June 18, 2005
Eilat and Mamshit
Our hotel in Eilat had a wonderful swimming pool. There were actually four swimming pools, connected by short water slides. There was a large main pool over which was a bridge that we used to cross from our room to the dining room. There was a smaller side pool, a kiddie pool and the pool with the play equipment. We spent most of the time in that pool.
When we needed a break from swimming we would go get a sandwich or a popsicle (remember it was all-inclusive). One afternoon Tyler ate four popsicles. His favorite was called a ramzor (stoplight); it was red, yellow and green.
Tyler is getting a lot more confident with his water wings. He no longer clings onto Scott screaming, "Don't let go of me!"
In the swimming poolBrooke loved the slides. Her favorite slide was the slide connecting the play pool to the main pool. Scott would stand at the bottom and Tiffany would let Brooke go at the top. She insisted on doing it again and again. She also liked this big red slide, but not as much.
Down the slideBrooke was a little too confident in the water for our tastes. She kept trying to walk and play in the shallow water by herself.
TubularHere you can see the play equipment where we spent most of our time. In the background, you can see Brooke insisting on going down a slide again.
Slip sliding awayThis is one of the three big slides at the hotel. Tyler only went down once because he didn't like the way his face got wet when he landed in the pool at the bottom.
Tyler and the blue slideWe went home a different way than we came for some variety. We saw the location of Israel's nuclear power plant which we never would have noticed except for the signs that said, "Taking photos is forbidden in this area."
Later, we saw another national park, so we stopped. Our national park pass gets us into all the parks without an entry fee. The site is called Mamshit, and was a Nabatean way station, just like Avedat. Tyler insisted on this picture so that his grandparents could see a picture of him there.
Tyler at MamshitJust like Avedat, after the Nabateans converted to Christianity, they built churches at their way stations and then settled down and stopped being nomads. Below is a picture of the ruins of one of the churches.
Overlooking Byzantine church ruins
The other church had a beautiful mosaic floor.
Mosaic floorTyler-isms:
"One day with my grandma, we flew in a rocket and flew in the sky to the sun and broke the sun's face and the sun was sad." - We are starting to to hear lots of interesting stories. Many of them include grandma or grandpa. We never knew that Tyler's grandparents were so adventuresome: rockets, race cars, motorcycles, trains, boats and construction equipment.
"Does the sky have a top like this?" (pointing to the ceiling) - We are also starting to get profound questions.
Brooke-isms:
"dadgy" - Scott or Tyler. Brooke isn't picky as to which.
"baby" - doll or baby food (because of the baby picture on the label).