Fun Day but Swell is Crying

So today was a nice day. We left early in the morning to drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. We arrived at the hotel that G was to stay at with her tour group. We were too early for her to check in so she dropped her luggage in the hold room and we went out walking. We walked along the Mediterranean and we walked and walked. We were blessed to see many a man in a speedo. Swell and G were quite excited as they laughed and turned their heads from the obese men wearing very little spandex.

We walked all the way from the hotel to Jaffa where we ran into G's tour group quite on accident. The majority of them arrived in Israel this morning and they immediately went to Jaffa. We didn't hang out with them because there isn't much to see in Jaffa and they were just going for lunch. We went for lunch on our own and then for ice cream. Quite a treat - but extremely expenisve. What it costs for Hummus here we can buy a whole meal for three in Nablus and still get change back.

With our hotel costs and our driver cost we're going to be in the poor house after this weekend. Its not a big deal because we won't leave Nablus again until its time to go to South Africa.

So we had lunch and then started our long walk home (probably about 5 km each way). We stopped at the beach, we cried over our sore legs but all in all it was a good time. G and Swell had a good cry when it was time to say goodbye. Seeing someone from home (even though they haven't seen each other in a year and a half - it's a long way from Maui to Atlanta) made Swell very homesick. She'll get over it but it was a difficult goodbye for them. Now G. gets to listen to an expert in all things Israel and bible for the next 10 days while we get to go back to work and hope that the weather begins to turn warmer.

I'll leave you with some pictures from yesterday and a question. First the question (I know the preceding sentence would indicate that the pictures would come first but I've made an executive decision and the question will come first - deal with it).

Question: "Was it in bad taste that the three of us sat in the lobby of a hotel in the heart of Tel Aviv - the biggest city in Israel - with Jewish people all around us and played pass the pig?"

Pictures:

Some of Nablus as seen through a speeding van





Old guy celebrating a Bar Mitzvah (the presumably American kids from yesterday - I think this guy was hired to lead the whole thing)





The three of us in front of Damascus gate at Old Jerusalem