Our first visitors came in November: Jonathan's brother, Tyler, and his wife, Brenda. They ignored jet lag and took full advantage of their 10 days away from their eight children. They were unstoppable and saw everything I had on my list plus more. A huge thanks to Tom & Karin, Ralph & Heather, and their older kids for keeping things going at home, so they could come.
I'll only post a few of the highlights here.
They flew in on a Friday evening, which is the beginning of Shabbat here, so not only was traffic light, but they were anxious to take a walk to stretch their legs that first night, so we headed to the Old City. The walls lit up at night are magical, and the Jewish quarter was so quiet (everyone home enjoying their Shabbat dinner), so we made our way to the Western Wall. I had been there that morning, and it was jammed with people. That night there were only a few dozen, so we were able to go right up and touch the wall.
On Saturday, after attending church at the Jerusalem Center (always a highlight!), we made our way to the Orson Hyde Garden, which is very near the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. We had actually never been there before, because we had heard it was "nothing much," but to go to a beautifully maintained garden with views and no crowds is a big win in my book, so it is now on our list of must-visits.
The day before Tyler & Brenda arrived, our U.S. security office lifted our restriction on taking the direct highway to the Dead Sea, so we took advantage on Sunday to stop at a beach to float and then visit Masada, one of Herod's palaces, where Jewish zealots later held off a Roman siege until they ultimately committed suicide rather than surrender. The following Sunday we went south again to visit Ein Gedi (an oasis in the desert) and Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found).
During the week, in addition to all of the Old City sites, and a day trip to Jericho, Herodion and Bethlehem, they joined us for an Israeli breakfast feast at the Ticho House.
We let the kids play hooky on Thursday and drove as far north as we are allowed to go to the headwaters of the Jordan river in the Golan Heights. We also stopped at a Crusader fortress.
I stayed the night with Tyler and Brenda in Galilee, and on Friday we packed it in again (despite the rain) to see many of the sites of Jesus' ministry, take a boat ride, get all the way to Caesarea (fabulous Roman ruins) on the coast and then to Jaffa for a very colorful fish dinner before driving back to Jerusalem.
