A Sunday Drive

It was a gorgeous day here in the Pacific Northwest yesterday. One of those rare days that you really feel lucky living here. A friend had been inviting me to visit her church with her so yesterday morning I got up and drove 30 mins north to Bothell. On my drive back home I was loving the warm, sunny weather and got the itch to just keep driving. I know, I spend hours trapped in a steel tube hurtling though the atmosphere and here I am wanting to spend time in my tiny car. But I made a decision and it was off the to Olympic Peninsula for the afternoon! So I swung by my apartment to thrown on a skirt, spray my left arm with some sunscreen, cause that baby was going to be hanging out the window a lot, grab my camera and I was off. After making a few phone calls to see if anyone wanted to tag along, no, I rolled the windows down, turned the radio up and let the wind blow through my hair. It was awesome. Then I did something unthinkable. I turned my phone OFF! I know right? Crazy stuff. Wait, it gets even crazier, after that I got out my atlas. Remember those things? For you younger readers only familiar with GPS' an atlas is a large collection of maps. A map is a GPS in paper form. I know, archaic, right? But I LOVE maps in general and love tracking my progress during a road trip on the map. So, I've got my map, my peace and quite (well except for the wind roaring by) & my sunshine. Now all I needed was some good tunes. Out came, gack, cd's! It was like taking a road trip in the 90's, I know. I threw in one of the best cd's ever, Maroon 5's Songs About Jane.
So now I am doing superb, very happy and loving life. As I drive on, farther away from Tacoma, I enter part of the state that I haven't been to before. I am stoked to pass over a drawbridge! I love it! I live in a place that has drawbridges! So cool. So I'm puttering along and I keep seeing all these signs for lavender farms: The Purple Scent Lavender Farm, Bob's Lavender Farm, etc. Hum, that sounds interesting, I'll spot at the next one. But in between thinking that and seeing the next sign I realized if I stopped I'm most likely buy some stuff that I didn't need so I kept moving on. Maybe next time.

Now, the one thing that kept coming back to me on this whole 9 hour drive was nostalgia. The landscape make me think of so many places, especially in Montana: Lava Lake, Storm Castle, the entire Gallatin Canyon, the area from Big Sky to West Yellowstone, The Lamar Valley, Hyalite Canyon & Boone, North Carolina. It was amazing. By the time I made it all the way out to Forks,WA I was on an emotional high. Lots of good memories. 
The drive took me up past Bremerton, across to Sequim, to Port Angeles, which was a lot bigger than I was expecting, and down to Forks. I had aspirations of making the whole loop down to Aberdeen and back through Olympia, but I was not ready to be in the car for another 6 hours. So once I got to Forks I turned around and came back. The drive takes you through part of Olympic National Park, around Lake Crescent (which reminded me of Lava Lake) which was beautiful.
For those of you who would care at all that I was in Forks, WA, you know the significance of that little town out in the middle of no where. For the rest of you I will explain and show what a dork I am. Forks is the town that the Twilight books are set in. I'm not ashamed, I am a proud Twilight book fan, movies, there ok, but the books were really, really good. That woman can really write. I know I am not the only one who holed up on my couch for two days straight reading all four books as fast as possible. They are awesome. So here I am in this little town that has sadly been taken over by Twilight mania in a way. I stopped at the Thriftway Grocery store for an apple and a Port Angeles brewed Creme Soda, and even there there was Twilight stuff. But it was just a small little mountain town with super friendly people. I did stop and take a photo for the 'Welcome to Forks" sign. I really felt like a dork then, even though there were about 4 other cars of people doing the same thing. 

But alas, the fun had to come to an end so I turned the car around and heading back home. At Port Angeles I stopped by the water front to try and get a glimpse of the ferry that goes over to Victoria, BC, but it must have been out as I didn't see it. That would be a fun trip, going over on the ferry.

 I also noticed on the way that dungeness crab is super popular over there. There were signs everywhere advertising it. Sadly, none of them seemed to be open on a Sunday night. I also found it odd that as I scanned the radio stations I heard a lot of French stations. Must be a lot of French speakers in the area. I didn't know that. So as I made my way slowly back, enjoying another good album, Dave Matthews Stand Up
And now, the start of something new. At the end of every post I'm going to add a random fact &/or quote. Just for the sake of doing it. Today's we will do both:
Random Fact:
Canning came about after Napoleon offered a cash award of 12,000 francs to any inventor who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food to help feed his army.
Today's Quote:
"I intend to live forever, or die trying." ~Groucho Marx

Manila Recap

Back at home after a 6 day trip to Japan and the Philippines, and a weird red eye Minneapolis turn last night, which caused me to accidentally sleep until 830pm tonight. Sigh, which is why I am posting at 2am. Its almost time for some melatonin.

