Israel Day 2: Masada

On Monday morning, we rented a car and headed east, to Masada. We drove past Jerusalem and into the West Bank. (Everything in Israel is very safe, despite what you might think from watching the news. We did drive through one checkpoint, but it was no big deal.)

After driving about 2 1/2 hours, we arrived at Masada. Masada is a series of ancient palaces and fortifications built by Herod on top of a plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. We decided to hike up instead of wimping out and riding the cable car. About halfway up the Snake Path, we realized that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to hike up at exactly noon on a very hot day. But it was too late to change our minds, so we continued on our trek, watching jealously as the cable car passed overhead.

On top of the plateau, we had a great view of the Dead Sea with Jordan on the other side. We walked through all the excavated walls and rooms, taking it all in. When the site was discovered, scrolls containing parts of Deuteronomy and Ezekiel were even found in the synagogue. When we finished looking around up top, we headed down the slope, looking forward to a dip in the (not very) refreshing Dead Sea on the way back to Tel Aviv.

Israel Day 1: Jerusalem (The Church of the Holy Sepulchre)

After visiting the Western Wall, we made our way through the maze of streets and alleys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as Golgotha or Calvary. This church was built around the site of where the New Testament says that Jesus was crucified and then resurrected. It is now maintained by Greek Orthodox priests as well as several different Catholic groups and other Orthodox groups. Pilgrims come from all over the world to this church specifically to touch the Stone of Anointing, which claims to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. Like the Wailing Wall, this was a very moving experience, shared by many people of different faiths.

When we left the Church, we tried to visit the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, but we were turned away by the guards because it is Ramadan right now. So we headed to lunch instead--a casual meal of hummus, falafel, and pita. After feeding our spirits all day, it was finally time to feed our bellies!

Israel Day 1: Jerusalem (The Western Wall)

The primary reason to visit Jerusalem for many tourists is to pray at the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall. It was a moving experience for me, one that I wasn't expecting to be so emotional. Men and women have separate sections to pray, so Kaley and I separated from Zach and Tom. We walked slowly to the Wall, in our modest dress (skirts or pants, shoulders covered), staying quiet to show respect for the holiness of the place.

There were many women there, touching the wall, sitting in chairs, holding children. I had written a little prayer on a piece of paper that I folded up to put in the Wall. As I said my short prayer with my hand touching the coolness of the Wall, I was overwhelmed with the thought that everyone there was talking to God, either in formal prayers or informal ones like mine, in many different languages, with different pictures in their head about what their God looks like. It was really amazing to think about all those prayers, of thanks or hope or forgiveness, being said in a place where they've been said for thousands of years.

Israel Day 1: Jerusalem (The Old City)

We arrived in Tel Aviv on Saturday (an hour early!) and we were met at the airport by Zach's brother, Tom, and his girlfriend, Kaley. After getting settled in at the beautiful David Intercontinental Hotel, we headed out for a walking tour of Tel Aviv followed by dinner at Raphael. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great--especially when we found out that Madonna was sitting two tables over from us. Very exciting! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get a much-needed night of rest before our first full day in Israel.

Sunday started out bright and early because we were headed to Jerusalem. It was about an hour and a half bus ride, but Jerusalem seems worlds away from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is very cosmopolitan, with high-rise hotels, office buildings, fancy restaurants, expensive shops, and everything else you would expect a major city to have. Jerusalem is very old world, with crowded cobblestone streets, tiny shops in hidden back alleys, and amazing religious and historical sites.

We started out by walking through the market (called a shouk in Hebrew, or a souk in Arabic) where every stall had amazing fresh produce, every kind of dried fruit imaginable, and tons of nuts and spices. Kaley showed me all the good stuff to buy, like dates, figs, and pomegranates. Tommy was a great tour guide, navigating us through a confusing maze of streets with only minimal time being lost. More to come from Jerusalem....

Our house is officially ours!

