal - their neighbor, Afaf, made us a fantastic dinner of amazing Palestinian food. She made stuffed grape leaves, stuffed peppers, stuffed zucchini, etc. I ate until I was beyond full, then ate some more.

6. Hiking to Petra

Indiana Jones fans out there know just the sight I'm thinking about right now. To earn your way into Petra you first have to hike for an eternity through a mountain crevace, then finally you get that first magical peak at the lost city of Petra. The orange stone facades of the buildings carved into the mountain really are magical - tell me how they possibly could have done that with primitive tools?! Seriously! On a side note, Jon and I were sick, sick, sick on the day were were in Petra, but you'll never be able to tell in the pictures. We were as happy as could be just to be in Petra, so our smiles hid all signs of that nasty cold that had to hit us on vacation.

7. Floating in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is just about a perfect natural spa experience. The water itself has 36% salinity, so you couldn't sink if you tried (well, maybe with an anchor tied to your waist). It is quite disorienting to bob around in the water like that, but fun once you let go of trying to tread water. We did the traditional mud bath with dead sea mud (supposedly infused with all kinds of good minerals), then rinsed off back in the water. My skin felt so soft for at least a week afterward! The whole experience was topped off by spending the rest of the morning in the luxurious spa at the resort. Ah, now that's relaxation!

8. Driving through Jordan

We decided to go local in Jordan and hire our own rental car so we could explore the country at our leisure. This turned out to be an especially good plan since it allowed us to experience Jordan as we never would have from a chauffered van. Thankfully Dave is a talented Middle Eastern driver; however, we still encountered adventures stemming from roads with no names and highways that spontaneously dead-ended into road blocks and detours that turned into one-way dirt roads. Amazingly, we always ended up where we wanted to go and did so close to the time we expected it to take for us to get there anyway. The driving was memorable because we got to see how rural Jordanians lived, and Jon got to try his hand at navigating by the sun.

9. Desert safari-ing on the sand dunes in Qatar

Again, we were at the mercy of talented Middle Eastern Driver Dave. Since we didn't get to truly "experience" the desert in Jordan, Dave took us out driving on the dunes in Qatar. Imagine a roller coaster with the same clicking and climbing that builds a knot in your stomach, only this time you're in a car and tipping over the crest to dive face-first down a mountain of sand. Scary, but really super fun!

10. Experiencing Qatari National Day

All of Qatar was a unique memory, but I feel particularly lucky to have been there on their first-ever National Day. The country was so full of national pride while we were there with flags flying everywhere, people singing and cheering out their sunroofs, music playing all around. I jokingly began to call it Doha Disney because everything was so manicured and it felt like the happiest place on Earth. They brought out what must have been the entire military force of Qatar to do a land, air, and sea parade. Really, it felt like a Disney parade, but with Arab spectators and lots of military equipment.

We really loved the diversity of each country and place we visited. It was hard to narrow this post down to just 10 highlights. Really, each day was filled with multiple "wows" and unique adventures. Jon and I officially offer our endorsement of this region as a great destination for lots of history, tasty food, generous people, beautiful sights, and no American tourists (hate to say it, but that's a plus these days!). Perhaps if more Americans visited this region though, there wouldn't be such fear of the Middle East. Mostly, it was just special to see and do all this with good friends!