Well we made it! The flight was long and I have to say El-Al is not really a great airline. The plane was a 747 with 2 stories, which was pretty amazing. The flight attendants though were not very friendly, to the point of you asking a question and them looking at you but walking right past. When we would turn on the call button, the light would turn on, no one would respond and the light would shut off. The other interesting thing on El Al that occurs on every flight, is the Orthodox men on the flight pray. In the morning they open the blinds, walk through the cabin to recruit participants (a minyan is 10 men so they need that many as a minimum) and they stand facing the windows, pray and daven. It was very odd. Next time we will follow the lead of those who flew other airlines. The airport experience was pretty easy and the heavy security was not nearly as bad as we had been led to expect. Upon arrival we met with others on our trip and took the bus 2.5 hours north to the Karmiel-Misgav region. The countryside was amazing. White stone buildings spotted the hillsides. It was just like you see in pictures of Israeli villages.

The buses took us to a place calledu Mount Arbell. It is a high point in the Karmiel misgav region which is in the north and is near the Golan Heights. From the top overlooking wheat fields, the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. It was amazing. As a group of nearly 300 people from Pittsburgh we stood there and said the shehechianu prayer which is a prayer you say when you are thankful and celebratory! We finally got to the Hotel and got ready for dinner. What a whirlwind and the day was still not over. We had an outdoor dinner and were joined with our friends from the partnership we have with this region. Each family was set up with an Israeli family before they came and on this evening we met them, had dinner and went to the pool for after dinner drinks and conversation. The people we were set up with were wonderful and we really enjoyed meeting Bebe and Oren. It just so happened that in the conversation I found out that Bebe had converted to Judaism as I had which I thought was very interesting and was wondering if we were put together because of that commonality. After a very long and exciting day 3 very exhausted kids and 2 equally as exhausted parents went to bed.