Tuesday 7/4/06 – Eilat, aquarium, snorkeling, dinner cruise –Day 9

Tuesday, the Rabbit promised us no wake up call, but apparently no one told the hotel.  So at 7 am, the phone rang.  Fortunately, we were up and even more fortunately, we had a connecting room with the kids and the connection was open, so I was able to answer their call and they all stayed asleep.  We had a slow morning (which was much appreciated after yesterday’s loooong day!) and around 10:45 the bus took off for the aquarium.  The aquarium was nice but small.  Benjamin got lost, but after a short panic, we found him again.

 

After we had seen everything, we bought a slushi.  The flavor was “פסיפלורה” (“passiflora”) – a dark yellow with black seeds in it.  Turned out to be passion fruit.  Tasted like a cross between grapefruit and honeydew.  Then the kids pretended to be turtles and Marc and I got our arms bitten by the local wildlife (see below.)

 

 

We went back to the hotel and walked to the mall to get lunch.  I was concerned because the Schecter kids had gone snorkeling in the morning and had said that there wasn’t many fish.  We had passed on the swimming with dolphins option because I had such vivid memories of snorkeling from when I was 16.  We had been told to take a taxi to South Beach; that the snorkeling at the hotel wasn’t very good.  If we had worn swimsuits to the aquarium, the bus would have dropped us off at South Beach, but we hadn’t worn swimsuits.  But it all worked out for the best.  The taxi dropped us of in front of a place where it cost money to snorkel.  But this place was out of snorkeling equipment, and directed us to a place across the street to rent equipment.  They rented us wetsuits, masks, fins, and snorkels.  I asked about what the kids had said about the snorkeling not being that great.  The guy in the shop recommended that we walk about a kilometer south to a public beach, where he said the snorkeling was much better.  So we did.  I was stressing over the time, but in the end it was fine – not a problem at all.  We got to the beach and I quickly regretted that we hadn’t given Benjamin snorkeling lessons.  Althoug, it might not have mattered because he seemed to have the most trouble with the salt water.  He would get it in his mouth and it bothered him a lot.  He also had problems with it being cold, despite the wet suit – the water temperature was very inconsistent.  But there were fish practically all the way up to the water’s edge, so in the end, Benjamin just stayed in the shallows and put his face in the water without the snorkel.  Marc and Jonathan and I took turns staying with Benjamin and swimming out further.  But we didn’t go far – we didn’t need to.  There were so much to see close in.  We saw lion fish and these half black and half white fish that we saw at the aquarium and lots more.  We swam for between an hour and an hour and a half and then I got cold too and we called it a day.  Back at the hotel, we showered and changed and then it was time for our dinner cruise.  Early on during the cruise, two little motor boats pulled up to the ship and offered us the chance to go parasailing.  Marc and Jonathan and I (and Don and Michael) jumped at it.  I assumed Benjamin wouldn’t want to and didn’t even ask him.  Afterwards he was disappointed that he didn’t get to do it.  The parasailing was launched right off the motor boats and we landed right back on the deck of the motor boat without going into the water.  I was wearing jeans, and asked not to get wet at all, and did get my feet wet, but that was fine.  Marc and Jonathan asked to get their toes wet, and got their shorts wet a little.  Don and Michael got their shorts wet – a lot!  I was on a different parasailing boat from the others. 

 

Dinner was barbequed chicken and shish kabob.  It was good.  Dessert was watermelon.  Then we sailed back, arriving ~9:30.  Here’s some pictures of us clowning around on the boardwalk after the cruise.

 

We walked back and put the boys to bed.

 

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