Tuesday May 1 / 16 Iyar
The day started off innocently enough ... If you count waking up late because your phone thinks your in VA and you don't think to compensate by setting the alarm time to 7 hours earlier as innocent, but I digress. Quickly got dressed, davened brachos, and got to the dining room for breakfast. Which was super nice, by the way.
I went back to the room to finish davening and pack up while Sheindy went swimming with everyone else. Why is it no matter how hard I try, I just can't manage to leave on time? We checked out, got Shauly late checkout, and headed off to go snorkeling. Sheindy and I got a wet suit. We get to the beach, and Tami tries to teach us how to do it. I get the hang of it super fast, but Sheindy can't get how to use the snorkel. Maybe it's because I'm a mouth breather and she breathes through her nose? I don't know, but I'm out in the water, standing there practicing breathing, and she's almost in tears. We get her calmed down, and I'm trying to stick my face in the water. Every time I tried, I panicked thinking I can't breathe. Then I see a jellyfish and run out of the water. I convinced Tami that we had to move to another section of the beach. Once there, we were told there are more jellyfish over there. So I tell Tami we need to move back to where there is only one. Tami got some bread so she could get the pretty fish to come over to us, and I still can't get my face in the water. Me, who grew up around water. Me, who had no problem sticking my face in the water without goggles and a snorkel. So there I am, feeling really upset with myself, when suddenly Sheindy totally gets the hand of it. Boom! The girl is off, floating around and soaking up the gorgeous view of the fish. Tami is still tossing out bread, and I'm standing there with my hand in this water. Suddenly, this fish comes right up to me, and BITES MY FINGER!!! It didn't break any skin, but that was it. I was done. I called Shauly and told him that I'm watching the girls so that he and Zahava can go snorkeling with the dolphins. I informed Tami of my decision, and we had to high tail it out of there, get them, drop me off, and get back to the same spot. Baruch Hashem, the swap was done flawlessly, and they made it in time for the appointment.
I had a great time in the wading pool with the little girls. Turns out that their website was totally wrong. The appointment wasn't for an hour. It was for two hours. Worked out perfectly in the end. Tami picked me and the girls up, and then we went to get the snorkeling crew. I ran in to get them, and was shocked by what I saw. There was this whole big set up there. You can sit on the beach, touch the dolphins if they come close on the dock and more. I thought it was this dinky little hole in the wall joint with rocks instead of sand. After Shauly got the information for getting the pictures, we ran out onto the dock. Right as we got there, a dolphin surfaced, sorta saying HI to me. We went to one of the platforms, but no other dolphins seemed interested in showing up. We had to get back to the car, so we left. On the way out, I noticed a ton of jellyfish. Shauly tells me, they don't sting. He then bends over and touches one. Oh cool, I'm gonna try. As I'm leaning over he says, I'm not fishing your shaitel out of the water if it falls in. Lol, no pun intended, right? So I did it. I poked at one and screamed. I'm such a girl, right? It didn't feel like jelly. It felt more like wet rubber. Tami had told me that there was this guy there who pulled one out of the water and was playing with it before when she was there. So then it all made sense.
We decided to ditch the rest of the itinerary and head back to Yerushalayim. Both girls were already asleep. We made a quick stop for some pizza and headed off. We made it all the way to the Dead Sea without a peep from anyone. Sheindy had fallen asleep, and Shauly and Zahava were busy with their phones. Shauly wanted to get back, so Sheindy and I had FIVE, yes, count them, one two three four five whole minutes in the Dead Sea. Obviously, not enough time to float. But enough to run down to the shore, stick our feet in, grab a selfie, and make it back to the car before our time ran out.
Sorta reminds me of my visit to Niagara Falls ... I had ten seconds to look out the window cuz it's just water, right.
We made it back to Yerushalayim early, before 8. So we have some time to recoup before our trip tomorrow. We decided to do the Lag B'omer trip tomorrow to avoid the traffic up North. Plus, it means we will be in Yerushalayim for Lag B'omer. There are so many activities here it's hard to choose which to do. There is free museum day. I might switch the Israel Museum to that day, since it will be a huge savings. I also want to see if we can go to the Jewish Music Museum.
There's still time for Moshiach to arrive, and we can all spend Lag B'omer together.
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