Heading North

On Tuesday, we headed up to the Galilee. That's my cute, blue car that I got to drive. Just forget about the fact that it's French, and it was a cool, push-button-start car. We had to cut our time in the Galilee short. Wednesday was Rosh Hashanah, the Israeli New Year, and we had been invited along with the Dukes to celebrate at the Maoz's house. Despite our rush, we got everything in. We walked all over Solomon's fortified city, Meggiddo. We sat in the stable mangers and climbed down into the water shaft tunnel. At least this underground water tunnel was dry.

From there we drove up into the Golan Heights to Caesariyya Phillipi. There we saw the "Gates of Hell" where Peter confessed Jesus as the "Christ, the Son of the Living God." There were quite a few idol niches and temple remains to climb around on and then a hike over the river and through the woods to Herod Phillip's palace. I assured the hikers that there was no uphill on the hike. And there wasn't...after the straight up staircase and plateau we had to climb up to at the very beginning. Oops.

The coolest place by far, and unfortunately, the one we squeezed in last, was Nimrod's castle, an old Muslim and Crusader fort. We had just an hour to run around and explore all the peaks, lookouts, secret passageways, lower level rooms, and descending staircases that lured us into their stony depths. It was so cool! And out of the three or four times I've been there, this time was my favorite. We had so much fun running around and exploring. But the time for the park to close had come and we had to run back to the cars and head out. We need to build some castle ruins in Oregon to explore!

Our next and final stop was our hotel in the Galilee. It had a back patio with a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee. Here, we relaxed, read, ate dinner, and played cribbage - the best game in the world taught to us by the best Grampa in the world. What a perfect way to end the day!

Colin's plane left at 4:30p on Monday, so we had time to take a quick tour of the ancient port city of Jaffa, seeing that it was only half an hour from the airport. Jaffa is just south of Tel Aviv and so we stopped in Tel Aviv to get some lunch to take with us. Driving in Tel Aviv was crazy! Little space, no signals, and seemingly, no rules. Yikes! That experience was all I needed to know that I don't want to live someplace like New York City. My little car held it's ground next to a bus that was close enough for Kait to reach out and fashion a dust mustache on the advertisement model's smiling upper lip. Dad glued his car to my bumper so that we wouldn't lose each other. Phew! We made it past the bus. Who was honking and yelling? Were they honking at me? A glance in my rear view mirror told me that the bus had decided to come over (probably because there was a car double parked in the far right driving lane) and had just moved over, pushing the little car behind Dad into oncoming traffic. Good thing there was no oncoming traffic at the time. Both drivers were leaning out the window, waving their arms and yelling at each other. Despite it all we found our way to Jaffa, got stuck in traffic, parked, bought icecream, shopped, and found picnic benches on which to eat lunch. This is me spilling some noodles on Kait's leg. She usually doesn't need my help, but she was being especially clean this time so I thought I'd help her out.

After eating and walking around the picturesque, old city, it was time to take Colin to the airport. We were leaving a little later than I had hoped, but we weren't far so no worries. AAHH! Traffic! Stress! I don't know if it was legal to turn left on to Einstein where we did, but there was no sign I could see that absolutely forbade it (in Israel "forbidden" doesn't mean that you can't do it, everybody still does. Only "absolutely forbidden" carries any weight). We did get to the airport on time and after going through a ton of security, he got on his plane.

I just finished organizing the pictures from my family's visit. Now I can post some of them by Kait's, I mean, by Anonymous Comment's request. :)

Colin was leaving on Monday to spend some time with friends in Europe and so on Sunday, we drove up to Jerusalem to tour around. Because what's a trip to Israel without seeing Jerusalem?! Amazingly, I didn't get us lost, and we were able to find Darren's favorite parking spot - a tucked away parking lot by the Zion Gate and by Oscar Schindler's grave. I've never before been able to find the grave (and the guide book told us the wrong place to look) but this time we found it.

Our first stop was at Hezekiah's tunnel. I thought I could roll my pants up high enough to stay dry, but no such luck - all of us got wet. Annette kept turning around to snap pictures of Mom because the flash in so bright in the dark tunnel that you get a really funny, deer-in-the-headlights look. None of us escaped from the tunnel with very flattering pictures, but they were funny to look back at later. This one is funny but the other one isn't too bad. :)

After lunch, we went up to Al-Asqua Mosque and the Dome of the Rock from which we could see the Mt. of Olives and get a feel for the size of the Temple complex. From there we went down to the Wailing Wall and the Archaeological Park. Here's a picture of Annette, exploring through some of the underground rooms at the Park. It looks like she's being raptured or something! :)

We found our way through the Old City maze to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I love this picture Kait took of the nun praying. As we were waiting to go into the tomb, we got held up by a delegation from the UN who were visiting. A big, burly guard walked up as we were waiting to be next in line and said, "Wait here please" and so we did, watching all different nationalities of military men go in and look around. After they were done, the guard said, "Go ahead please," and so we did.

