Jordan Trip – Day 4

Pete woke early, tucked his pajama pants under his blanket, and got dressed. He headed out with Mom for some rock climbing. 



Sam joined Dad for breakfast, and actually ate an omelet (new food) and some preserves on a pita. 



Sultan tossed the bags into the Toyota for the brief ride over to meet the camels. The 45-minute camel ride to the village was plenty long enough for Mom. Sam’s camel was named “Alian”, and was tethered to Mom’s and Dad’s. Pete’s camel was un-tethered, and a bit ornery. It was a fun ride, accentuated by the camels stopping to stoop down and fight over every bit of brush along the way. 



Sultan drove the crew back to the parking lot, and it was time to head to Petra. They filled the gas tank with some 90 octane and enjoyed the scenic drive. There was a cool playground at the scenic overlook, where Pete slid down a rusty slide of questionable integrity. Lunch was at the pizza shop just outside of the main entrance to the Petra site. The Wi-fi there was “not working today”. It was a cute place - the shopkeeper would frequently call out to “Hamdan!” when anything needed attention. The pizza was not the best, but enough to tide everyone over until dinner back in Amman. They parked the car up on the hill, and walked down to the Visitors’ Center. Pete found a replacement pair of sunglasses at one of the shops. The vendor wanted 10 JD, but they haggled him down to 8. Next was the long walk down to the Treasury, and then around to the tombs and other sites in the old Petra village. 





They climbed around a bit, took some dangerous pictures, and were getting tired so they headed back. Dad did not find any geocaches, and Mom did not see everything she had hoped to see, but it was still a decent outing. On the walk back, the boys took a break, and Mom said “I’d prefer not to stop, so I’ll meet you back up by the Visitors’ Center.” This is when the boys hatched a plan to run and catch up with Mom. She was looking in her bag when they ran by, so they kept right on running past her and around the corner. When she spied them sitting and waiting about 15 minutes later, she was quite shocked that they had gotten in front of her. She asked if they had purchased a mule, horse, camel, or carriage ride, but indeed they had not. Dad and Pete hiked up the hill and brought down the car. They all drove back to the Fishers’ house for some baked ziti. Sam was quite glad that Wednesday would be the light day on the agenda.