Today is our final day in Israel. After all the travel and sightseeing it will be a welcome change to stay close to Tel Aviv and visit with Paul's family. We got back late last night from our trip to the Southern most point in Israel, the resort town of Eilat where we went with Paul's cousin's son, Itai. We drove directly south (after bathing in the Dead Sea) through the Negev desert which was starkly beautiful in a rocky, barren way. We stopped near Eilat for ...

We drove late Friday night from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea so that we could spend the night at the foot of Masada, poised for a pre-dawn climb to the top to see the sunrise over the Jordan mountains. This is something I have been looking forward to seeing since reading about the Jews at Masada in a novel called "The Dovekeepers" by Alice Hoffman. The book is historical fiction which tells the story of a woman who is ejected from Jerusalem at the time of the destru...

We drove late Friday night from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea so that we could spend the night at the foot of Masada, poised for a pre-dawn climb to the top to see the sunrise over the Jordan mountains. This is something I have been looking forward to seeing since reading about the Jews at Masada in a novel called "The Dovekeepers" by Alice Hoffman. The book is historical fiction which tells the story of a woman who is ejected from Jerusalem at the time of the destru...

When we planned our trip we didn't realize that it coincided with the holiday of Purim. This is a festive holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the jews from their enemies in the book of Esther. The most important custom during this holiday is reading the Purim story from the Scroll of Esther, ( AKA the Megillah) in the synagogue. Whenever Haman (the villain) is mentioned people boo, hiss and shake noisemakers to show their dislike of him. Unlike more seriou...

As you can see from the photo Israel is not all desert! We took a trip to the Northern part of the country with our capable and charming friend Oded. We set out in the morning and drove through the port town of Haifa stopping at the incredible Bahai gardens which cover the entire hillside in a series of perfectly landscaped terraces. We slogged through traffic coming out of Haifa and rushed up to the mountains for sunset at a national park bordering Lebanon. Abov...