Choices, consequences and rewards

Whenever we make a choice in life, we are eliminating all of the other possible choices.  By leaving on this tour of Israel on Monday, I automatically eliminated other choices for that day.  Sadly, one choice was an event I would loved to have participated in, but such is life.  A young lady I had known since birth, someone I had traveled with to Ecuador, Italy and other sites, chose that day for her wedding day.  I was sad when I realized the conflict, but there are choices in life.  My thoughtful husband realized I was conflicted over the events of the day, so he attended the wedding, and took photos for me.  Through his thoughtfulness and the marvels of the digital age, I was able to share in the event by long-distance.

This same electronic wonder enables me to write and send daily blog posts back to the U.S. From the other side of the world.  We live in an exciting time.  The first long trip I took was from Florida to California in 1952 was in a vehicle that was built before they learned how to air-condition cars.  It took six weeks to make the journey and our only communication with friends and loved ones was when we picked up extremely outdated mail at a few stops where we had mail sent to us through "general delivery".  With cell phones, texting, e-mail, etc., today we are able to stay in close contact with our loved ones even when we may be oceans apart, which is the current situation.

Our departure day was Columbus Day, which struck me as fairly ironic.  On the day we honor the explorer who sailed from east to west and mistakenly discovered the continent we live on, we travel from west to east.  Monday's view as we flew into New York City was particularly clear for the area, giving us an excellent view of the Freedom Tower.  Once in New York it began to sink in that we were actually on our way to Israel.

I am seriously missing Olen on this trip, but I plan to experience everything and view everything I see for both of us.  The trip has barely begun and I am already thankful that each of the travelers in our group has come into my life.  The world is full of delightful people who can enrich our lives, and group travel  definitely opens up our world to people I would not have met otherwise.  Such a blessing!  In the days to come I hope to give you a glimpse into the lives and personalities of some of these people.

The trip thus far has been rather uneventful, which is just perfect when you are traveling in a 747 covering 6000+ miles over a major ocean.  I spent the night sitting fairly upright attempting to dodge a Yamaka-headedd perfect stranger spilling over from the next seat.  He obviously thought the seat-dividing armrest and several inches on my side of it was a part of his personal property.  However, I was able to set a personal record for this trip by actually getting a little sleep.  I am a chronic can't-sleep-on-planes person.  Now I have a system!  I brought a blow-up beach ball (cost a whole buck at Dollar General!). When I began to get sleepy and could not get comfortable, I blew up that sucker and placed it on my tray table.  By placing my head on the beach ball I was able to rest my head at a comfortable angle and get a few minutes of sleep.  Sometimes the simple solutions are the best!  You can laugh all you want.  It worked!

We landed in Tel Aviv about an hour late, which was understandable since our plane left JFK an hour late.  Unfortunately, with this delay we were not able to view the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea to welcome us to Israel.  We trust we will have other opportunities.  We now have all of our tour members present in one place and all luggage arrived on the same plane!  Cheers from the group.

We met our guide, Gus, and our driver, Fawzie, then we loaded the bus and headed to Netanya for the night.  After the long plane ride and sitting in the darkness, the group was slightly unattentive to the information Barry and Gus gave the group on the way to Netanya.  We did understand where to go in the hotel for dinner, and dinner did not take long.  Everyone has returned to the proper room with sleep the primary goal for the evening.

So, the adventure has begun!  We have the long plane ride behind us, the proper introductions have been made, and we are all preparing for the wake-up call at 6 AM (breakfast at 7, on the bus by 8) so we can begin our sightseeing.  I promise to post more photos tomorrow.  There simply was not much to take photos of today, and, not surprisingly, no one wanted their photo taken after the long plane ride.

From a tired bunch of people enjoying a restful night in a lovely hotel in Israel...goodnight.