The Land of Milk and Honey

On the Palm Sunday Road into Jerusalem

Hi all,
I had the good fortune to take a business trip to Israel as part of the acquisition of the company I work for, Merced, by an Israeli software company called NICE Systems. I went and spent the week in Tel Aviv for the Global Sales Kickoff, and also had a chance to visit Jerusalem while there! In sum: Amazing. As in the "Amazing Grace" kind of Amazing.

South Tel Aviv

View from the hotel room

I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel along with a couple dozen of my colleagues from the USA, right on the Mediterranean promenade in Tel Aviv. Got a couple of nice runs in along the coast.

Old Jaffa

One of the afternoons we had a team building exercise with some of the other folks from around the world. It was a combination of scavenger hunt and team building activities such as drumming, chess, and cooking in and around the old town of Jaffa.

Alleyways in the old town

Jaffa port waterfront

Challenging the expert at chess...and losing!

Cooking Shakshuka - a delicious tomato and egg concoction

Then on Friday we had a company tour to Jerusalem. It was such an Amazing (see above) experience, when we had some additional free time before the flight on Saturday I went back for some more Grace!!

Temple (right), City of David (foreground), Old City (left)

I won't recount everything, but we started at the Israeli Museum, seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls and observing a scale model of Old Jerusalem to help get our bearings. It is amazing to imagine what the Temple there must have looked like!

Herod's Second Temple

Temple Mount with Al-Aqsa Mosque

 We then went to the Western Wall on the Temple Mount. The history of this spot is incredible, and the source of an unbelievable amount of holiness and strife. Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount

Western (Wailing) Wall

We were allowed to go into the sacred area wearing yarmulkes, and the tradition is to write a prayer on a piece of paper and wedge it in the wall somewhere. I didn't get a good picture of this, but because this section of the wall is closest to where the Holy of Holies used to be when the Temple was still standing, God actually is there.

Of course now the Dome of the Rock stands on the site of the old Temple; this is the spot where Mohammed went up to heaven to meet with Moses and Jesus. Talk about some serious holiness!

Dome of the Rock (background), Western Wall (foreground)

Damascus Gate

We also spent some time walking around the Old City, from the Western Wall to Damascus Gate. The streets are super-narrow and packed with people.

Market on Main Street: Souk Khan El-Zeit

Hommos and Falafel with fresh, I mean FRESH, bread

I could spend weeks just sampling the bread!

 

Once in a while, Israeli soldiers would walk past

Under the street level, remains of the old Roman roads can be seen here and there.

Then we saw many of the Christian sites, starting with the Mount of Olives.

View up the hill with 2000-year-old olive trees

We walked up the hill for the view of the city, and to see the Chapel of the Ascension: where Jesus ascended. His footprint still can be seen in the bedrock!

Then we descended down the Palm Sunday Road, where Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem so long ago. Now the Dome of the Rock stands on the site of the Temple, but from the model you can imagine what a sight this must have been!







Further down we visited the Church of St. Mary Magdelene, the home of the Russian Orthodox church. It is situated in a beautiful garden on the mountainside, in the cool shade and off the busy streets.

Continuing down the road at the bottom of the hill is the Garden of Gesthemane and the Church of All Nations, where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion.These trees are >2000 years old and would have stood witness to Jesus' prayers.

Inside the Church of All Nations - Domes of Mosaic

Mosaic of the same

The rock Jesus prayed on in Gesthemane

Entrance to Mary's Tomb

Finally, at the very bottom of the Mount of Olives, is Mary's tomb.

Next, we walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross. This also happens to include the fourteen Stations of the Cross - not the figurative ones, but the ACTUAL route Christ walked the day of his crucifixion.

Ceiling of the Chapel marking the spot where Pilate sentenced Jesus

Wall Jesus leaned against along the Way

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Stairway to Golgotha

The actual rock of Golgotha

Altar on the site of the Crucifixion

Down the stairs again, mosaic above the Stone of Unction

The spot where Jesus' body was embalmed

The Tomb where Jesus was buried and rose again

Into the Sherut, private buses driven by Arabs on the Sabbath

Overall, an Amazing trip. Every Christian, Jew, and Muslim should visit Jerusalem. It is a dynamic, spiritual, and richly cultural city that could become the symbol of Grace for man, instead of division and strife...

Baseball and Basketball

Hi all!

