This and That

Here are some pictures from the last couple days.

 

 

I'm not sure why, but there's not really room to parallel park on the street, so instead people park half on the sidewalk, and the other half on the road.

 

The Damascus Gate into the Old City

 

We stopped at a stand to get supper one evening. I got a Kabob sandwich. They basically took a Kabob with meat and stuffed it in the Pita bread, then you could order whatever else you wanted on top. I chose salad (basic Israeli salad has chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and some other herbs), and a sauce made out of Cannellini beans. It was amazing! The meat was very well seasoned, although I'm not exactly sure what kind of meat it was :)! It was either lamb, or beef, and since lamb is pretty expensive I guess the default answer would be beef...I think.

 

We went on a underground tour of the Western Wall. The right side would be the Western Wall.

 

Prayers shoved into the cracks along the tunnel.

 

Please smile for Sarah! Grandma wants a picture of you and your big smile!!!!

 

 



 

Hey Bob can smile! I think 'Grandma' was the secret word. I'll have to use that line more often!

 



 



 

Jack was excited about the rooftop view from our apartment! It's so neat to be at a place in the city where you can look out over Jerusalem.

 

 

DeLora and I enjoying the sunshine, and view!

Oil Pastels

Last evening I got to have to kiddos all to my self!

So I decided to get out something from my stash of special things I brought along for the kids!

 

Oil Pastels

 

 

Princess trying her hand at smudging the colors.

 

The result? Messy hands and a cheesy 'smile'!

 

Bob and his tractor

 

Jack and his multi colored fingers!

 

And the end result

 

 

p.s. For the record, posts will probably become more infrequent as time goes on and things start to get busy. As for now...you can count yourself fortunate that life is pretty quiet right now and I have time on my hands :)!

Western Wall

 

Yesterday morning Marie and I went to do a little grocery shopping before Shabbat started and a lot of things shut down. Above is a picture of Challah that I got. So, so good!

 

In the evening we walked back to the Old City to find the Western Wall. It was pretty quite and there was little to no traffic since it was close to sunset.

 

 

 

On our way back from the Wall trying to squeeze our way through the narrow, crowded streets, a Jewish man stopped us and asked, "Amish? You Amish?!" Marie smiled and said, "No. Mennonites. But close." The guy looked slightly confused, smiled, and continued down the street.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the divider for the men and women's side. Since it was Shabbat it was actually rather busy. And I'm pretty sure the women that are peeking over the divider are tourists standing on chairs. I don't think they came to pray :)!

Wayne went down to the wall on the men's side, and Marie and I did the same on the women's. There was a group of young people there from Atlanta, Georgia, that were yelling, clapping, and singing in a circle. And something similar was happening on the men's side. So it didn't feel like a terribly reverent holy place at the time.

 

A view of part of Jerusalem

24 Hours

So we have the first 24 hours under our belt!

Traveling went well, except for the fact that it was long, and we kept switching time zones, which can tend to mess with your head a little!

 

We left JFK at 7:00 pm, New York Time. Once it got dark, every one tried to settle down and sleep (absolutely impossible). Around 11:00 pm NY Time the sun started to show itself, and when we arrived at the airport it was 7:00 am London time. So the night felt very short. At the Heathrow Airport we only had under a 2 hour layover, which was barely enough time to get through security, and switch terminals. We had to go on two transits, and up and down a couple flights of stairs. Needless to say we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got to our gate. And DeLora was able to make it as well. She only had an hour layover, but was in the same terminal, and security went a lot smoother for her. So we are very thankful for that!

 

A goodbye hug

 

 

Our farewell party that saw us off!

 

 

 

Here we go!

 

 

Princess all excited for the first flight! *CHEESE!*

 



 



View from the plane

 





 

Jack with some of the luggage after our last flight

DeLora and I outside of the airport, after immigration, customs, and all that fun stuff!

 

 

For lunch today we met up with a couple that was here for 2 weeks! They took us out to a little open air restaurant! So it was encouraging to catch up with them, and here about their experience. What we had for lunch I would describe as a sandwich. It was a pita bread, with a slit in it so it kind of served as a pocket, and then is was filled with humus, lettuce, some tomatoes, pickle chunks, falafel (which is a fried ball of humus and some other things...not 100% sure), and a white chickpea sauce. Then this evening we went exploring a little bit, and walked to the Old City, and looked around a little bit. But it was actually a bad time of the day, because a lot of things closed around 5-6 in the evening.

 

 

Bob, Wade, and Princess taking a rest while Mommy does some shopping.

 

 

On the way back Marie stopped at a little grocery store, to get some supplies for tomorrow, and then hopefully we kind figure out where to get some things for a little cheaper. The grocery store was right outside the Old City walls, and across from a ritzy hotel, so I have a feeling it probably was a little overpriced!

 

That's all for now folks!



I have confidence.....I think

 

 It's here. Finally. Today is the day! Bags are packed and weighed, the list has been gone over several times, and the creative mother is still finding things to fit into my suitcase!

The last week I've listened to this 'Sound of Music' classic, several times...and smiled to myself. Because I can totally relate. It's kind of funny. The song keeps running through my head, and I imagine myself singing at the top of my lungs, just belting it out!

 

"I've always longed for adventure

 To do the things I'd never dared

 Now here I'm facing adventure

Then why am I so scared"