Behold, our marvelous schedule: 7:10 am TLV —> LHR (1 hr 45 min layover) 12:15 pm LHR —> CLT (3 hr 10 min layover) 7:15 pm CLT —> SLC (arrive at 9:29 PM MDT) I started the day a little nervous about the 1 hr 45 min layover in London Heathrow, but I figured, we…
Month: July 2022
Church of the Holy Sepulcher Solo (Sunday, July 3)
For my final afternoon in the Holy Land, I went on a solo adventure. I bused into the Old City with the intent of revisiting the Dome of the Rock and Haram al-Sharif, but a little family drama (everyone was so tired, so some meltdowns are to be expected, and actually happened far less often…
Yad Vashem (Sunday, July 3)
Yad Vashem is Israel’s official museum and memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. I really wanted to go, but I really didn’t want to go–if you know what I mean. I knew it was going to be a hard visit, even with no family or religious connection to the Holocaust. As much as I…
Our last Shabbat in Jerusalem (Saturday, July 2)
I warned the kids that I wanted to take a bunch of family pictures at the Jerusalem Center on Shabbat–so we left Mesaveret Zion ninety minutes before church starts. The Jerusalem Center grounds open 30 minutes before sacrament meeting and close 30 minutes after church ends, and our journeys to church had not been smooth…
Mount Zion (Friday, July 1)
All of a sudden we only have a few days left! And I’m so sad and happy all at once–we are super tired, and there really isn’t any place like home. On Friday, we decided to explore a lesser-known church, St. Peter in Gallicantu, and see the Upper Room and visit the Garden of Gethsemane…
An extra bonus–the Museum of Islamic Art (Thursday, June 30)
One of the hardest things tour guide Brad and tour guide Keryn ran into was the odd hours of every site. For some reason, I was expecting places like churches to be open from, say, 9-5, or maybe 9-4, or something along those lines. And I was expecting the museums to be open till, say,…
Going back in time to the Rockefeller Museum (Thursday, June 30)
After the cave, I drove us all back to our apartment and parked the van (and was very proud of myself doing so, parallel parking not being a strong talent of mine) (okay, it wasn’t quite parallel parking, but sort of pulling into the curb and then shimmying back and forth a bit). Most everyone…
Stalactite Cave Nature Reserve (Thursday, June 30)
On Thursday morning, some of us slept in (LaDonna and Gee), one of us went to tour the Knesset (the Israeli seat of government, like the Capitol Building in DC) (Bradley), and the rest of us (Eva, Zee, Em, Hebs, Yummy, Keryn) went to the Stalactite Cave. This is the cave that Bradley took Zee,…
The Shephelah (Wednesday, June 29)
We’ve been trying to make it to the Shephelah (the “lowlands” or the Judean foothills) since our third week, but circumstances have kept interfering with this. So on Wednesday, we started bright and early to go see the Valley of Elah (David and Goliath), Tel Lachish, and Beit Guvrin National Park. Eva chose to stay…
Repeat Day (Tuesday, June 28)
After an exhausting day of doing new things on Monday, we decided to re-visit some of our favorite Jerusalem sights. Eva didn’t come with us the first time we went to the City of David (that was the day after she fainted, so she rested at home), and Eva and LaDonna didn’t come with us…