(I know I'm very behind in posts, so I apologize for that. I'm going to try and catch up a little--posts might not show up in the right order, but you'll get the drift.)

After leaving Hawaii on Sept 1st, we arrived in North Carolina on Sept 2nd. Dan was pretty good on the flights, but he didn't want to go to sleep on the Honolulu to Atlanta leg. When he finally calmed down, he slept like a champ, but it took awhile to get to that point. Luckily, there was a kid in the row behind us that was even more of a disaster so no one complained about us!

We picked up my mom from the airport in Wilmington, then headed to Holly Ridge to do the final walkthrough of our new home on Wednesday afternoon. For the most part, everything was perfect--just a few little paint touchups and things like that. No deal-breakers or anything, so we signed the paperwork on Thursday morning and received the keys and are looking forward to life in small-town North Carolina!

Daniel seems to like his new digs, especially the fact that it's furniture-free and has a big echo whenever he talks loudly. Which is all the time. He crawled around everywhere and explored all the rooms. My mom took him for several walks through the neighborhood so he actually knows his way around better than Zach or I do at this point. According to the builders, there aren't a lot of other kids yet, but the ones that do live in the neighborhood are really young, like Dan. I'm looking forward to meeting our neighbors when we get back! (We already know one neighbor--the guy building the house behind us went to Zach's high school and to Vanderbilt with Zach's brother. Small world.)

My favorite thing so far about the house is the landscaping. It is beautiful! We have gorgeous roses, magnolias, azaleas, and lots of other things that I need learn the names of. And how to take care of them because I've never had a yard of my own before! We ordered plantation shutters for the whole house and I think that they're really going to complete the cottage look when they're installed. We'll be ready for visitors soon, so start making plans!

Exterior shots:

My mom counted four different types of butterflies just in the short time we were at the house:




Interior shots, starting with Dan's navy room:

The view from the master bedroom:




Where we'll be spending a lot of our time: the front porch. We just need to get some rocking chairs out there and we'll be all set.

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Even though Dan's birthday isn't until the 30th, we had an early celebration for him yesterday. It was a combination birthday/farewell party since we're moving very soon and we wanted to see all of our friends one last time. We had a great time on a beautiful Hawaiian afternoon, bouncing in the bouncy house, eating ono grindz, and just talking story with people that we've gotten to know over our last six years here. We are truly blessed to have been stationed in one place for so long, but it's going to make it that much harder to leave next week. Like the old song says, I hope we can make new friends but keep the old.

The highlight of the party was watching Dan smash his little cake, with some help from Daddy. We sang Happy Birthday to him, then Zach blew out the candle, and we let Dan go to town. He was more interested in grabbing handfuls of cake and throwing it instead of eating it, which might be a cause for concern in the intelligence department, because the cake was delicious (big thank you to Kim T.--you really outdid yourself!).

(After Dan was done with his little cake, he hadn't actually eaten too much of it. So Wyatt and little Richie swooped in like vultures circling a kill and polished it off in about two minutes flat. Too bad I was busy cleaning up Dan and I missed getting that on video.)





The best cake ever (if you want to see how Kim made it, check out www.yummycuppycakes.blogspot.com):



Our family:

Action shots of the little man and his little cake:

Mischievous Dan

Dan has decided to take up several new hobbies--furniture rearranging, bathtub inspecting, table leg exploring. His all-time favorite activity (at least this week) was pushing things off of other things: putting the remote controls on the coffee table and then pushing them off the edge, stacking his stools in a chair and then knocking them off, sweeping all the nicely folded laundry off the couch back into the basket. I definitely look forward to naptime because it finally gives me a chance to sit down and take a breath (or eat or take a shower or maybe even a nap!).





(I put him in the tub--he didn't crawl in by himself!):

Guess he had a very specific toy in mind:


"Hey, Mom, I think the rocking chair should be in the bedroom":


My sweet baby is becoming a little boy too quickly: