Holy Land Visit

A whirlwind adventure, a trip of a lifetime, call it what you may...it was awesome. I had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and the surrounding area this past month. R was there on "official" business. I was there as a tourist with really awesome benefits such as an incredible hotel room, perdium to help pay for food, souvenirs, tour guides. Thanks to Grandma who was called on a Wednesday and was able to fly out the following Wednesday to hold down the fort and shuttle the monkeys to their various activities. Jerusalem was never on my top 10 list, it sure is now. Here are a few pics of the trip, if I had loaded all of them you will still be viewing them tomorrow.

Day 1: The wailing wall. Frequented by Jews from all over the world. There holiest site on the earth. The wall was smaller that I had imagined. Friday is the busiest day and usually most volatile day to visit. We were required to be out of the "old city" by 10:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Day 2: Entrance to the BYU Jerusalem center. What a spirit. The minute we passed the guard and walked onto the grounds I knew that the church that I belong to is true.

Poppy's in bloom at the Orson Hyde Park. A short drive/walk from the BYU Jerusalem center. What an awesome feeling and place to be at. Reading from the New Testament and sitting where they things occured. Awesome!

The Garden Tomb. Believed by many Christian faiths including our as the site that Christ was buried in. Again, a different place that I had imagined. To enter the garden was a busy/loud walk through the city. A large bus depot is located right outside the gate. Once you enter the garden area, peace, quiet, trees and flowers. There was hardly any outside noise.

Day 3: Cats everywhere...I knew my girls would love this pic. I saw ten dogs total and this was including the bomb sniffing dogs in our hotel.

Ruins that have recently been excavated. This was in the coast side town of Akko. Also had the opportunity to walk through Templar caverns, tunnels under the city

Rosh HaNikra is a geologic formation in Israel located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the border with Lebanon. The Rosh HaNikra grottos are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. The total length is some 200 meters. They branch off in various directions with some interconnecting segments.

This is how I reached the grottos, a short ride down by cable car.

Impressive gardens & Baha'i temple in the city of Haifa. This was the last stop on my tour of the Mediterranean coast

Day 4: Haram esh-Sharif, the "Noble Sanctuary" or Temple Mount, is a vast rectangular building in the south-eastern part of the Old City. Traditionally the site of Solomon's temple, it later housed the Second Temple, enlarged by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans. Left in ruins for more the half a century, the site became an Islamic shrine in AD 691 with the building of the Dome of the Rock.

Do any of these carvings look familiar?

Shepard abiding over his flock

Day 5: Long driving day...visit to Yardenet Baptism Site, the area has become developed for modern baptism to occur here. There were no baptism while we were visiting. Our tour guide had been baptized in this location. There were HUGE catfish swimming in the water. I don't think you could have convinced me to get in the water.

Stopped at the Sea of Galilee, it is really a lake 13 miles long and 6 miles wide with water draining into it from the Jordan river. Unfortunately the day was crummy for picture taking.

Beautiful flowers outside the restaurant we ate at. It was a feast for the eyes and belly. Chicken kabbos, 8 different middle eastern salads and eaten with fresh pita bread, hummas, tahini, etc...YUM

We also made a stop at Mount Tabor where heavenly messengers conferred the keys of the kingdom upon Peter, James, and John.

When President Spencer W. Kimball visited the Holy Land in October 1979, he visited Mount Tabor and said: “I felt very sure that this was the spot where Jesus had taken his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, to this ‘high mountain apart,’ and there had given certain blessings. [See Matt. 17:1–9.] I felt a very warm Spirit as we gathered together and felt what came to us from this experience.”

Beautiful church, wonderful feeling on the grounds.

Typical signage around the city