Reminiscing… Part 1

The last few weeks I’ve been thinking about our families trip to the Middle East… Egypt and Israel. I’ve never had such an experience like we had those 19 days.

Remembering being sleep deprived those first couple of days and glad for that frame of mind, driving down roads in Egypt that held too many cars (and camels and more then three people on a motorbike), people selling their souvenirs and not taking no for a answer.

I’ve gazed in a secured area the gold mask of King Tut in the Cairo Museum… and cried. Yes, I can admit that. It reminded me of my family who all had dreamed of visiting the land of the Pharaoh's. My mom who passed away to early, my grandparents, Jack and Eleanor, who I miss and my uncle Tim who just recently joined them. They gave me a love of ancient Egypt when the left me home as a curious little girl, the four of them going up to Seattle to see it in person. I even as a high schooler had wanted to be an Egyptologist.

Being so afraid to eat anything in Egypt. My cousin had been a help with do’s and don’ts and remembering our guide telling us gently that it was okay to eat at the places that he took us to at lunch. But at night when we were so tired from jet lag, we’d eat the protein bars that I had hidden away in our carry-ons.

Walking around various sites around Israel and seeing young men and women, serving their country, and willing to smile for the camera when asked if we could take their pictures. Seeing those same men and women run around a Tank Museum and memorial doing a “scavanger hunt” for their history lesson of Israel.

Walking around the ciites of Tel Aviv and Herzliya and realizing how modern they really are.

Our first time venturing out on our own to find a meal in Israel, when where we chose to go didn’t have a menu in English and our waitress was more fluent in Hebrew then English. We ordered burgers and bottled cokes. It was the easiest thing to order.

Everywhere we went all they served was coke products! We were so tired of coke that we made a stop on our way to the Galilee and the coffee shop had bottled Pepsi!! We were going to stand in line for however long it took to buy those drinks!

Seeing sites that were still left as they were after suicide bombers were there in the early 2000. One that will stick in my mind was a hangout for teens. They had left it damaged, not repairing it the way that they had fixed other buildings up.