When we first started planning our travels, the one place that I have been, besides Syria which is impossible right now, that I wanted to share with my family was Petra, Jordan. Jordan is a bit more expensive than some of the other places we've been staying, so we just planned a short visit as a side trip from Beirut. It was an easy travel day, because we left most of our stuff in Beirut and only had to lug enough clothes for two days. That, and it was a non-stop flight of only one hour. We did arrive rather late, as it's about a three hour drive from Amman airport to the town of Wadi Musa which Petra is adjacent to. We have a lovely B&B run by a very gracious Dutch woman. She met us with hot tea and cookies. The shower water wasn't quite warm, but once we got in bed and found hot water bottles had been placed under our covers we felt pretty cozy and cared for. Coffee and delicious mezze breakfast materialized the next morning with no effort on my part. It's truly been a vacation. We planned to walk down to Petra, but as we were leaving the taxi driver came to take our hostess shopping and wouldn't hear of us walking, so he took us right there, refused payment, and returned for her.

We soon got hooked up with a great guide. Petra is much more organized since I was last there, with a visitor center and museum. One used to just grab a little boy with a pony and ride through the canyon, then find a guide at the Treasury. Now the ponies only go part way and are handled by adults and you get your guide at the visitor center. The canyon is paved, though they did leave sections of the cobblestones so you can see how it was, and you can ride an electric buggy if you don't want to walk. Naturally, the kids and I opted to take a horse.

Any readers who know me know I don't like change. Even if it's been 20 years, I would prefer Petra to be exactly as I last saw it. However, I must admit, I did enjoy the walk through the canyon with the guide as he gave lots of explanation that I'd never heard before.

I didn't know, for example, that these niches were used by the Nabateans to bless a marriage. We recreated the scene with Chris, who was present at our original wedding. A fitting belated anniversary celebration.

Then suddenly, though more gradually than when you approach on horseback, you can see the Treasury.

I'm sure no one could ever find that moment anything less than thrilling. My kids have seen more ancient ruins than I had prior to my first trip to Petra, probably because Petra was what turned me on to ancient civilizations in the first place. I was worried they wouldn't be that interested, but they were quite impressed. Sean was a bit grumpy, due to being tired and hungry, but a snack and a camel ride fit the bill.

Collin's camel was trying to get Sean's labneh sandwich.

The tour we did that first day was the basic tour, which is amazing in itself, and gives a good overview. However, there is so much more to see. We booked the same guide for the second day, and probably could have done a third if we had more time.

We ordered take out and everyone was asleep by 10:00, but as Collin wrote in his journal, "It was obviously the best New Year's Eve ever!"

The original plan for New Year’s Day was to hike to the Monastery, which I didn't get to see on my previous two visits. The other idea was the hike to the high place of sacrifice which I had done in my younger years and still highly recommend, but it's a challenging hike and I was afraid the kids would get tired. It's also, obviously, quite high, which gives a wonderful view, but now that I have kids in tow I get nervous in such places. The Monastery is farther, a trail wide enough for donkeys, so we arranged two for the little guys. As it turned out, the day started rather rainy and the road to the Monastery was closed. There are flash floods in this area, because obviously water flows down the mountains, so better safe than sorry. Instead, we hiked to little Petra, which was just as much fun as big Petra, and meant hiking through some very interesting country. Along the way we stopped at a Bedouin tent to have a cup of tea.

Next stop was a Neolithic village.

Then on to Little Petra. I think Sean put it best, main Petra is like a fair, lots of people and vendors. It's absolutely spectacular and definitely worth seeing, but also kind of crowded and touristy. Little Petra is obviously smaller, but off the beaten path so you can really imagine what it would look like in Nabatean days.