We're spending five days in Eilat, a popular resort town with a Cancun-like vibe on the Red Sea. Eilat is the most southern city in Israel and from here you can see Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. It was quite a haul to get here, requiring: a walk, bus, train, airplane and taxi.
The first day went to the coral reefs and rented snorkel gear (including wetsuits). The reef is accessible via many short piers and even without getting in the water you can see the many varietals of fish. Actually getting in the water is like being in one of those early tropical screen savers - I'd post some pictures here but we're still trying to find a place to develop our underwater camera film because who needs 1 hour developing anymore? Being out in the water is eerily peaceful and, as Jacob's mom said, the more you linger in one spot the more you notice. Naturally it was impossible for me to shake the feeling that a shark might come around the bend at any moment because, like all children of the 80's, I'm a little Jaws damaged (I'd be willing to bet that in any room full of kids from the 80's you could get a handful to confess that there was a time they thought it was conceivable great whites could show up in a swimming pool).
Poor Vaughn had it harder. Even though we got him a life jacket on top of the very floaty wetsuit, he still really struggled with getting off the stairs from the dock; it was just too deep. We were able to get him out a little ways but he couldn't relax enough to put his face in the water and we finally had to bring him back.
Today we went to an aquarium park where we rode in a glass bottomed boat, saw mammoth sized sea tortoises and watched a movie in one of those theaters where the seats move according to the action in the film.
Tomorrow I think the plan is to go back to the reef and possibly look into scuba diving. Honestly, it doesn't matter what we do because it's December and I'm wearing a t-shirt outside. On Sunday we leave for Petra in Jordan.
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