Pam meets Petra...and a few fort/castles
Pam (my aunt) arrived on April 8 to great fanfare - because she’s Pam and because she brought with her four (or was it six?) dozen tamales and salsa. There was MUCH rejoicing (and feasting) throughout the Center.
The next morning we left early and drove to Petra. Stopped on the way to sneak a peak at Shobak (a Crusader castle) before continuing on south. Vowing not to hike to the Monastery again (sorry, Pam), we hiked the siq, trolled around the churches and temples, and explored a Wadi looking for the entrance to a Crusader fort. Aaron
managed to locate and snap a photo of a mosaic of Oceanus for use in his presentation in Malta next week (nice). No forts in the Wadi, but we did find a family living in a cave instead. Noticed the path to the fort upon our exit. Nuts. Next time…Rolled out of Petra in the late afternoon and drove to Aqaba to spend the night. After a traditional meal in a ‘hole in the wall’ restaurant downtown, we succumbed to the ‘I-hiked-Petra’ sleep.
The next morning, Noah and Aaron worked on sand castle construction, while I dragged Pam around Aqaba. We visited the spots I excavated a million years ago (the photo of the mudbrick walls is part of what’s left of the oldest putative church – built as a church) and 
Pam was very patient while I got excited about chunks of mud and windblown sand. We then walked along the waterfront to the fort (cool spot) and Islamic Ayla (great presentation) before returning to the beach to chec
k on the boys.
After checking out of the hotel shortly thereafter, we were on our way to Kerak, a Crusader castle, 
on our way back up to Amman. WOW. I had never been to Kerak before….man, I love the castles here! We did our obligatory search for knights, coming up empty handed (shocking). A highlight of the visit included a couple guys playing 
instruments in the castle (including an oud - a guitar-like instrument). Noah, who had run ahead with Aaron, yelled back at me over the din of the tourists, “Mama! There’s the oud Dude!”Drove back to Amman via the Kings Highway with spectacular views in the Wadi Mujib. Made it back to Amman just as night was falling (we turn into pumpkins – or road kill – if we drive after dark here) and tucked ourselves in gearing up for a weekend (Easter) trip to Jerusalem.
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