Taking Aqaba by storm...sandstorm

After a delightful down day – during which Noah and I did a lot of drawing, soccer, and fort building – we headed to the bus station to pick up tickets for our trip to Aqaba the following day. Hiked up to Paris Circle in search of an ATM (silly, really, there are lots of ATMs near the bus station) and then headed back home.
Funny… Noah seems to miss Aaron when he hits the threshold of the ACOR kitchen. He’ll zoom down the stairs and through the dining room, will pause to turn on the kitchen lights, and will then announce, “Mama, I miss Abba.” Interesting.
Headed down to Aqaba on the 11 am bus (so civilized) on Saturday. It didn’t dawn on me until we were on the bus that a) it’s a 4+ hour ride with a wiggly kid; b) I’m traveling by myself in the Middle East with my kid. I got over it pretty quickly and Noah, compared to the other kids on the bus, was a total prince. We arrived in Aqaba without incident and checked into to the admittedly swanky hotel. Faster than Superman could have changed in his phone booth, we were in our bathing suits and on the beach working on our sand castles. We had dinner at the beach restaurant and we were fawned over by the Chef (nice). Noah out-ate me (pizza) and beat me at tic-tac-toe, while I sipped beer (rough) and enjoyed the moment.
The next day brought more beach time and some swimming. The sandstorm didn’t stop us. I had forgotten that it was Easter (Eastern Orthodox – decreed by the King to be Jordan’s Easter) and when we returned to our room, there was a Greek Easter break and a chocolate bunny. Three Feet of Fun was overjoyed. After another romantic dinner with Noah and we tucked ourselves in. There was a little excitement in the evening…our neighbors were having a party and one of their guests knocked on the wrong door (ours) and proceeded (without thinking) to walk in. He apologized profusely, I slammed the door, and when my heart stopped racing – no harm, no foul.
Crammed in some final beach hours the next morning before checking out of the hotel, heading out to lunch (McDonalds – a big treat…for both of us), and over to the bus station. Rode on the double-decker bus back up to Amman, but not without doing an unexpected 30 minute stop for gas first. Between the sandstorm and the tinted windows, it was an eerie ride home. Noah slept through most of it though and we arrived at ACOR in time for bed. Aaron arrived home at 3 am and we were all knackered but happy to be together the following day.