We just got back from Eilat, and it was tons of fun!! Mark and I both had our finals on Monday morning, and then we left in the afternoon. It was about a 4.5 hour trip, and unfortunately, the air conditioning didn't work very well, and it felt like you were on a boat the whole time...very wave-like over all of the bumps, which are everywhere. Anyways, I had a pretty awful headache by the time we got there, so we had a quick dinner at the Nelson Restaurant (on the hotel premises) and went to bed. The next morning, I still had a headache, but I wanted to get out, so we went to the beach and shopping mall in Eilat. By the afternoon, I was feeling much better, so we swam around in the Red Sea for a while, and then walked around looking for a place to eat dinner. We ate a yummy pizza, caught a ride back to the hotel, and watched various things on TV, since it was the first TV we have seen since we've been here. The next day, we went to the Underwater Aquarium Park. There were many cool buildings with various underwater themes: shark tank, coral reef room, the Amazon, rare fish, etc. We even had a simulator ride in a "submarine" which talked about the marine life of the Red Sea. We then went to the Coral Reef Reserve, rented snorkeling gear, and went snorkeling for a few hours. It was lots of fun, and I didn't see any sharks, so that was good. We had dinner at the Village Restaurant, and then went into the main city of Eilat. Eilat is a night-life city. Many of the restaurants, bars, and nightclubs don't even open until 9pm, and they stay open until 4am or later. We just went to Aroma and got coffees, and then walked around all of the outdoor marketplaces. We watched Portugal play France in a soccer match on TV that night - France was winning when we went to sleep. The next morning, (oh, yeah...I forgot to say that we got a free HUGE buffet breakfast each morning), we had breakfast and then hung out at the beach at the hotel. We then checked out, went to the Eilat beaches, floated around and sat on sunchairs, and then had lunch. After that, we headed to the bus station, and on the way home, we talked to a group of high school Israeli boys for many hours, and they taught us how to play Shish Bish...like Backgammon. It was a very fun trip. The main drawback was that we had to cross the Israel-Egypt border twice a day (through many checkpoints), because our hotel was in Taba, Egypt...right on the border. However, you can't beat the price (in Egyptian $) or the service at our hotel. Everyone was EXTREMELY friendly and helpful there, and we had a beautiful view of the Red Sea, our own veranda, and a down comforter and pillows. Well, that is mostly the short version...enjoy the pictures! Oh yeah, Mark cut my hair short about a week ago...he did pretty well :)