Jordan

August 18:
Petra
We spent the entire day sightseeing in the "Rose Red City" (made famous in Indiana Jones). It is quite an amazing place. An entire city carved out of a mountain. The buildings were absolutely beautiful. We had to hike quite a distance up to some of them, and I have never climbed so many stairs in my life! We were sore for days after.

Brendon and I rode camels, and it was quite fun - but I thought it was a little bit scary since you are so high up and the ride is very bouncy. Brendon is sitting sort of side saddle here and he convinced me to try it - I decided instantly I didn't like it because it felt much less secure than riding straddling the camel. But before I could move my legs back to the more secure straddling position Brendon gave my camel a kick in the hind end and it started galloping. My backpack flew off and I bounced all over the place holding on for dear life!! The owner of the camels ran after me panicked and Brendon thought the whole thing was hilarious. I nearly died in a camel accident! Come to find out my camel was a racing camel - built for speed - not like the other camels that are just used for toting tourists along.

The stadium
This is the famed Treasury that most people would recognize. I was in awe of how large it was in real life.

Brendon has more pictures on his fancy pants camera of Petra, and we can't download those here on this computer - so we'll share more pictures at the end of our trip. Apologies in advance that they'll be out of order of our blog. :)

August 19:
Petra
My birthday! Brendon surprised me by arranging Turkish baths at our hotel. The spa was closed, so he convinced them to open it privately just for us. After we left our hotel we drove back to Amman, Jordan (so pleased with ourselves that we were able to decipher the map and all the Arabic names of streets) and flew to Jerusalem where Kyler gave us a quick tour and we had crepes for my birthday treat.