Wadi Rum and the family

Talk about your early mornings!! Emily and I were up at 3:30am and piled in to the backs of multiple trucks to transport us to our balloon ride. It was a surreal experience, bumping in the back of a truck over the dark desert under a sky dusted by stars while warm air whipped around us. We traversed the open sands in a seemingly random fashion leaving us wondering how they knew where they were going. At one point during this trip Emily yelled at me, “stop trying to be one with the desert” as I was having a mind blowing experience. 

We met up with a Floridian family who rode the balloons with us. When we arrived they were setting up the balloons and our pilot, Bill, with 25 years of experience, gave us our safety briefing and explained the process. He was a jovial guy with an interesting path. Then we were off, literally, off the ground and floating up to 5000 feet above the desert floor. We couldn’t feel acceleration or the speed as we floated with the winds. Up and up we went soaring over massive rock formations, herds of camels, and at the peak we watched the sunrise over the monolithic desert. The colors became more vibrant with each passing moment. Fortunately we were with a group that appreciated the spectacle as much as we did and we all stood in silence with the occasional burst from the propane flamer of the balloon. We were all just so speechless. We coasted around for an hour snapping photos and staring out at the wide expanse.  The landing was smooth and we disembarked and rode another truck back to our hotel. After another filling breakfast with returned to our glass domed room and relaxed with a panoramic view of the desert at our feet. Then we went for a short ride on two handsome camels. It was only an hour but the desert sun was making its presence known. They are interesting creatures.. similar to horizontal giraffes. The ride was not only peaceful but a great stretch for my hips. After the ride we fell asleep in front of our panoramic view and awoke just prior to checkout. We met our driver at the edge of Wadi Rum and began the 4.5 hour drive back to the capital, Amman. It was uneventful but very restful. Our hotel, St. Regis, was incredible! We had 9 people greet us at the door, a butler take us to our room, and the view of Amman was expansive.  We rested for a bit and sent our wedding clothes to get pressed for free! We got dressed then headed to Khalid’s house for a rehearsal dinner. His family was amazing! As soon as we walked in the the door we were almost tackled by this short and bubbly woman wearing a sash that read ‘mother of the groom’. She was beaming! It reminded me of the movie ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ when the mom was pushing everyone one to eat. She filled the room and her husband was just as engaging and sincere. Then Khalid’s siblings poured out with immense social energy hugging us and wanting to know everything about us. We met Khalid’s international cohort of friends and they all seemed to be good people. We discussed traveling in Jordan, then the food came out. OMG! Khalid’s mom had homemade Mansaf (a traditional Levantine dish made of lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt and served with rice or bulgur)! It was incredible, a wonderful orchestra of spices, textures, and perfectly cooked lamb. We all went back for more helpings while singing her praises. We chatted and then ended the night with dancing.  Khalid’s family dancing on one side of the living room and all the non-Arabs standing petrified on the other. But that didn’t last long as his joyous family pulled us in one by one showing us the traditional Jordanian dance moves, clapping, and ululating (look it up). It was so fun! Exhausted we called it a night and we slunk back to our hotel. What a day! Tomorrow is the wedding!