Sunday, August 19, 2012

18 Aug: Hilanatumikome and the Last Crusade

18 Aug

By the time we left this morning, the plan had changed fifteen times.  What finally happened is that my parents, Nate, the girls, Erapie AND I all piled into a van and drove to Petra.  Thanks to a wrong turn, traffic, and a stop at the famous Karak castle, it took over six hours to get there.  Good news is that Aya slept part of the way and that Erapie was on hand to help.  And we arrived at Petra safely.  

We checked into the same hotel at which I'd made reservations for my parents.  My friends Sally and Tim will be happy to learn that our hotel is owned by the same people (and bears the same name) as the hotel at which we stayed together back in 2005.  At this time of year it is complete empty.  Good thing, since I wanted two rooms on the spot--one for me, Nate, and the big girls, and one for Erapie and the Chub.  

My parents made their own plans so the rest of us found a restaurant that would serve us before sundown (yes, it is STILL Ramadan but it ends tomorrow).  A plate of chicken and hummus later we headed back to the hotel.  Erapie took Aya off to her room (bless her) and we have been bumming around here.  The girls are tucked into their bed and watching Princess and the Frog (in Arabic!).  Thank goodness for portable DVD players.  Although we have been staying in a hotel all summer, we've not all been in the same room.  I have no idea if we are going to get any sleep.  I suspect we will be up multiple times in the night.

I am excited to see Petra tomorrow.  This will be my fourth (?) visit and I am still thrilled.  I doubt we will stay long--the girls will tire easily.  What we will have to decide is if we (Ayer fam and Erapie) are going to return by car or by bus--and which bus.  My parents said they would let us have the car and they would return by bus, but I feel like they should take it.  We can't all just come back together because they will likely want to stay longer than us.  And if they had the car they'd want to take some side trips that we don't want to take with the girls.  We should just insist they take the car and try to catch a bus.

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