My trip to Manila was killer! First a little background on the Philippines. It was 'discovered' by Magellan, the first guy to sail around the world, and claimed by Spain in 1521. Spain ruled until the late 1800's when it sold the Philippines to the United States. The people however were ready for independence and a few wars broke out. Japan even occupied the country for a short time in WWII, but eventually in 1946 they were granted their independence. So as you can imagine there is a lot of Spanish influence in the city of Manila. And of course there is some American influence as well. Without offending anyone, I would say that the Philippines aren't very 'Asian' at all. If anything it reminded me of Central America, especially Nicaragua, a lot.
Much more than anywhere else I have been in Asia. I wasn't expecting that at all and it was really interesting. With about 31 hours there we had a whole day to explore. So my fellow FA, Lu, and I went off exploring. As I was hoping to track down a copy of Japanese Rosetta Stone, our first stop was the Greenhills Shopping Center. Kinda like a mall and a flea market met and had a love child, the shopping center is freaking huge! Huge. I am sure there were a lot of things we did not see, Rosetta Stone being one of them. However there was a little fella that came up to us asking if we wanted to buy software, saying he had the 26 languages DVD's for sale. But it just felt to sketcky especially since I know you can get it in Shanghai and it works. So I avoided him. For me getting to Greenhills was fun. We decided to forgo the $5 taxi ride and hop on the metro line. I personally love experiencing public transportation and would much rather use it than a taxi. It was great, got us where we needed to go and we had to walk a little bit to get to Greenhills.

Now here is where I was reminded of an important lesson. As an often solo traveling woman I am often on the defensive and tend to think on the defensive too. (See dad? I am careful.) Meaning that I don't often trust people. At least random people on the street. Remember this story from Tel Aviv about the taxi driver who tried to swindle us? So when we were walking along the street and a torrential downpour broke out, I was hesitant to jump into the back of the Jeepney (similar to a bus), or even a taxi, as I was afraid they would try and charge us a crazy price. But we jumped in the Jeepney anyways and drive about half a mile more to Greenhills. Come to find out, the guy wasn't even going to charge us for the lift! Lu gave him a few US dollars and said he was very pleasantly surprised. Good lesson to be learned, not everyone is out to take advantage of you. (Don't worry Dad, I will still be careful.)

After our shopping adventure, which took a few hours longer than I would have thought, there was just so much stuff to see, we headed to Intermuros, the old Spanish city in Manila, where we checked out the old fort and the cathedral before returning to the hotel for a 2 hour massage, that cost $15. :-0 I actually felt guilty only paying the girl this amount. After the massage we stumbled across the street to get some dinner. We happily found a traditional Filipino desert, the Bibingka, which we tried and loved!
There are so many other things that I would have liked to done, but for our short time there I think we did pretty good. Hopefully there will be another trip there in the near future. But for now I am happy to be going back to Spain on Tuesday, to Malaga. And then next month off to Bangkok and Hong Kong! Loving life.

Live from Manila, it's Saturday Night!

I am sitting in what might be the nicest hotel I have been in before, the Peninsula Hotel, Manila, Philippines. This bed seriously feels like it might swallow me up in softness. I may not get out of it to go sightseeing tomorrow. Ahhh.....zz....zzzzzz...zzz....oh fell asleep there for a second it's so comfy! But before drifting off to dream land, its midnight here on Monday morning, (That's 9am/noon on Sunday for you west/east coasters in the USA.) I wanted to share a cool thing I did today in Narita that I can't believe I hadn't realized to try to do before. I'm on this trip with a fellow FA from Seattle and him and I went to the mall in Narita this morning. It was my first time going there so I was excited to do something new of course. But a mall is mall anywhere you go, but this one had a grocery store in it and let me tell you all, I like to eat on my lay overs. I have to go the most affordable route though and that is usually to the local grocer. Oh my you can get the best stuff there. It can be a little tricky trying to figure out what you are getting, but most items have a nice picture on the box so you can see what you are getting. But the point of this post if that this store was giving out all kinds of samples! Of course! What a great way to try local products! There have been a few times where I have went to Costco and had 'lunch' off the free samples there so why had it not dawned on me to do the same elsewhere? I took advantage and tried some kind of fish with rice, yogurt, cheese, bread. There was all kids of stuff to try! I don't know if they do this everyday, but I am sure I will going back to this grocery store the next time I am in Narita, which is tomorrow, to sample more awesome Japanese goodies. (Still loving Japan more and more each time!) I've now learned the verb for 'to be' and how to say 'I' "How much is that?" "this one" "the bill please" and "that was delicious." (I've been using that one a lot!) I even ordered coffee this morning, all in Japanese! Yea for me! Part of tomorrow's project is looking for Japanese Rosetta Stone. So I'd better start sleeping!

