Blog Alert!

No, never fear my avid and loyal readers, nothing is wrong with this oh-so-sacred blog. I am just writing to let you know that the wonderful and truly effusive Miss Katie has moved her blog to a new space. Go check out her new rantings and ravings at 4th Quarter Katie. Let's all try and keep up with where she is going next. Good luck to her and to all of us for hanging on to this wild ride. Love you girl!

A New Start

Well, I guess it's about time that I showed you our new little abode. We've got a great house in a fun neighborhood and are loving it so far. The area that we are in has great pubs and restaurants within walking distance and we feel safe being out and about together (as long as we are together and not alone, 'cause that would just be silly). The house is a great size for us, and may even be a little bigger than we expected, but it's nice to have some room to move around and not be on top of each other. The cats love it and run up and down the hallway playing all day and night. We have gorgeous floor to ceiling windows in the front of the house (which really adds to the room we're using as a library) and with the ceilings being about 13 feet, it makes the house feel huge. There are 3 bedrooms, one of which we use as an office, and a really nice size living room with a built-in bar (that we only use for storage. Right. Storage). And finally there is a precious little backyard with a great deck. There is plenty of room for guests, so start planning your trips down to the Big Easy, folks. Beth and Stephen win the award for having the first planned trip. Any other takers? Anyone? Hello?!

Alas Poor Israel, I Blogged You Well

I know, I know, I know: I am the absolute worst blogger in the world. BUT, I'm writing now, I'm finishing off the stories of my travels and you can all enjoy and read and comment and we'll all be happier for it. So, where exactly did I leave off? Well, our group was heading into the last of our countries, namely Israel. (Disclaimer: I totally broke Bart's camera on the first day in Israel, so pictures may or may not be forthcoming.) The first stop on the tour of Israel was the Church of the Beatitudes where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. For all you "Lamb" readers, you will appreciate this on a completely different level. Of course the church wasn't there at the time of the sermon, but was built as a memorial. It was a gorgeous setting right on the Sea of Galilee (which is actually a large lake), with tons of flowers and greenery, which was an amazing site for all of us since we had only seen desert for the week and a half prior. Israel, in fact, is mostly desert but was irrigated for centuries to create work and exports for its inhabitants. After visiting the church we set out on yet another boat on the Sea of Galilee itself. What an amazing experience! We had a prayer out on the lake, danced with the crew and actually got to listen to our National Anthem. As a bonus, the crew of the boat plays the national anthem of whoever is on their ships. Nice touch to have a bit of home on the trip. We didn't get to stay out long, but again, it was an awesome experience. Our next stop on the trip was in Tabgha at the Church of Heptapegon, which is where Jesus fed the masses with the few loaves and fish. It was a very small church with very little to see, but neat to be there. As was tradition with our tour group at that point, we were quickly whisked back onto our bus and driven to yet another site: Capharnaum, or the city of Jesus. This ruined city was a maze of ancient buildings that told many different stories of the life and times of Jesus. There were meeting rooms and synagogues, churches and an actual city was laid out before us. Once we saw all these amazing sites, it was finally time for lunch. Yep, that's right, lunch. We quickly found out that we hadn't even learned the meaning of "rushed" before we got to Israel. Another word we quickly learned was kibbutz. A kibbutz is similar to a commune where a group of people work together to form a self-sustaining community. Apparently our guide was very fond of these and took us to every single one she could possibly find. Let's just suffice it to say that if all kibbutz's (I really don't know what the plural of kibbutz is) charge as much for lunch as the ones we visited do, then I have figured out how they are self-sustaining. No big secret there. The remainder of our first day in Israel was spent traveling to the Jordan River for baptisms. This was so very cool and there were people from all over the world having the same experience that we were. Two of the members of our group were baptized and it was awesome to share this with them. (Side note: In the interest of saving your brain cells, I'm going to hit the highlights from here on out. We did an inordinate amount of touring these last couple days and it all started to bleed together, so just trust me that you're getting the good stuff.) In the following days, we visited Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle of turning water to wine at a wedding (you guys can learn all about this from Bill) and Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. We also visited the Church of the Ascension, where the Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her what God had in store for her (or as my Mom said, "Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time"). Caesarea was soon to follow and there we saw the ruins from the palace of Pontius Pilate (who was the judge during Jesus' trial). Next we were off to Jerusalem and Masada, where we took a suspended cable car up the mountain and got to see the city of Masada (if any of you have seen the movie with Peter O'Toole with the Romans trying to take over a city on a big mountain, this place is what the movie was about). After lunch in another kibbutz (I think this was the third or fourth by this point), we saw these awesome little wild goats that were literally standing in trees to get food. They were tiny but so very cute! I wanted to take one home, but they wouldn't let me off the bus. Our next big stop was the Dead Sea. Whoa... weird stuff. The water was way oily and dense and it felt like you would never get it off your skin. A lot of people got all the way in and floated in it, but I couldn't make myself go past knee deep. It just felt entirely too dirty. Gross!! There were folks all over the place bathing in the mud, had it caked all over their bodies and that was enough of a turn-off to keep me away. I admit it, I chickened out (although I did get some great pictures on Lori's camera of people who probably shouldn't have been in bathing suits). We visited the wailing wall, which is in the heart of Old Jerusalem and learned more than any gentile needs to know about the Jewish culture (just kidding). The streets or alleys that lead in and around Old Jerusalem are packed with tons of shops, similar to the bazaar in Istanbul. People just crushed in on top of each other, but we had a wonderful time shopping for treasures, bargaining and finding just the right souvenirs to take home. We spent an afternoon at Yad VaShem, which is the Holocaust Museum. I have to admit that I was fairly nervous about going, but the museum was very tastefully done, and although it wasn't a "pleasant" experience, it was incredible to see everything. We visited the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, and the garden Jesus was taken from before his trial. Experiencing all of this in such a short amount of time didn't give any of us a lot of time to process, so there was a lot of unwinding that needed to be done at the end of each day. We did venture into Palestine one morning to get to Bethlehem (yes, Bethlehem is part of Palestine, not Israel right now), and got to see the Church of the Nativity. Now, if I have to explain the significance of "Church of the NATIVITY," I'm going to be very disappointed, so if you don't know, don't tell me. K? K. Back in Israel, we spent the rest of the day in Mt. Zion and saw the room where The Last Supper took place, walked through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (a possible burial site for Jesus), and had communion in the Garden Tomb (another possible burial site for Jesus). Please keep in mind that all of these things happened in 4 and a half days. It was all jam packed and I am leaving a lot of stuff out. There were lots of trials and tribulations along the way, not to mention cats galore (yes, I tried to keep all of them), many complaints about our guide, stomach issues, blown out hair dryers, and more than I could ever relate. All in all, this was an amazing trip and it seemed to both last a lifetime and disappear in the blink of an eye. I definitely want to continue traveling and have plans to bug the tar out of Bart until he takes me somewhere (Italy anyone?). I hope you enjoyed my stories as much as I enjoyed gathering them. Coming soon: updates on NOLA, pictures of the house and a tourists guide to the Big Easy. Keep up, kids. I'm back!