Our trip to Israel

Last week Waldo had a business trip to the Israel Auto Show, so I tagged along. It was fun to see sights I haven't seen for 15 years, and some new ones! I went there when Ford was still awarding spouses free trips when the employee travels over 50 days in a year--alas, no longer!

Jordan is the only Arab country that has flights into Israel, so we went there first. It is very sad that there is no communication, not even cell phones, with Israel.

Since we had a lay-over of 5 hours, we decided to rent a car and sight-see. The four of us, Kurt Peterson, Huw Hughes, Waldo and I, squeezed into a Peugeot and visited the Roman amphitheater in downtown Amman. We visited the nearby museums, had lunch in a nice restaurant, and went back to the airport!

Visiting Jerusalem was fun. We visited the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, which is an extension of BYU, with dorms, concert halls and a museum-art gallery

A view of the Valley of Kidron from the BYU Jerusalem Center.

Then we visited the Garden Tomb, which is the most likely site of Jesus' burial.

This is Golgotha, traditionally the place where Jesus was crucified, although there is some question about that, because the Romans usually crucified on the roads outside cities.

Brandon and Cay outside the walls of Jerusalem

Our stay was made better because we were able to stay with the Edens family. Brandon is "The Ford Guy" in Israel, and it was a pleasure sight-seeing with them.

Inside the Old City

The next day, on our way to Qasaria, also spelled Caesaria, we stopped to explore the ruins of a Roman aqueduct. The people of the city actually had running water!

This is Heidi with their adopted son Christian. He is a special kid. They all have a lot of courage, both in adopting him and in moving to a foreign country. Our hats are off to the whole family.

Qasaria is the Hebrew spelling of this ancient city. It was very interesting to see the remains of a sports field, a bathtub, and to know that it is still a resort town!.

This is a "built-in" swimming pool, built by one of the rulers

Later on we treated everyone to a Moses Burger, known as the best hamburger around, named after the owner's cat, not the prophet!

We so enjoyed getting to know the Edens, and renewing our friendship with John and Nydia Harris, old friends from our Santiago days! Friends make the "joys" of traveling and moving worth it!