Come on Down! The Price is Right!

Oh my goodness! Today was one of the most fun times I have had on a flight. Let me set the scene up for you. For a few months now I have been wanting to fly with a fun crew on a domestic trip. I don't tend to do a lot of domestic to begin with and when I do it is often with people who aren't to keen on getting outside of the box. I have been wanting to be with people who wanted to spice up the flight with fun announcements, game show host style! (Why, I don't know.) So today I got my chance! At first I was not happy about this trip. I was on call for 3 days and they called me to do a 6am deadhead to Salt Lake City, a 1 hour and 20 min flight, sit there for 2 hours and come right back to Seattle. So I technically only worked for 1 hour and 20 mins today. For my readers not familiar with flight attending work, this is a HORRIBLE trip!  But the silver lining was I got back to Seattle with plenty of time to go to cosmic bingo! Ok, so my coworkers today were super excited to do game show host announcements too! I was so happy! So here the 4 of us are at 9am in SLC eating some orange chicken from the Manchu Wok, pretty sleep deprived and a bit loopy, practicing our game show host voices. People were definitely staring.
We get on board and Al, my fellow FA has a stroke of genius. "Let's download the "The Price is Right" theme song and play it over the PA!" I loved it! So we get our 1:04 min The Price is Right theme music ready. Al was going to be a 'Barker Beauty'/Vanna White to my Bob Barker/Alex Trebek. We were like school kids on a sunny day in June we were so ready for the passengers.
The time comes, we're in flight ready to make our main cabin service announcement,  I get out the music and start to play it over the P.A.. People are quite confused. Their faces were priceless. Al comes running up from about mid cabin waving his arms in the air like a contestant on The Price is Right as I'm making my announcement for him to 'come on down.' In today's 'showcase' we had Coke products, sodas and juices, modeled Barker Beauty style by Al up and down the aisle. For our health conscious passengers we offered, "zero calories, healthy water.' Coffee and tea were followed by a very quick 'fine print' type voice that you hear on commercials. "Coffee and Tea are available on today's flight. This service is valid on the entire flight. We will give substitutions and give refills." Ect. ect. All spoken is a very quick voice I am guessing no one understood.
Then we moved onto the Jeopardy portion of the flight. Al was give a category, 'Onboard Amenities" and the clue: Peanuts, Pretzels and Cookies. He had to give the the correct answer, in the form of a question of course. "What are our choices for today's onboard complimentary snack?" Good job Al! Next, a tougher challenge awaited. "The answer is $7." The passengers really liked when Al acted like he was thinking really hard about it. "What is the price of liquor and wine?" he says with an unsure tone of voice. Very good Al! People are into it now, especially those in the rows closest to us. Then for our last 'game', Name That Price." we were going to do a 'higher'/'lower' type game, but when I asked "How much are our snack boxes and beer?" The man in the first row raised his hand to answer! So we got some passenger participation going! It was great fun and the people seemed to really enjoy it. We ended with a simple, "This can all be yours, if the price is right!"  Now if we could only get them to pay attention to the safety video as well!
(Look for us on youtube!) 

Random Event and Shamless Plug

I completly forgot to metion something super random that happend while I was in Osaka this week. I was up in the crew room checking my email and I had a facebook message from an old friend from college. The message? "Did you fly through Osaka a few hours ago?" "Um, yes," I said, "Did you see me at the airport?" Turns out he had seen me at the airport as I was arriving!! How crazy and a small world is that? I always hope that I see someone I know on a flight, but so far that hasn't happened, so this is the closest I have gotten to that. Crazy huh?
I also wanted to take this time to promote my new 'business', passport covers! I was looking for a cover a few weeks ago and couldn't really find any with a travel theme. They seemed easy enough to make so I thought I would give it a try and make a few to sell as a side project. I am always dipping my hands into something new to do. Hats, coffee, baked goods, I like to try everything. I think my life would be so boring for me if I didn't. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.
So be sure and check out my site, its on ETSY.
www.passportcoverskygirl.etsy.com
I've got more ideas and will be working on them in the weeks to come if I am not flying. So check back often for new covers!

