The rest of the pictures

Sorry I never finished out trip. The rest of our pictures are story-less still. But since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a lot of words.

The beginning of the story (and more pictures)

After missing our flight in Rome due to delays, spending the day in Rome, and more delays, we arrived are our hostel in Jerusalem at 5:00 am Wednesday morning. The shops beneath our windows were just starting to set up their stands as we dropped off to sleep- oblivious to the shouts and horns on the street below. A few short hours later we pulled ourselves out of bed to meet up with Mark's old friend from Tallahassee, Aaron Gertz. We explored the Old City for the rest of the morning and early afternoon.




We were able to go onto the temple mount that afternoon. We couldn't go into the mosques only right up to them. As you can see I was very immodestly dressed so we had a purchase of shawl before going any further.Looks pretty good, huh?

As you can see, Mark and Aaron are dedicated Florida State fans.
Our main form of transportation was our feet. We walked pretty much everywhere. One exception was our trip out to see Aaron's kibbutz. Josi drove us out first to a Abu Ghosh for a delicious hummus meal, then on to see the school that Aaron is teaching at.
While Aaron was teaching an SAT class Mark and I walked around the beautiful hills and vineyards.
The next day we went to the Israeli Museum and looked at an art exhibit and the dead sea scrolls. The main exhibition was closed. Oh well. Then we took a bus to Ein Gedi and went swimming in the Dead Sea. As you can see, we picked a rocky, mudless beach...so no rubbing mud all over ourselves.
We then hitchhiked from Ein Gedi to the turnoff to Masada- about 20 km. We then walked up this road at dusk. Pretty much walking around in the middle of the desert. We spent the night at the bottom of the plateau and at 4:00 am we awoke to our rowdy neighbors. So we got up and climbed up the snake path. It was still dark when we began our ascent and still pretty dark when we got to the top. Hiking in the dark, cool morning was quite peaceful. We were the first ones up the mountain so we were surprised to see a lot of people already at the top. Some people were sleeping inside the ruins beyond the display ropes.
The sun had a very anti-climatic appearance due to the cloud cover. But tour guides still strived to get their groups attention as the sun came over a cloud. A loud, "the sun is coming out" was heard quite a ways away from where they stood cramped on top of a building. We explored Masada for a bit before heading back down for breakfast and the return to the city.

Jerusalem

The pictures are in backwards order. Sorry.
Mark at the Garden Tomb
Mark on the Mount of Olives
Mark's old friends the Gertz family. Thanks especially to Aaron for showing us all around.
Sunrise on top of Masada
The Dead Sea
Mark at the Israeli Museum model of Herod's Temple
Out at the Kibbutz
The Old City

And that's the short narrative-less version of our trip. I'll get to that part sometime.

Rome

Due to the horrible antics of Alitalia Airlines, Mark and I got to spend a day in Rome last week on our way to Israel. So we walked all over the city before continuing on to Jerusalem. The path included the Trevi Fountains,
The Pantheon
The Colosseum,
A walk along the river,
and St. Peters.
I guess missing the flight wasn't so so bad.

Back in Utah

We arrived back in Utah this weekend, after a two and a half day drive from Texas. The drive went really well. Mark did a great job driving...and I take no blame for not driving at all, I was not allowed. But the drive went quite fast. We listened to Atlas Shrugged - great book to listen to instead of read. Although I imagine it is best when you can listen to it all day straight as we could.
Look at how much fun we had!
We had a great time in Baytown and will be excited to go back after summer school. We really enjoyed being close to Mark's parents and Steve and Kalina. But we are excited to spend the next week in Israel and then head back to school.

Alex

Amy drew this the other day.

Weekend In Utah

We flew up to Utah last weekend for Steve and Kalina's wedd'n. It was beautiful and they looked so incredibly happy.
We are very excited for them and excited to have Kalina in the family.
We also enjoyed spending time with the family and seeing our nieces and nephews.
I was especially exciting to meet our newest niece, Alex. As with most little kids, she loved Mark.