Well, after a month or so of holidays and school, Carson's sports season started up again, now with basketball, and Pony League baseball tryouts this week!






Carson is having a great time playing basketball, improving his shooting and dribbling skills. He had a great game today where he was voted MVP due to his great defensive play, many steals and a couple of blocked shots.

Earlier this morning Carson and I went out to the Pony tryouts, which are run by the coaches in preparation for the player draft. The kids go through sprints, hitting in the batting cage, fielding grounders and fly balls, and pitching. Carson saw several of his buddies from last year's team; hopefully he'll be able to play with some of them again, we'll see...in any case it was an absolutely gorgeous day: warm, sunny, and calm.

It's sports time! Can't wait for the season to start!

Hope everyone's well!

Screams and Shouts in Santa Cruz

Hi all, 

With the three-day holiday weekend I have time to do two blog posts! Woo hoo!

Today Mary Beth took me and the kids out to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for an afternoon of rides, corn dogs, and cotton candy. The weather has been gorgeous for about 6 weeks straight, and the day didn't disappoint.

Here are some highlights - Maggie was finally tall enough for the Giant Dipper, but we couldn't convince Carson to join us, reminding me of myself when Mary Beth went on the Demon at Great America back in the '70's, and I was too chicken to go!

Sounds like rain may be moving in this week, so maybe we'll get some skiing in this year after all!

Lots of love and until next time!

Tossing rings into the clown's mouth - we had a few hits!

Mary Beth and Maggie in the second row!

Mary Beth and Maggie swinging high!

Mary Beth, Maggie, and Carson swinging higher!

Carson on the Carousel

Happy New Year 2012

Hi all,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope you've all been able to enjoy time together to celebrate the birth of our Savior and also time with family and loved ones. We count ourselves as truly fortunate to be able to enjoy company in a warm house with good food and happy children!
Santa was good to us this year, Carson even remarking it was "like a dream" and Maggie continually crowing about her "lucky tooth", which came out on Christmas Eve! I wonder if the Tooth Fairy and Santa ran into each other..."strangers in the night...doo doo bi doo bi doo"...
















Highlights were Carson's Nintendo 3DS and Maggie's Ride on Pony, Butterscotch.

































After presents, we went out for a walk in Rancho San Antonio park, it was a beautiful day, and pretty much has been for the past 6 weeks or so! The lack of rain has begun to cause concern around here due to 1) lack of snow for skiing and 2) drought. But we still have time to get some storms so hopefully we'll catch up...





Then I made some seared foie gras as an appetizer and Annett made a delicous roast beef and popovers for dinner! MMMM!









The day after Christmas we packed up and headed for the Sierra, where we rented a ski house for a week. We had almost everyone in the family join us: Bob and Elisabeth, Julie and Shan, Mary Beth, Melissa, Chris, and Kylah. The house had a nice big dining room table we could all sit around, so that was the main highlight!





We did actually manage a couple half-days of skiing at nearby Heavenly Valley, although almost all the snow was man-made and eerily like East Coast skiing! But at least the weather and views were beautiful, and lines scarce!







The cousins had a great time playing together.











Due to the lack of snow for skiing, we took the opportunity to do some hiking, both near our ski house and also in the Desolation Wilderness near Emerald Bay.

Also, right out the door of the house and up the street about a quarter mile, there was a very pleasant fire road and trail heading up the hill toward Freel Peak (10,800 ft) and Star Lake. One afternoon I decided to see if I could make it to the lake and back in 3 hours. I think the distance was about 6 miles each way, but the sun set quickly and the snow covered the trail so I had to give up before finding the lake.



The views of Lake Tahoe in the evening light were beautiful!

And then I got to come home to a delicious Paella that Annett prepared for New Year's Eve!

Gingerbread houses were built.























Annett's birthday was Jan 6th so we celebrated with an Oma-made cake.

And finally, one of the biggest gifts for me (and hopefully the kids) was that the playhouse is (finally) finished! The weather continues to be absolutely gorgeous here, warm and sunny (but no rain or snow in the Sierra) and perfect for running around outside during the afternoons. We had friends over last week and the kids spent hours running around the back yard and enjoying the playhouse, which was decorated with Christmas lights and quite comfortable!

And Opa helped a ton with the rope bridge and hanging the tire swing!

Hope everyone's had a good start to 2012!