Sunrise Shavout at Western Wall

Sunset from Balcony

Shabbot Shalom

Priscilla and I at the Reform Jewish service on Friday night to welcome in the Sabbath.  There was lots of singing and it was all in Hebrew.  Most American Jews are of the Reform stream but there is a very small portion of Jews in Jerusalem who are Reform.

Separation Wall

We had a fabulous guide, Danny Siderman (sp?), take us to the Separation wall.  Notice that the graffiti is in English. Apparently this is because we, Americans, are the audience.  Many people are unhappy about this wall. It's causing some big problems for the Arabs who live around it and can't get to their hospitals or schools without having to drive 30 miles to the next checkpoint.

Turkey

Notice the medicine symbol on this pillar! Cool.

Aren't you thankful that someone already developed the toilet for us?  We learned some interesting things about ancient sewage.  Frankly, many of the bathrooms we used in Turkey aren't much better than these... Have you ever heard of a squatter before?  I have never been so thankful for beautiful, clean, comfortable bathrooms!

The library at Ephesus was one of my favorite things in Turkey! It is enormous and absolutely beautiful.  The wall you can see in this picture would have been on the inside of the library if the rest of the walls were still up.

Apparently this is where John's body is.  If you believe that he died...

This, my friends is an ancient baptismal font!

Shephelah (low hills) Field Trip

The valley of Elah is behind me! This is where David fought Goliath!

Nate is teaching us how to use a sling.

This may have been the very sling that David used to slay Goliath... :) You can buy them all over the old city.

Rochelle and I in the wheat field. This was an appropriate time to visit a field. We took this trip right after the Shavout holiday which commemorates Ruth gleaning from the fields of Boaz.

Tel Lachish highlights Joshua and the Israelite conquest, also has features of the Divided Monarchy like Senachrib's siege ramp. This was the hottest part of the day. You know when wind doesn't even feel good because it's such hot wind? Yeah. That happened here.

Avery and I loving the heat. By the way, the heat is nothing compared to Nauvoo. Yet...

We went to the limestone query near Tel Mareshah and sang a ton of hymns. The acoustics were awesome and the temperature was very cool.  You could literally scrape the walls with your fingernail and the limestone would come right off!

Tel Mareshah was very plain and flat from on top.  But, underground there were tons and tons of caves! We would walk around from cave to cave going in and seeing endless winding paths that lead us from room to room.  This is a massive olive press!

Me, Bekah, and Lane. Lovin the underground caves.

Check out the sheep and the shepherd.  I am fascinated by sheep.  Does anyone know how herding works?  We have a field trip coming up where we get to try sheepherding! I'll let you know all about it.

Last sight at Mareshah.  This was a room full of tombs! Apparently the whole family gets buried here. It seems like it would be a big party in the afterlife in these rooms!