We're in the US

We made it to America!!! Hooray! It was crazy in the TLV airport the weekend before a holiday. It's their New Years Celebration. It was stressful trying to get through the lines and having people pushing from behind. One middle eastern looking young man actually wore a belt with a "hand gun belt buckle". It held up the line for quite a long time. Finally they detained him while they let others go through. Not sure what he was thinking wearing something like that... especially through the Israeli airport. The flight was long (13 hours) but we were able to sleep quite a bit. And the TVs worked at each of our seats so we could pass the time watching movies. On the leg from Atlanta to Orlando we (Ken) got a first class free upgrade (due to his frequent flyer status) which I got to take advantage of. Pretty cool. Customs was a breeze at 5:30am and our luggage made it to the US as well!!! That's a recipe for a good vacation. The car rental and hotel check in went smoothly. We were given an upgrade to the business floor which included free breakfast M-F and appetizers in the evening :-)

After check in (at 10am) we went to Kennedy Space Center. We were hoping to stay up for most of the day and get onto Eastern Time Zone. The KSC was very cool (hot outside, but lots of amazing things to see). On our way there we figured out the toll roads. We only had 2 quarters on hand which held us till the next toll booth which had an operator to make change for us. It was so fun to see restaurant chains we were used to and a few new ones too. We stopped for lunch at the WhataBurger. YUM. Ken had a fabulous Bacon Cheeseburger. At the Space Center we took the tour to see the shuttle launch pads and went to International Space station Museum. We stayed for the whole day. On the way back we stopped by an Alligator park. It was closed but we did see them up close through a wire fence. They were about 12 feet long and made a hissing noise at us. Yikes, glad the fence was there. We were able to stay up till 9pm before hitting the pillows hard for the night.

Saturday we drove to Tampa to visit the Busch Gardens. We didn't actually realize how far away the park was from Orlando, but we enjoyed it quite a bit. There were lots of fun rides and it was quite warm/muggy (not as hot as Haifa though). We saw all sorts of animals and enjoyed an entertaining show as we ate our lunch. We stayed until when the park closed, which may have been a mistake. We sat in traffic forever. It took us over an hour to get out of the park :-( I knew I should have used the restroom before we left.

On the way out from the park we got the crazy idea to go to a gulf coast beach. Ken thought he saw a sign indicating it was only 6 miles out. Well an hour later the sun was setting and we were still looking for the coast. We finally found Reddington Beach and were able to dip our toes in the gulf coast just before the sunset. We didn't stay long, but it was worth it. The drive home was long (over 2 hours) on unfamiliar roads but we made it safe and sound.

Sunday we used the other half of our Busch Gardens ticket to get into Sea World. We went to a couple of shows and were very impressed with the dolphins and the killer whales. Shamu, Shamu, Shamu everyone chanted. I was a little disappointed to find that there is more than one Shamu. We hung around to try and touch the dolphins but were unsuccessful. We may have had better luck if we had stood in a mile long line to get into the special feeding area. Oh well.

Monday we went to Disney's Epcot. We decided to tackle the "Future World" attractions in the morning. Most of the rides were pretty relaxing- sit in a chair and float through the exhibit. I liked Soarin the best, where they simulated a hand gliding adventure with a big screen out in front of you. It was fun. We left around 2pm and had lunch back near our hotel and took a short nap while Ken had a short meeting for work. By 6pm we were back at Epcot and toured the "World Showcase" which features exhibits and food from all over the world. The firework show at the end of the evening was very cool.

Tuesday we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. I woke up not feeling great, but we went anyway. It was a bit overcast and the weather man indicated a light sprinkle was coming our way. He wasn't kidding. This was the first raindrops I had seen since June 2nd. It was very light and hardly counted as rain. The park was all decorated for Halloween/Fall. How fun. The castle was fun to see. We enjoyed each of the six regions of the park. I think Frontierland with Splash Mountain was Ken's favorite. Some of the shows were very interactive and funny. The Main street parade was fun too. It was so cute to see all the little girls dressed up in their princess outfits. We unfortunately came on a day when they closed at 7pm instead of 9pm so we missed the evening firework show that's held every other night. Guess I should have planned better. It was a full day and I was exhausted.

Wednesday (today) we decided to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Universal Studios was interesting. I think the Mummy ride got the best review. There were a couple of short 3-D movies we watched that were cool too. The second half of the park was more thrill rides (which Ken likes more than I). The Incredible Hulk ride and the Dueling Dragons were a favorite here.

It's been a whirlwind vacation but a lot of fun. Tomorrow we plan to have a relaxing morning and leave FL around 1pm. Can't wait to see home! Looking forward to seeing you all in Portland soon!

Packed and ready to go...