Narita Fun and How to Fight Jet Lag

I just woke up from my 5 hour nap after returning from my 6 day Asia trip at 5:30 this morning. I am amazed at how awake I feel, more on that in a few paragraphs. I tried desperately to get rescheduled while I was over there, calling our scheduling department 2 times at each stop, but no luck for me. I'll get rescheduled when I don't want to be. C'est la vie. But I did have some great experiences while I was there. Besides my awesome language encounter, I was able to check out Narita, Japan for the first time. Narita is about 40 miles outside of Tokyo and houses one of two airports serving the Tokyo area. The other one, Haneda, is closer to the city but doesn't serve as much traffic as Narita. Basically, if you are going to Japan for a visit, there wouldn't be a lot of reasons for you to stay in Narita, but if you are there for a 24 hour period it can provide a lot of entertainment. One thing that I was able to do was go to the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple which is a huge complex!

I had no idea how large it was when I went. It was a temple complex that feels like a park. It is set in the woods with beautiful ponds, teeming with koi and turtles, all around. And of course, there are temples. I spent an hour there just walking around and could have stayed longer. A few times a day they do a Goma, sacred fire ritual, in one of the temples. A Buddhist priest burns goma sticks in an offering to Fudomyoo, the main deity at the temple. Everything is in Japanese so be prepared to not understand anything, unless of course you read Japanese, but that didn't take away from the experience and beauty of the complex.

If you are in Nartia airport and want to get out and do something on a long sit you can take a train from the airport to Narita station. From there it is an easy 10-20 min walk to the temple down a street that has shops, food stores, cafes and restaurants. If you are lucky you may run into some Spaniards in a shop and get to practice your Spanish with them as I did. :-)


Now I thought I would share some tips for jet jag. I don't know if my body is just use to changing time zones now, but I don't get jet lag that bad anymore. Here's what I do.
#1 Stay up during the day!! This is super important. If you need to take a nap that's ok, but gage accordingly. I normally go to bed around 1am and get up at 10am so for me, if I get home at 7am I will nap until about 12 or 1pm then stay up until night time. But if I get in after noon then I may only take a 2 hour nap or even just power though and stay up till bed time. But the key is to not sleep during most of the day, no matter how hard it is.
#2 If you listened to #1 you should have no trouble falling asleep, but if you do take some melatonin. Some people say it doens't work for them, but for me it works great Melatonin is what you body produces naturally to tell you to go to sleep. Taking it helps tell your body it's sleepy time.
#3 Use an eyeshade and ear plugs if need be. I do this when I am not jet lagged, but it helps you to sleep more soundly. Remember, naturally, people are suppose to sleep when its dark and not around all this man made noise.
#4 Coffee, Tea and Vitamins B are your friends, but remember they can affect your sleep even if you are exhausted, so its best not to consume a lot of caffine a few hours before getting your 8+ hours of rest.
#5 Exercise, out in the sunshine if possible! Working out on a layover always helps me do better than the times I don't.
#6 Drink water! You should do this anyways, but it helps a lot too!

If none of these are working out for you, I'm sorry, but Netflix has a lot of great options for watching at 3 in the morning!
Sweet Dreams!

