Jerusalem, pt 2; the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi

We made it back to Jerusalem and spent the day walking, walking, walking. Jaime was determined to leave no sidewalk untouched. We stopped by Hebrew U and visited her old dorm and stomping grounds and then went through other neighborhoods and looked at cool buildings and alleyways. By nightfall, the kids and I had enough and sat down at a cafe outside and ate dinner while Jaime walked around some more, taking pics and vids of whatever caught her eye. She then dragged us around some more places that she wanted to show us. We had enough, but she had a mission. Finally, we convinced her it was time to go home after going down Ben Yehuda street again. Taxi!

The next day we headed out for the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. I probably don't have to mention this, but it was HOT! As we walked down to the water we passed these "abandoned" umbrellas and showers. I didn't think much of them, but Jaime asked someone what they were doing there and it turns out that the water level has dropped dramatically where they used to be where the shoreline was. Amazing. We all waded in the water, but didn't go floating along - I think mostly because we didn't want to deal with the oily water. We collected a bunch of crystalized or precipitated salt before leaving.

Ein Gedi is a nature preserve with waterfalls. We got there later in the day so we didn't have time to fully explore it. We did get to hang out at a waterfall for a while and that was enough for us.

As a bonus to the day, the kids got a camel ride!