Up a little after 7. He had a good night of sleep. We went down for breakfast at 8. Cherie tried to show him how to close his lips around his spoon. He said “I was doing it my way…yucky.” He ate a lot: eggs, baby corn, tuna, fish, sponge cake, and frittata with me, then chocolate cake and a lot of cereal with Carly.
We stopped at reception to get the park passes and use the bathroom, then headed out just after 9. On the drive he said to Cherie “I don’t think you forget-ed the aphids…you know, the things that taste like tic tacs…Altoids.”
At Masada we went to the gift shop first. I managed to find the little foldout guides to mammals and trees and shrubs in English. As we waited in line for the cable car he was humming Endendino and told us “I’m not getting any attention.” Got him a spot standing looking out the back of the cable car on the way up.
Up at the top the rest of them headed to the north and I went on my own down to the southern tip, which August and I had not gotten to last time. Saw an interesting black bird watching over its nest, I think. On my way back north along the west wall Carly called saying August wanted his sunglasses. So I hurried to the north and found them sitting on benches in the shade at the north lookout area. We sat there for several minutes, listening to the tour guides, which was quite interesting.
On the way down we looked out the back again. We looked around at the Avaya store and saw their Bible verse on the wall. I took him to the bathroom then we got driving before 12. Cherie read a chapter of the Magic Treehouse book.
We got to Ein Bokek and parked in the public parking. We got walking and August remembered the beach toys. I went back and got them and payed for parking while they got changed. I got changed and we set up out spot under a shade cover. I played in the sand with August for awhile and we played a game of me making cup castles as fast as possible and him destroying them. We then buried his legs and feet.
Carly and I then went down and floated together and Cherie played with August, burying his legs and him breaking out. Apparently he was saying “Holy mackerel!” a lot. We had a nice float. Longer than I floated last time. Cooler and more refreshing, although the hot water last time made the experience even more surreal.
August agreed to go down to the water but when I got him down there he wouldn’t even let me put his feet in. I set him on the shore and he ran back up to camp. But he really liked playing in the sand – it was perfect building sand – and he liked the Israeli pop music the group of teenagers next to us had playing. He did not like the shower part at all.
We went over to the Hordus Pizza place and sat outside. Chuck and Cherie got us a couple pieces. During lunch he said “When you eat food and your body throws it up is it because the food is icky?” And “Can I be a baby that throws up if it eats cashews?” He ate two and a half slices of pizza. We talked about going to the stream we had gone to last time and he asked “The stream where we did the storytelling rock?”
We left at 2:15 and made the short drive over to the stream. We walked up under the bridge and were at first shocked to find the stream gone. Luckily, we walked a little further and found the stream. A little less water, and it disappeared into the gravel. We walked up and found a spot to play in. August picked up a storytelling rock as we walked. He was hesitant to walk in the stream at first: “Another problem is there is rocks in my shoes.” We picked a spot and got out the picnic mat and did he storytelling rock and ignoring rock routine. Carly then started building a dam in the stream and that became his big project. I walked farther up the stream by myself and went farther than we had last time, up to where I think Carly went with her students. Some teenagers asked me to take their photo for them, and there was another group up there with their empty guns. People were still walking further up the stream, but it got narrow.
I went back to the spot where everyone else was. August took off his clothes and had naked time in the stream as they worked on the dam.
Eventually we got going and drove back to the hostel, getting there at 4:20. We were playing on the bed and he made up a pink world where everything is rocks but there is no gravity. Carly went and took a shower, then I took one. He watched a Sarah and Duck, then Carly gave him a shower. He dreaded it but then had fun in there. He came and cuddled with me and said he was “Snug as a bug in a mudg in a judg”. He had fun loudly trying to squish a water bottle, then we all headed out for dinner, back to the same place as yesterday.
Still good, but a little disappointing all around. Carly’s salad was wilted. We got the ravioli with the mushroom alfredo sauce to share between the three of us but it was a smaller serving. I got a strawberry milkshake. August liked it, but it was closer to a strawberry milk. Cherie tried to tell him a story about Carly as a girl, but August dismissed the idea: “When mama was a girl? That’s just a nighttime thing that mama does.”
After dinner, as they paid, I walked around with August. We looked at a couple plants and ended up in a smoocharoo contest. Think he was leading 8 to 7.
The others were ready and we all walked up the hill, looking at the plants. He asked about guerrilla art again. He had gotten a citrus candy from Cherie and told her about crunching it at the end. People went into the hotel to use the bathroom and August and I sat on a bench and had some water. He wanted me to invent a generator. I came up with a flower smelling power generator. People smelled flowers and their sniffing turned the generator. August liked that and we acted it out. Carly took him to the bathroom, then as we were walking he asked
“What’s holy mackerel mean?”
We got driving at 7:20.” More talk of flubber with Cherie and drooping skin: “I don’t want to have flubber; people will tickle it…why is there more gravity when you’re older?”
At the hostel he asked “Does gravity pull down light?” So we talked about how gravity affects light. I put his pajamas on over his shirt. He said “That’s unusual!” We played a little Seuss Band. We then read Hunches in Bunches. He laughed a lot, then was ready to nurse. It took awhile, but not too bad. He was asleep at 8:25.