Masada, the Dead Sea, and Qumran

This is what I did for dad's birthday after I called him :) It was 5am when I called, but it wasn't quite his birthday yet at home. I figured I would be more likely to talk to him the night before.
We arrived at Masada at 8am, and it was already too hot. We too the tram to the top, which was definitely worth it. It would have taken forever to climb, even though Nicole says we were cheating. We saw that ancient siege ramp that the Romans built, which was pretty darn impressive. Aparently there is a movie that was filmed on sight using the same ramp and everything. The siege machine that they built for the movie is still down there. I don't think I'll ever watch it though, because its one of those 4 hours long war movies, and it just doesnt sound like something I need to see.
After we got all hot and sweaty at Masada, we went to the Dead Sea for a swim. It was so wierd. I felt like a basketball in the swimming pool. I got some water in my eye, and I thought it might kill me. Luckily, I didn't taste any. I saw people just dive in, and they totally regretted it. A bunch of my friends smothered themselves in Dead Sea mud, but I chose to be the bystander with the camera. Maybe if it wasn't so hot out I would have rolled in the mud, but I felt gross enough as it was. I don't even have a picture of myself floating in the dead sea, which I do regret, but not that much. The shower afterwards was the most amazing shower of my life.
Our last stop of the day was Qumran. We were all glad that it didn't last long, because we were so dead tired. Qumran was where the dead sea scrolls were found, and we were lucky enough to have brother Seely with us, who actually is one of the editors of the dead sea scrolls. Go figure. Our teachers are amazing. They don't even tell us half the cool stuff they do. I did get a picture of myself at Qumran with Brother Seely. And I shook his hand, because once he actually touched part of a scroll because it got blown to the floor. It was between sheets of butcher paper, but his life motto is TOUCH EVERYTHING. So we do.