And, of course, we couldn't leave the Old City without doing some shopping and bartering so we walked and shopped til we dropped, and then it was time to go home. I had found this restaurant in Hertzliyya that is right on the beach, and I really wanted to take my family to it. We missed the sunset over the Mediterranean, but dinner was great anyway.

I am in pain! Yesterday was Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) where, here in Israel, everything shuts down. No public transportation, no businesses open, and no cars allowed on the roads. All Jews from the ultra-religious to the conservative, sometimes religious spend that day in the synagogue, fasting and praying for their sins to be forgiven. All the rest of the country takes advantage of the day off and the empty roads to bring out the bikes, scooters, wagons, etc and play in the street. If you've ever wanted to lay down in the middle of the highway - this is the day to do it! Unable to drive to Haifa and bike back, Darren and I decided to bike to Haifa and back - a total of 151km (almost 90mi).

Going up wasn't too bad. We were fresh, the weather was cool (because it was the crack of dawn!), and we had plenty of water. The way back took a little longer. We were tired, the sun had risen and was shining in all its brilliant intensity, we were fighting a head wind, and we ran out of water. At one of our breaks, we stopped in the shade of an overpass, and Darren decided to ask one of the kids biking nearby if they would refill our water at their house. Before Darren even mentioned paying him, this cute 11 year old boy whipped off his backpack and took out his water bottle to fill ours. He had to run back home to get more in order to fill them completely, but when he had finished, Darren gave the kid 100 shekels (about $25). It was cute to see the kid's eyes practically pop out of his head when he saw the money, especially since he would have so willingly given us water for free.

Another twenty km down the road from our water break, Darren's derailer broke leaving him stuck in his 2:7 gear before the hilly section with no way to gear down. I would have felt horrible shifting up and down while he was stuck in a hard gear, so I sympathy shifted and left myself in my 2:7 gear as well. My bike was a mountain bike which has smaller gears, so I think I still had it easier with the hills.

So I'm toast! And to add insult to injury, I forgot my sunscreen (since we left at the crack of dawn) and so I literally am toast! Good thing I'd been running around outside with my family for the past two weeks. But even that base tan didn't protect me completely. Pretty soon I'll be molting out of this skin like an overgrown lizard! I now have a greater respect for Mr Hill, Dad, and the Injerds who just recently did a full 100 mile ride. Ours wasn't that long, and it was hard enough!

After having met the Maozes and Andrew from Grace and Truth, I was excited to introduce my family to the rest of the people of the congregation. There are a few women who want to learn English, and I meet with them every Thursday to practice with them. I don't think I'm a very good teacher - they'd do better to have Maria teach them English as a second language :) - but I really enjoy spending time with them. After church, they got together to fix a wonderful meal for my family and a group from the church. We went over to Natasha's house, and my family not only got to meet them but to eat and spend time with them as well.

Going to Jordan was definitely a highlight of the whole trip. After taking us to the border and expediting us through the Israeli side, we walked across no man's land to meet our guide. The paved road lined with a barbed-wire fence bridged the gap between the Israeli guard post and the Jordanian. As we walked cross, we felt like prisoners in a prisoner-exchange scene in some type of war movie, being sent across the wide open space to whatever awaited us on the other side. Our guide, Mohammad, was excellent - funny and full of knowledge about the places, modern and ancient, that we were going. He had grown up as a Bedouin there, had worked as a guide for King Hussein, and was getting his masters in the historical geography of the area. And there was a lot of history to be told. Our first stop was Petra and, after riding horses down to the Siq, we began the walk into the stone city. It was incredible! We were only able to scratch the surface of what was there, but what we saw was quite impressive. After walking all the way down into the city and eating lunch, we decided to ride camels back up (so that Kait could check off one of the "100 things I want to do before I die" from her list). Riding back up the hill was definitely the way to go!

