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!