So I've been packed since 11am today (Wednesday), now I just need for Thursday midnight to roll around. (Just a little anxious to come home?) I miss you all too much. We are actually taking a stop over in Orlando to stop by Sea World and the Kennedy Space Station but we will be home before I know it! Might as well take a little vacation along the way right? I can't wait to be surrounded by signs I can read (without any effort) and where English is the first language. I wonder if I will be able to drive with all you civilized people who stay in your own lanes? When Sara was here last week there were several times she was fearing for her life :-) Keep the sun out for another week or two, okay? I love fall.

See you soon!

Computer is up and running !!!!

Hooray! My laptop which died in June shortly after we got here has been resurrected :-) Ken was able to get some software last week and update the system. It's still extremely slow... but now I can at least connect and read email. Hooray!

Day 7- Friday

I slept like a rock in my bed. There’s something about being in a familiar place. Around 10:30 or so we went for a walk down the hill to the bakery. She loved the apple filled pastries coated in powdered sugar. Unfortunately we didn’t buy an extra for her to take home with her (they probably wouldn’t last anyway). The hike back up the hill is always a fun one. You feel like you need a huge glass of water and then a shower when you finally make it to our house. But it’s worth the workout for the pastries. Sara packed her suitcases and I got things ready to go back to Portland:-( How sad. I’ve had such a fun week with her. It feels like she got here just yesterday. I had planned to hit Caesarea, the Haifa market, and take a swim in the Mediterranean Sea in the afternoon before heading to the airport today. However, we ran out of time and didn’t make it to the market. Oh well. I took Sara to the airport around 8pm. It was a full week. Ken comes home tomorrow!

Day 6- Thursday

We slept in till about 8:30 and then had breakfast in the cafeteria. We debated on snorkeling in the Red Sea or getting a start heading toward home. We finally concluded we should at least check out the Red Sea while we were here and drove West about 15 minutes almost to the Egyptian border to a the "good" snorkel spot. We walked out on the dock and were amazed at how clear the water was. You could see tons and tons of colorful fish swimming around. I ran back to the car to get my camera. Back at the dock there were a few tourists throwing bread crumbs to the fish. Instantly there were hundreds of fish fighting for their breakfast. There was a staircase from the dock going down into the water. I sat on the bottom stair to try and get a few pictures. I wondered if they would nibble at my feet? The tourist (with the bread) saw what I was trying to do and through a few crumbs my direction. I snapped at least 100 pictures. I haven’t looked to see if any of them turned out yet. They were literally jumping out of the water to get the bread. Very cool. After 20 minutes we decided we couldn’t leave without at least getting in the water. So we put our camera/towels on the beach and joined the fish. I loved the blue/white striped fish, but the black with orange tails were cool too.

Knowing we had a full day drive ahead of us we didn’t stay too long. Our next stop would be at the Dead Sea a good 3 hours away. Sara loved the Dead Sea and how effortless it was to float. I went to a different beach then we went to in June. This place had a longer shallow end and the water seemed a bit warmer. It had a nicer beach too. It was about time for lunch but we decided a picnic back at Ein Gedi nature reserve would be a better spot so we packed up and headed North again. We thought it would be fun to hike back to the water falls again but after looking at the clock we decided not to.

We headed back through the West Bank to Jerusalem and on to Tel Aviv. We really didn’t have an issues at the check points. It must have been obvious that we were tourists. Just past Tel Aviv we stopped for dinner at my favorite burger place in Herzliyya. They just installed flat panel screens at each table (booth) so that you could play games like memory or connect four while you wait for your food. I think the waiter had more fun watching us play they we did. Sara and I are both fairly competitive :-) The drive home from there should have been about 40 minutes but it took over 2.5 hours with traffic. Uggh. What a long day. I was so tired of driving. The frustrating thing about Israeli traffic is that there is usually not explanation for it. When it starts moving again you don’t pass by a policeman who has someone pulled over or a car with a flat tire. It just all of a sudden clears up. Anyway, when we got home we had enough energy to bring the bags in from the car and fall asleep.

Day 5- Wednesday

Today we are going to Petra! Hooray! We met the lady in the lobby and she took us to the Israel/Jordan border. There were 18 people in our group. Once our visas were processed we started the tour with a walk through “no man’s land” to officially cross into Jordan. There we met up with a tour guide and boarded a minibus for a two hour ride to Petra. The tour started off with a drive through the city of Aquba with careful mention of all the resorts and hotels that will be available in the next year or two. Hint, hint, "come back and stay at our resorts" was what I heard. tow hours later we finally arrived in Petra. We armed ourselves with our camera and water bottles and set off down the dusty path soon winding through the red rock canyons. Each turn in the path was simple amazing. Some designs carved into the rock could still be seen. Every spot was a great picture opportunity. It was amazing to think about the formation of the rocks, the vivid colors and amazing twists and turns in the canyon. Finally reaching the end of the path we found ourselves standing in front of an amazing palace façade cared in to the rock (know as the Treasury).The view was quite spectacular. How did they carve this beautiful building right into the rock? After 20 minutes or so, we followed our guide to the right taking us on another path towards the ancient Nabatean city. The next two hours were filled with more amazing carvings. Some of them were buildings you could actually walk through.