After our whirlwind tour of Petra, we climbed back into the van and headed for Wadi Rum, the wilderness headquarters of Lawrence of Arabia. The desert there is beyond description. Huge, sandstone cliffs jut up into the sky from the soft sandy ground. We sat in the back of a Bedouin's pickup truck and drove all over the desert, climbing sand dunes, visiting the place were Lawrence had his tea each day, and stopping by a Bedouin tent for tea. Mohammad dressed us all up in Bedouin clothes, while our driver lounged on the other side of the tent, giving us the thumbs up sign. The sun set too quickly that evening and before we knew it, it was time to go back to the border. Safely back across no man's land and into Israel.

Wednesday gave us the whole day to enjoy the attractions of Eilat - sun, scuba/snorkeling, and shopping. Kait was looking forward to diving in warm water and to having sea life to look at, and Eilat did not disappoint her. After a refresher's dive, our guide - Ziv, our small group of divers, and our disposable, underwater camera headed out to the water. The little camera took much better pictures than I expected. While it failed to capture the color and vibrancy of the underwater world, the pictures turned out really clear. Good thing Kait was paying attention in this picture - I sure wasn't. I look a little oxygen deprived. Dad, Mom, Annette, and Colin rented snorkeling gear and did their own exploring of the reef.

Heading South

Ok, now it's time to play catch up on our trip down south. I wish I could post all the pictures of everyone, but I haven't uploaded them online yet - I'll let you know when I do. The first place we stopped on our trip was at Qumran, the location of a monastic-like, religious sect of Jews who copied and studied the Scriptures, eventually hiding the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves nearby. The climb up to those caves provides a breathtaking view of the Dead Sea and the valley below. When we climbed down, however, we were greeted by a park ranger who asked if we had read the signs at the beginning of the trail. We had glanced but hadn't stopped to read them, and he told us that they warned against hiking the trails because of the danger. "There can be a fine of up to $200 for hiking in restricted areas," he said as he led us toward the signs. "Here it says..." he paused to find the place. Unable to find it on that sign, he began to walk a couple feet over to the next one. "It must be on this one that it states..." once again he paused. There was no restriction warning on either sign. "Well, I won't take you up to that sign," he pointed to a small green sign a couple hundred yards up that path and around the curve, "that designates those trails as restricted." Poor guy - it's hard to prove your point when you can't find the restriction. We looked properly chastised and continued on our way.

At En Gedi, we hiked as well, only in non-resticted areas of course, but here we added swimming. The numerous pools with waterfalls pouring into them provided the perfect place to escape from the heat.

Across the highway from En Gedi, there was access to the Dead Sea, complete with showers, beach chairs and umbrellas, and a life guard in case you are unable to swim and happened to sink down to the bottom and drown. :) I've never been very good at treading water, but in this sea, I had most of my shoulder above water when I was floating upright. We all experimented with different positions, floating and bobbling effortlessly in the water. Eventually, the previously overlooked cuts, blisters, and razorburn burst into flames all over our bodies and chased us into the refuge of the showers.

From there we headed down to Eilat, located on the southern tip of Israel and on the shores of the Red Sea. The three hour drive through the desert was long and kind of tense as there were many slow trucks to pass and few, clear straight of ways on which to do it. We arrived safely at our destination, praise the Lord, and found our hotel. From our balcony, we had a breathtaking view of the city of Eilat, Jordan's port city of Aquaba, and the Red Sea.

That night we went to the most amazing restaurant (-if you are a meat lover, that is. If you are a vegetarian, this place definitely is not for you.). They had an option called 11 kinds of meat. You received a coaster-like cardboard disc that was red on one side and green on the other. When you were ready to start, you turned the disc so that the green side was up. That signalled the waiters to stop by your table. After stopping by the open grill at the side of the entrance, they walked around the dining carrying a variety of meats on huge skewers. Chicken, steaks, sausages, and fillets, they stopped by your table offering their meat. If you wanted it, they would shave you off a piece, and if it didn't interest you, you could wait for the next kind to be brought out. Annette discovered that chicken liver isn't, and never will be, for her. For some reason, we never received a red/green disc so our light was always green!

THEY'RE HERE!!! I know, and they have been for over a week, but I'm just now sitting down to post an entry. They were glad to get off the plane, but I don't think they were too tired - that hit them later. And what is the best cure for jet lag? Chocolate! The best chocolate restaurant in the world is located in Hertzliyya, Israel. Max Brenner is know for its chocolate pieces, gift sets, and desserts. We went for the dessert. The name of one of the desserts is Mess of Chocolate. I never thought Annette could have too much chocolate, but even she didn't know what to do with the little vial of chocolate that they gave her to pour over her already chocolate piled dessert.

MY FAMILY ARRIVES TODAY!!!

ONE MORE DAY 'TIL MY FAMILY ARRIVES!!!