Part 2

My life has changed significantly with a fourth child and I feel anxiety claw at me as I think "oh crap, now I've waited so long to blog my trip that I won't remember when I went to that amazing breakfast." Wonderful little bits and pieces lay strewn at the bottom of my consciousness like treasure on a sea floor. So humor me as I dive at random and reclaim the pieces that meant the most to me. They won't be chronological but I can't imagine why it would matter. I have a couple of things that I want to jot down and remember though they aren't really stories... For one thing, I think my trip was a very unique experience because I wasn't on a tour. I was with people who live in Talpiot Jerusalem and know all of the best restaurants, and all of the best shopping areas and all of the best of everything all the while letting me see things most tourists probably don't like riding in 30 taxi cabs and shopping at the grocery store, and the fruit market, and picking children up at school. Most of our time was spent wandering around seeing amazing things without a large group to keep up with. Everyone in my life loves me and showers me with such amazing blessings that I'm downright embarrassed to think about it all. It brought me to tears several times on my trip as I thought about all of the people who cooperated to give me this incredible experience. The words "humbled" and "gratitude" seemed to bump into each other in my mind constantly as each day passed and I was actually able to feel what it was like to miss my kids! LOL! It took a few days but I really did! I found myself thinking about parents who travel for work all of the time or are in the military etc... and have those feelings on a regular basis. It gave me a profound respect for their dedication to provide for their families no matter what. The second day I was there, I hit the wall. I crashed and burned. I have always wondered what - exactly - jet lag felt like. When I was a small child I heard about it and wondered; I thought it might be an actual illness like altitude sickness. No, it's just plain old complete exhaustion. It felt like my body was made from lead and I was trying to breathe helium instead of oxygen. Bart had really hoped if she kept me on my feet all day the first day I wouldn't get it. But I did. It all happened when we came back from a very interesting grocery shopping trip (result of only about $8 wasted on things we thought were one thing but turned out to be another) and she went to put groceries away and make me more coffee. No matter what you read about my trip, if I forget to mention coffee, just picture it somewhere in the scene. Coffee was continually being made, drunk, bought or discussed. Morning coffee was fresh ground in her cool glass coffee carafe thingy with the chemex filters and afternoon coffee was cappuccinos in her awesome Nespresso machine. There was one day that lacked coffee, which I am sure I will write about eventually and all day long we wished for coffee and discussed it at random intervals until we got a rather subpar one at a gift shop (we were on a tour and weren't allowed to go anywhere except gift shops). Anyway, that second day as Bart cheerily chatted and busied around in the kitchen I made friends with her Ikea couch. Very good friends. She tried to shriek me off of the couch but it was no good. It was euphoric. I had found heaven. It wasn't to last long because it couldn't last long. Nothing on my trip was long lasting. I was on a runaway train the whole time. She was getting me geared up to flag down a taxi to go get the boys from band practice after school. And so we did. We shopped in a lovely little quiet area of town that I've forgotten the name of and then began our quest for a cab. But, again the taxi thing didn't work out. Our taxi driver announced shortly after picking us up that he was giving us the boot and heading another direction. So, there we stood forlorn in the rain staring at each other three blocks from where we had started with him. It was noteworthy I know because she told "everyone" the story and got shocked responses from "everyone." Our despondency was short lived. We found a very jovial cab driver who spoke very little English and was very encouraging of Bart's attempts at Hebrew. We had a lovely ride with him, Warren and Harrison used their Hebrew and thrilled the little man to no end. I think that was Sami. The next morning Bart took me to a full Israeli breakfast at the Inbal Hotel. It was hands down the most impressive breakfast I've ever seen. After that we went on a tour with a Jewish tour guide of several significant sites to Christians including the place where he ascended into heaven and the Garden of Gethsemane. She did not believe in Jesus so that gave the tour a different feel than if she had. I don't regret it because it was interesting to see a non believer sharing details about these historical sites. On this tour a few things stood out to me. The Garden of Gethsemane is beautiful but small and guarded. You aren't allowed to touch the ancient trees and I rather imagine it used to be huge. Second, it was quite disappointing to me that Constantine's mother Helen erected a church where Jesus ascended into heaven. Walking in to a church made it impossible to envision Jesus rising into the air. I think if they had to make a memorial it should have been more like an observatory or a roofless monument of some kind. This is the church rebuilt. Helen's was destroyed. Gethsemane