As a fun project for Claire, we set a goal of hiking 25 miles over the course of this summer. We did hikes everywhere from a few miles from our house at Lake Lagunita at Stanford, to Marin County’s Tennessee Valley, to the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains, to various hikes in both Israel and Jordan. Claire kept a progress bar of her hikes, and each time she completed one throughout the summer got to fill in the bar with a color of her choice. Here it is!
Click on the photo of Katherine and Claire at Petra for a slideshow of all the pictures from our mid-east trip.
After a lovely trip to Petra, we decided to take an adventure and drive up the fabled King’s Highway, built on the path of an ancient trade route from Egypt to Damascus. It was a beautiful drive, giving us sweeping views of the spectacular Wadi Mujib gorge and passing through many small and large Jordanian towns. The northern end of our drive included visit to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth where on the road overlooking the water our GPS put us at 392 meters or 1296 feet below sea level. We snuck into a luxury resort so Katherine could take a quick dip in the water. It was so windy that the waves were really up, and she only got about two minutes of float time but it was worth it. Kids weren’t allowed near the beach at this resort, so we don’t have a picture of Katherine in the water, but I did manage to dig out one of me in the Dead Sea on a visit 12 years ago to give you a sense of what it’s like.
The last stop on our trip, Amman, is a pleasant cosmopolitan city. We did lots of driving around the city. Claire and Juliet were deeply impressed at how many kids’ backpacks were on display on the racks outside the local markets. Stu also visited the King’s Academy, a school built in the image of his high school Deerfield with the mission of providing secular, co-educational boarding education to students from across the mid-east.
One interesting experience for all of us was visiting a Muslim culture during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Many Jordanians didn’t drink or eat (or even smoke!) during the day, so once sundown came around families join together for an evening “Iftar” banquet to fill empty stomachs. We went to one of these dinners at a fancy restaurant, and it was a festive atmosphere with extended families gathered at large tables, endless amounts of food, and even costumed waiters serving juice to the kids (see picture). We hadn’t been fasting during the day, so it was a lot more food than we could handle!
The last day of our trip was fairly quiet, and we took a drive to and had a nice hike in the Ajloun Forest Preserve about an hour north of Amman. Then it was off to another long afternoon at the hotel pool, dinner and a movie for the girls, and early to bed so we could rise to catch our morning flights.
All in all, this trip was pretty amazing for us. The girls got to see some new cultures and beautiful sites that will give them some great memories (or at least blog posts and pictures). Katherine got to see the mid-east for the first time. And we all had a fun family adventure together!
After our fun border crossing, and night of luxury we hoped into our rental car, and drove up the long, desert highway up to Petra. We made it in time to spend about two hours at Petra in the late afternoon, taking the girls on a guided tour in a horse-drawn carriage through the stunning slot canyon (called the “siq“) with its 500-foot cliffs towering over a narrow path that twists and turns through the desert mountains to the entrance to the 2500-year old town. We saw lots of horses and camels but luckily not too many other tourists, as the late hour was relatively quiet and also treated us to cliff walls and monuments bathed in the soft golden light of sunset.
Then it was back to the hotel for a quick and amazing bedouin style dinner in a tent on a cliff next to our hotel, which was cooked in a BBQ-style oven sunken in the ground. The next morning, we split up and Katherine and I each spent a few hours at the ruins by ourselves while the girls enjoyed the swimming pool back at the hotel. During her visit, Katherine even had a chance to ride a camel!
We sure have fallen behind on our blog, accumulated a growing set of pictures from the 4 months since our last post. Rather than let the backlog grow further, we’re going to pick up with current events and go back and fill in the missing 4 months as we have time. We’re also going to try a leaner format, with more frequent posts but with short commentary and just a few pictures. We’ll do some experimenting, and see what works!
To start off the new system, we’ve just had our first full day of a two-week trip to Israel and Jordan. Jerusalem is the first stop and, thanks to jet lag, we were up and exploring at dawn with our trusty double stroller. It was great to see the Old City wake up, with Jews heading to the Western Wall for shabbat prayers, Arabs opening their markets, morning at a playground, and the blazing sun still on pre-heat on its way to another 95 degree muggy day. Then a long nap in our rented apartment, exploring the city in our nicely air conditioned car, dinner, groceries and now bed. A fun day!
We spent July 4th this year in hot and sunny Oklahoma, staying with my sister and family. Highlights included Claire and Juliet sharing rooms with their cousins, the Edmond town parade, fireworks over the University of Central Oklahoma campus, and lots of time in the swimming pool. We didn’t take many pictures, so click on the picture of Juliet, Claire, Sophie and Susan at the parade for a slideshow mostly of pictures Abbas sent us.
Claire’s 4th birthday was June 28 and we celebrated in the usual way: kids playing in the backyard, cupcakes, singing, presents, a bouncy house both at the party and the next morning in pyjamas, and sopapillas at our neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Click on the picture of Juliet and the birthday girl for a slideshow.
In late May we headed back to Costanoa with a big group of kids and friends. We roughed it in a tent cabin with heated mattresses. Highlights included playing on the beach and a two-mile hike where Claire and her friend Logan played sword with some tall coastal grasses. There was also a bungie-jump trampoline thing that Claire played on, and as always lots of s’mores with very large marshmallows. Click on the picture of Katherine and Juliet for a slideshow.
We collected a few pictures over the spring, including making cookies with a visiting Aunt Mona, Juliet enjoying the Sound of Music, an early spring visit to a family oriented “eco resort” on the Pacific coast called Costanoa and the nearby beaches, the girls doing yoga and playing games with me, Katherine doing a rainy triathlon with a group of her friends, a visit to a nearby zoo and amusement park, and finally Juliet’s two-year-old photo. Click on the picture of Aunt Mona and Claire making cookies for a slideshow.
For Easter this year we participated in some of our favorite rituals, including an Easter Egg hunt with friends in a nearby park, egg decorating, baskets and homemade blueberry muffins on Easter morning, and then brunch out at a nice restaurant on the coast in Half Moon Bay, all with Grandma Judy along for the weekend. Click on the picture of Juliet and Claire looking at their loot from the Easter Egg hunt for a slideshow.
