Our flight was at 7am so we got up at 4. This was tough after our busy day in Paris. Davina caught up on some sleep en route;
She still hadn't all the way caught up at dinner.
Talia liked the dessert;
We stayed at Club Med Coral Beach;
It was hot every single day. Obviously the pool featured prominately in our vacation. Eilat is near both the Egyptian and Jordanian borders so the hills on the other side of the Red Sea is actually Jordan.
Davina ready to hit the pool;
There were free popsicles next to the bar and Davina took full advantage of this little perk;
Ronnie's birthday was the second day we were there;
Present opening;
I went by myself to downtown Eilat a few times. I had to take a bus but it wasn't far. After 11 years, a lot had changed.
Looking over to the Jordanian border;
I actually took advantage to buy English language books, which were much cheaper in tax-free Eilat than back here in France. They had a special where if you bought some coffee, the book was half off. I ended up walking out of the store with three cans of instant coffee, something I never drink... I bought some T-shirts for the girls and the Russian sales girl was very happy with her years' supply of instant coffee...
I actually enjoyed shopping there (and I'm not a big shopper). Israelis are a lot nicer than the French and I could speak English. They were giving me free stuff, stopping to chat, etc. I actually bumped into a fellow Californian in the book shop and again in a drugstore, both married to Israelis. Did the same thing, except mine was French... Fun to compare notes and they both had much older children.
The kids participated in the House Dance Show;
They wanted the kids in "House" clothes and I'm all "whatever". They were happy with just dance-able clothes and a hat. Here's Davina's gear, including the shirt I bought at the shop where I gave away the coffee;
Here are some photos of the actual beach.
I only got the whole family to come down there once, when I went diving. I was only able to do one dive. Turns out that it's been too long (11 years!) and the 90 minute refresher they told me I needed at Club Med wouldn't cut it at the dive club, where they told me I needed the full 3 hour course. I opted out, only because of the time, the money and also the fact is that I doubt I'll go diving in the next 6 months to justify doing it. Next time I'll try to get it done here in Strasbourg before leaving.
But the diving place was nice, especially when they saw they I'd been a customer 11 years ago. They gave me a break and let me do something in between and only charged me for a regular dive. I got a really yummy instructor who was as sweet as he could be (lucky for him I was 10 years older and married!) We had a really good dive where we actually pet a grouper and saw an eel. He was disappointed that we didn't see any sharks (small ones without risk-supposedly) but I wasn't!
We took the kids one day to Dolphin Reef, where a group of dolphins live in a sort of pen. They're allowed to live normally and like they do in the wild. It's possible to dive with them, something I would have loved to have done but Ronnie was the only child old enough and he didn't want to do it alone.
I actually went there pre-children years ago.
They have observation decks out in the water where you can watch the dolphins (and divers) close up. Plus you can see the famous Red Sea marine life.
We lucked out as this dolphin came up close and put his head out of the water. I think that guy whistling helped;
There was also the beach...
Daniel has some friends in Eilat. They're French but made Aliyah (moved to Isreal) about 8 years ago. The mom came over with the two visiting granddaughters, who happened to be almost the exact ages of Talia and Davina.
They ate dinner with us at Club Med and watched the show.
Talia with Liz;
We also went over to their house, also to see their uncle visiting from the Army the next week. I regret that I didn't get pictures of the girls together!
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