July 1.2010
I am tired writing this, and 3 days behind so i may edit it later. We got up fairly early, had a leisurely breakfast and headed to the old city on bus 18. Met a nice girl who told us where to get off. We wandered aimlessly for awhile, then found the Jaffa gate. We went down David Street looking at the shops, people and architecture, then down the Cardo (pictured). We wandered our way over the the west wall of the temple mount (which is not actually the wall of the old temple like I thought). I had to wear a goofy skirt and shawl so I looked like an old, poorly dressed Bubba. Then we went up to the Christian quarter and climbed 180 spiral stairs up a church tower to look at the spectacular view below. The climb was a killer but it was totally worth it.
Finally we stumbled upon the church of the Holy Sepulcher where the Catholics believe Jesus was crucified, laid out in funeral wrappings, and put in the tomb too. The church was very big and impressive. There was lots of incense and bell ringing going on because 4 different catholic sects all work in there.
We then rushed off to find our bus home because Sabbath was starting 20 minutes before sunset and we had heard everything shuts down then, including the buses.
Later that evening, after a little siesta and some delicious tomato, cucumber and cheese sandwiches, we went out for a stroll. we discovered that everything does close down. The square that was bustling the night before was totally dead. End of day 2

Adventures in Israel

June 30, 2010

Our adventure begins, 4:30 am Alberta, Canada.
I wake my 15 year old son to say good bye and to tell him I feel guilty for leaving him and the rest of my family. He assures me that I shouldn't feel guilty and that he is excited for me and my incredible adventure. I leave feeling better and as my husband drives me to the airport I remember how, when I was debating whether I should spend all the time and money to go to Israel for all of July, my best friend said that I wouldn't remember the summer of 2010 as anything special if I stayed home and worked, but a month in Israel will be remembered forever.
At the airport, I met the fantastic four ladies that I was travelling with and we became the Fabulous Five! Our gracious and loving husbands left us to our own devices and away we flew. To Toronto we went, a five hour layover, then on the red eye to Tel Aviv Israel!
We were so excited as we left and that excitement carried us through the 11 hour flight. We landed in Tel Aviv at about 11 am local time (3 am Alberta time). God blessed us by us immediately finding a Sharut (minivan) to take us to Jerusalem. We were even more blessed to have an Orthodox Jew in the van with us who had to be dropped off in his neighborhood. We have never seen anything like it! We want to go back and walk around later.
Anyway, we finally made it to the apartment we are renting. It was about 3 pm and we were exhausted. We unpacked and promptly fell asleep for a 3 hour nap. When we woke we walked down to the neighborhood grocery store where we spent over 500 sheckels on groceries. We were horrified until we realized that was under $200 Can. We had a supper in the apartment of the most amazingly fresh and tasty tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon that we have ever tasted. Then off to sleep again. Maybe not the most exciting day but we were thrilled to be here, and thrilled with our (albeil minor!) accomplishments.