Lost in Traslation

I am seriously falling in love with Japan. Every time I come here I like it more and more. I am to the point now that I am thinking about learning some serious Japanese. And after a few events today, I think I need to. I must get these stories into blog form while they are still fresh in my head. I hope they come across as funny as there were in real life, but they may have a 'you had to be there' feel to them. OK here goes. I like to be able to communicate with people in their own language. I hate the idea that you can assume people speak English, especially when you are in THEIR own country. I have to learn how to at least say 'I don't speak ______.' I struggled with that one in Hebrew, man that's a tough language. But I know it in Japanese and I am learning more and more phrases every trip. Anyways, our interpreter on our flight today is awesome. I've flown with her before and she is super. She is great with helping me learn Japanese phrases. Today I mastered 'What would you like to drink?' and learned how to say 'It's occupied' for when people inevitably try and go in the bathroom when there is someone in there already. I love practicing on people. They appreciate it and it helps me learn. The only problem comes when you start talking in Japanese, people think you speak it and if they don't say something to me that I know, ie: water, coffee, tea, I get lost and then have to use my other phrases: "I'm sorry." "I don't understand." "I don't speak Japanese." It can be a little embarrassing telling someone you don't speak Japanese right after you spoke to them IN Japanese. But I digress. Story number one takes place during a beverage service. I was at a row with this young Japanese couple, who, if they spoke English, didn't let on that they did. So In my best Japanese I asked "Ono mi mo no wa?' They said "Kohi" (coffee) and "apple". OK, I got those two words down, especially since one was in English. So I got the coffee and gave it to the man. I then asked him, in Japanese, if he wanted sugar or creme. He looked at the coffee, then at me and said: "Hot Kohi?" (But imagine the ho in 'hot' sounds like the ho in 'ho ho ho'). I was a bit confused, I thought he was trying to say in English: "Hot Coffee?" Not knowing how to respond in Japanese, or English for that matter, I shook my head and repeated in my perfect Japanese "kohi." His response, "Hot Kohi?" My response, "Hai (yes), kohi." We did this back and forth a few times. I was quite confused. Did he want something besides sugar or creme? Was this 'hot' word a Japanese word I didn't know? Did I misunderstand them and he wanted 'coke'? I thought that might be it so I tried to take the cup away from him, but he kept hold of it, so no, not wanting a coke. So at this point I am thoroughly embarrassed at my horrible Japanese skills and Misa is not close by to ask for help. So I sadly say, "sorry, sorry, sorry" and go on my way, a bit more leery to use my 20 word Japanese vocabulary. When I see Misa nearby a few mins later I flag her down and ask for help. Can she help me figure out what the guy wanted? We head over there and they start talking in Japanese, looking at me, pointing to the coffee cup. I'm dying to know what happened as I stand there looking like an idiot. Turns out he WAS saying 'hot coffee'. He was wanting to be sure it wasn't coke, but coffee. So it turns out he was saying exactly what he needed to be and I was hearing it, but I couldn't make it work in my head. So I felt silly, the guy and girl felt bad that I needed to call the interpreter over to help with nothing and I left the row as red of my pocket square. Fail #1. At least they were nice about it and laughed, albeit at my expense, but that's OK.
Story #2 takes places as I am trying, very excitedly I must add, to use my new phrase: "It's occupied." A lady, in Japanese appearance, came up to the lav door and pushed on it. I said in English "Someone is in there." and then remembered I had the phase written in Japanese on my cheat sheet. I proudly and excitedly pulled it out and proceeded to inform her, in Japanese that it is occupied. Her response to me? In perfect, non accented English: "Well, is there someone in the other one?" Fail #2, getting excited about talking to someone in Japanese, that doesn't speak it. Oh, what a good trip. But I had more wins than losses so to speak. Most people got the drink they wanted. And I was able to order gyoza in Japanese when we got here and was even able to ask if they had pork in them. So I'm doing ok, but got a long ways to go.
But now, since it is 3:50am in Seattle, I am off for my routine soak in the tub here, which is AMAZING, before continuing on to Guam then Narita tomorrow. More time to practice! Sayonara for now!

Ballard Nights

Consider this an extended segment of the post Check Out Your Own Backyard as it takes place in Ballard, a neighborhood in northwest Seattle. I haven't experienced much of the Seattle night life, since I don't actually live in the city itself. I usually end up in the Tacoma area when I go out and about around here. But last night a friend of mine invited me to join in on a birthday celebration at a bar/club/restaurant in Ballard. I was intrigued, having never been to Ballard before, and my friend is awesome so I said of course! First things first, I Googled Ballard to see if I even knew where it was. I was pretty close, maybe one neighborhood away. The place that we were going too is called BalMar an unique urban space that has a lounge vibe to it. Located in the heart of Ballard at the corner of Ballard Ave and Market St., which I'm guessing is where the Bal Mar name comes from, they offer drinks, food and dancing (Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights). It was packed! Apparently, word on the street was that it is the only spot in Ballard for dancing and plenty of people were taking advantage of it. After awhile it was like trying to breathe on a hot, muggy Louisianan night in August. I should have worn that skirt I was contemplating instead of pants. But it was still a fun time. The crowd was very young and there was good people watching, i.e. ladies, there were quite a few cute, young fellas in the crowd. The night ended on a good note, for me anyways, I can't say the same for one couple that was part of the celebration, they broke up at the bar! Ouch, not the best way to end the evening, but I guess you never know what might happen on a Ballard night.

