We are in Israel...but what day is it?

This is Wednesday night.  I say that more to convince myself than to inform you readers.  My brain is slightly fried.  But, let's rewind to Tuesday morning.

We had figured out what we thought was a rather clever plan to get to the airport.  Olen and I had a flight out at 10:00, but Barry, Tabatha and Jacob did not leave until an hour and a half later.  We decided to hire Bailey to take us to the airport, drive back home, and pick up the others and take them.  We told him he could be our chauffer for the day, and he agreed.  What we did not take into consideration is how creative teenagers can be.  When I opened my door early Tuesday morning there stood our chauffer dressed for his job holding the car keys.  So, we all rode to the airport in style!  I just love teenagers!

The Chandlers and Davises were on the same flight we were on from Huntsville to Charlotte.  We arrived in Charlotte and set our watches ahead a hour.  Our next stop was JFK in New York.  Since there was not time for lunch in Charlotte, we ate a mid-afternoon lunch in New York, then sat down for a long wait until we could take our next flight.  Members of our tour group began arriving one by one and we all passed the long evening visiting with each other.

Midway through the evening we got disappointing news.  The flight Becky, Mckenna and Austin were scheduled to take out of their connection in Washington had been cancelled.  Emails and text messages began flying back and forth from the nation's capitol to the Big Apple.  Apparently no solution was readily available, causing the group to have to spend the night in Washington, and of course miss the overseas flight with the rest of the group.  A sad moan went out from the group in New York, and I imagine even nore grief was expressed in Washington.  The final decision was that the group would fly to New York Wednesday morning and plead with Delta Airlines to help them get to Tel Aviv.

Our flight (on a huge airplane with about 400 passengers)  boarded early for a near-midnight departure to Tel Aviv.  

Once we were settled on the plane we set our watches to 6:05 AM on Wednesday instead of the "real" time of 11:05 PM on Tuesday.  Now all we had to do was to convince out brains and stomachs that the time displayed on our watches was really the real time!

About an hour into the flight we were served "dinner"...the timing of which did not match up with either the "real" time or the time displayed on our watches.  It was a restless night, to say the least.  No one sleeps well sitting up.  Then "breakfast" was served when we were somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea...at 4 PM local time.  My watch said, "Breakfast??? You are kidding!"  But my stomach said, "Bring it on!" Now our stomaches and sleep-patterns were totally confused!

Soon it was time to land and the pilot announced, "Welcome to Tel Aviv."  He then said that it was hot in Tel Aviv and gave the temperature in celsius.  Someone near me translated.  It was 102!  We are thankful for our air conditioned tour bus.  When we collected the checked luggage, the only bag that did not arrive...Malcolm's.  The rest of us went on to the bus while Malcolm and Barry filled out the necessary papers to locate the bag and get it caught up with the tour group.  So far we are missing three people and one suitcase.  Not bad in the great scheme of things, I guess.  Malcolm, always the comedian, finally got on the bus and told everyone it would be ok.  In a few weeks he could go to Scottosboro and buy back his bag at the Unclaimed Luggage store there.

We met our guide, Gus, and were happy to see that our friend, Fawzie, would be our bus driver for the tour.  Fawzie had driven buses for Elie's tours in the past, and seeing him brought back sweet memories.

As we headed toward our hotel Barry announced a news flash.  Becky had just sent him and email saying that they were in New York, and Delta had managed to get then on the Wednesday night flight, so they will catch up with our group a day late.  Applause went up from the group.

We are at a lovely hotel on the Mediterranean Sea tonight.  We have a view of the Mediterranean from the balcony of our room, but we arrived late and the skies are hazy, so my photo is not the best.  However, since it IS a photo from our balcony overlooking the Medditerranean Sea, I wanted to post it anyway. 

Before we left the bus this evening Barry told us that the list of priorities for tonight:  1. eat dinner 2. hot showers 3. sleep.  So, I plan to sign off at this point and work on my assigned priority list.  

Until tomorrow...