They arrived the last day of the Eco-Israel program, February 10, 2011. So I just hopped on the train to the airport to pick them up and brought them back to the farm to meet the Ecos that were left, then went to sleep in Jerusalem to start our trip the next day. We stayed at Abraham Hostel right next to Mahane Yehuda Market and ended up staying right down the hall from Lauren and Jared, and Liz and Ryan! How crazy? How fun!
We spent the first 3 days in Jerusalem.
We started off in Mahane Yehuda market, which
I don't think my mom or aunt liked very much because they aren't used to being bumped and pushed around in the market. But they did find a few interesting candies to buy.Then we went to Hadassah Hospital to see
the Chagall Windows but went to the Mt. Scopus hospital and saw the Tree of Life instead. Oops...After that we went back to the farm
to see it in the day time and do some cooking. I really wanted them to see where I'd been living for the past 5 months.And all the vegetables we'd grown...
And Max in front of his prize purple bean pods, lol...
Next day, into the Old City!
We went into the Tower of David, which was pretty interesting to me because even after all the times I've been to Israel and even this time I was there for 5 months already, I'd never been to the Tower of David. It's an excavated area right by Jaffa gate that you can go up on to the walls of the tower and over look the old city to the Mt. of Olives and to the other parts of Jerusalem.
Aunt Ceil had Uncle Danny's little Eyor stuffed animal
that he used to take with him when he went overseas because of the Army. So she got a picture of it kissing the walls inside the old city.
We walked around the old city all day. And went to
the Kotel.They even had a little extra energy to do some
shopping and go out for dinner at night.The 3rd day we did more history touristy stuff. Har Hertzl in the morning.
And we even got to see the President from East Timor walking through the cemetery. 
and then walked over to Yad Vashem in the afternoon.
The exit to Yad Vashem overlooks the Jerusalem Hills.
And we found the right Hadassah Hospital
at Ein Kareem to see the Chigall Windows. My mom was happy at that.The next day we left Jerusalem, at not so early in the morning,
for the Dead Sea. On the way we stopped at an arab market in the desert and bought some little souvenirs.First we went up to Masada, King Herod's fortress on top of the
mountain by the Dead Sea, the Jews last stand against the Romans and where they eventually commit suicide before the Romans overtook them.
We took the car up and I walked the snake path back down.
And since we were right next to the
Dead Sea we stopped to touch the water for a min.
