Farewell, or Shalom

We left Eilat Tuesday morning and began the long drive back to Tel Aviv.  As we were leaving Eilat, we stopped at the Underwater Observatory for a brief visit.  The Red Sea has pristine waters and is very popular with divers for all the coral reefs, which attract a wide variety of sea life.  The Underwater Observatory is located just offshore and provided us with a view of lots of different types of fish (kind of puts my virtual Fishville tank to shame).

As we made our way north into the Negev, we stopped at the Timna Valley Copper Mines.  The park has pretty incredible natural sandstone formations and the area has been mined for copper almost continuously for the last 6,000 years.  I think I would have appreciated the visit a bit more if it hadn't been so damned blisteringly scorchingly hot.  We still got to see some pretty impressive sights.

I got in trouble for touching the different layovers on this rock formation.  I thought it was pretty firm, but it crumbled to the touch and Joesph yelled at me.  I told him I was sorry, but he told me to apologize to the rock.

From Timna, we drove for several hours north around the Dead Sea where we stopped for lunch.  We saw a neat formation of different colored rocks on the Jordanian side.  Joseph said it was a fox, but we thought it looked for like a wolf, but either way, Kirsten and I got very excited because it made us think of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is presently our favorite movie.  Which do you see?  A wolf or a fox?  Canis Lupis or Volpes Volpes?

As we headed west past Jerusalem, we saw a great deal of smoke pillowing past Jerusalem.  Joesph told us that it was the wooded areas in the Palestinian Territories and that militants had taken to lighting forest fires as a form of protest.

We arrived in Tel Aviv just in time for rush hour traffic.  One observation we noticed was that Israeli's have very little patience when it comes to traffic and our guide was having a little meltdown.

We ended up eating at an outdoor restaurant (the same one we ate at the first night we arrived) and enjoyed some pizza and beer while watching the sun set.  We had a couple of hours of sleep before we had to leave for the airport.  The flight left at 5am, so we had to be at the airport by 2am.  The place was a zoo with lots of people.  Everyone gets their luggage scanned and then hand searched.  The whole process is very efficient though and we got checked in with plenty of time to spare.

We stopped in Amsterdam on the way home and had about an hour and a half layover.  Enough time to buy a  magnet, but apparently not enough time for our luggage to make the connection.  When we arrived in Dallas, they were paging us to let us know the bags did not make it.  It ended up being delivered a few days later.

All's well that ends well.  This was an incredible trip.  In a way, kind of  a pilgrimage.  It was amazing to see the Holy sights.  I think we will view our Christian holidays differently now, having seen these places first hand.

Shalom friends! :)