Salt and Water, Salt and Water, Salt and Water

Today’s post is coming to you from 35,000ft. On an Airbus 320 from Detroit to Seattle there isn’t a whole lot to do but read, look out the window, sleep.  But, if you have your own technology do what you normally would do anyways. So, I thought it the perfect time to get my post written so I’ll be ready for more sitting around when I get back to Seattle. :-) Hopefully though with this being June 1st and the start of our summer flying, sitting around will be a thing of the past! I’m crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.
This past week I haven’t been sitting around though! I was off to Israel! My friend, whom I'll call Fry, works with my airline and was cool enough to have me tag along on his trip! My first time in the middle east and it was spectacular! I was only in Tel Aviv and the very close old city of Jaffa, but it was enough to get me itching for more. Sadly, the free day that we had there was on the Sabbath, so people told us would shouldn’t waste our time going over to Jerusalem, which was a hour away, because everything would be closed. But not to fear there was a lot to do in TLV and we did a lot!

Upon arrival at the hotel most of the crew dashed to change clothes and run over to the Carmel Market, the biggest market in the city, which was only a few blocks from the hotel. With our precious hours of daylight fading, everything closes at sunset for shabbat diner, we hurriedly tried to maneuver the market and all its treasures. Food was everywhere! Olives, pita, fruits, veggies, baklava, fish, dried fruit (from a lady who tried to rip you off). A fresh smoothie had to be consumed and it was delish! I was reminded of an important lesson, always look at your change. I didn’t do this and some lady gypped me out of 20 shekels, about $7! Less talking and more paying attention!
After enjoying a gyro made with the traditional stuffing of chips, or french fries for us Americans, we moseyed our way back to the hotel just enjoying the street sights. It was a sunny day and the beach was calling our name so a lounge by the Mediterranean was very much in order. It was apparently calling other people by their names too, the beach was packed.

 When we got there the sun was hiding behind some clouds that were sneaking in on the fierce wind that had started to blow. It didn’t take to long to get covered with sand. But can there really be such a thing as a bad day at the beach? NO! After a chat, where I found out one of the crew members commutes from Sydney(!), a swim, burying Fry in the sand and an encounter with a local kite surfer, we dusted off our towels and went back to the hotel. It wasn’t long till some of the crew gathered for a ‘debriefing’. After a few adult beverages 6 of us went in 1 taxi to a club that ended up being easily within walking distance of the hotel. Our taxi driver proceeded to try and get us to pay 120 shekels, or $35 for a 3 min cab ride, it seriously was that close. An argument ensued and the word police was thrown around and for a second I thought I might end up in the Israeli police station that night. All ended well, with us paying only 60 shekels which was still too much. We dance our troubles away and said goodnight to the day as the sun was rising on the next.


After a long 5 hour sleep Fry and I headed over to the old city of Jaffa, which was a beautiful walk down the boardwalk along side the Mediterranean. What sights there were to behold! There were fishermen, families, a man washing his horse in the sea and a fella sitting on a couch blasting Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in front of a falling down building the had mannequin parts hanging from it. That one we couldn’t figure out.
After spending the afternoon waltzing around Jaffa, eating ice cream, breads, caramel bananas, taking photos and just enjoying the day we returned to the hotel to lounge by the pool. Since Fry had to actually work on the flight back to JFK he had to take a quick nap while I caught the sun set and enjoyed the last moments of the trip.
I can not wait for a chance to go back! Israel was a diverse, fun, cultural place that has so much to offer. I had never really comprehended how much there is to see there. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Galilee, the Dead Sea, Tel Aviv. Its a great country and all within half a days drive of everything! I learned some fun facts too:
According to an Israeli superstition, if a bee is trying to get you all you need to do is say "Salt and Water" three times. I tried this out in East Tennessee yesterday and it worked great!
Cherry Tomatoes, Skype and Rummikub are all from Israel.
The glue on Israeli stamps is kosher!

I could go on and on but will hold myself back. Bottom line, if you have a chance to go to Israel, do it!
Shalom Shalom (Peace be with you)

Next for sure adventure: Malaga at the end of June!!