It was definitely worth the hike (although, I was getting extremely hungry and hot by now). Lunch was supposed to be at the bottom of the trail. It was about 2pm and we still weren’t there yet. We were told specifically not to bring any snacks with us into Jordan. Hindsight, I wished I had tested that rule out. Sara and I were both so hungry. I guess we got used to snacking on a regular basis over the last few days. We did finally make it to the restaurant and there was a huge spread of food… salads, rice, chicken, beans, pita, hummus, watermelon, and much more. After lunch our guide met with us and said we should meet him at the top of the trail in an hour and a half. Guess I haven’t said much about our tour guide yet… probably because his English was so poor no one could understand what little he did have to say about the site. I think he said it was his first month on the job. So we unfortunately didn’t learm much about Petra- other than what was in the brochure up at the visitor center.

Anyway, the walk down took us at least 3 hours down so when we heard we only had 1.5 hours to be up at the top we decided we should at least head that direction. With the heat we weren’t sure how long it would take us. We made it back just in time. I thought I might fall over from heat exhaustion on the last ¼ mile in the blazing sun. We rewarded ourselves with ice cream at the visitor center before getting on the bus. I had a good nap on the way back to the border. Processing us through the border took a long time but we eventually made it back to Israel and to our hostel in Eilat. We should sleep good tonight… regardless of the planes flying over head.

Day 4- Tuesday

After a rough nights sleep I finally decided it was okay to get out of bed (6am) and start the day. Between the traffic noise, car alarms, cats fighting and occasional loud bang (was that a bomb?) all night long there was very little sleep to be had that night. We felt safe though… inside a stone church with our car parked inside the gate. We had a nice Israeli buffet style breakfast before we headed off on our next adventure. We drove inside the old city to pick up a couple of hats we had seen the day before. It ended up being a costly adventure but we got what we needed. The next step was to find the freeway towards the Dead Sea. We were amazed at how quickly the scenery changes from Jerusalem to the Negev. Near the Dead Seas we stopped at the Ein Gedi nature Reserve for a hike to David’s waterfall. It was a terrific hike. Probably only about 45 minutes long, but beautiful. It was mostly up hill but we stopped at the lower and middle falls for a quick break. The middle falls was perfect for swimming in the pool below. We got a few pictures of us in the waterfall itself. It was really nice. I felt like I could have stayed there all afternoon if it wasn’t for the tour bus of people that came and interrupted the serenity of this amazing place. Sara and I reluctantly put our shoes back on and kept hiking up the trail. We saw a few fuzzy creatures along the way and some ibex too. Knowing we had a few hours of driving ahead of us, we ate a quick picnic lunch and moved on to Masada. Even though this was my second time visiting Masada it was still quite impressive. This time I remembered to take our water bottles wit us to the top. I saw much more of the Northern Palace this time which I prioritized after racing so quickly through it last time. I think Sara liked it too. At the bottom we indulged in a n ice cream treat before driving to Eilat. We weren’t sure how long it would take and hoped to get there before dark. The drive ended up only being about 2.5 hours. The challenge then became finding the Eilat Guest House which is where I made reservations. I didn’t have a chance to get directions and thought the address and map would be sufficient. Ooops. We drove around for about 45 minutes before we found someone who could help us. No one seemed to recognize anything on our map or the address we had. Finally we called the phone number I had written down and soon we were checking in. After much needed showers we set out to find dinner. We went to the mall across the street and had shwarma. I know this was not too adventurous, but we were exhausted from a long day and even though it was 9pm it felt like 100 degrees outside. Air conditioning relief was a guarantee at the mall:-) Totally wiped out we decided to go to bed early….especially with a 6:30am pickup from the Petra tour group. Just as I was turning out the lights we heard a sequence of loud bangs outside the window. Seeing a bunch of military personnel (with their guns) at the youth hostel, my first thought was they were starting target practice at 10pm and our room must be close to the shooting gallery. After looking out the window I discovered there was a firework show across the street which marked the beginning of an outdoor concert (which would last for another two hours). I felt like I was doing okay drowning out the music until the planes started flying in over the hostel. I guess we are right next to the airport:-) I think I finally fell asleep around 5am.