Day 14 and home!

I am writing the last page of this blog from my house, and although it is great to be back, I am a little sad to have left this fantastic tour, amazing country, and all of my new friends from far and near!

Our last day morning was a rainy morning in Tel Aviv. After a fairly late start, four of us decided to take a cab to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It has some wonderful exhibits but we viewed mostly the contemporary and modern art, as well as some really odd photography and some Israeli art.

Moti, our new friend and taxi driver picked us up after about 2 hours and drove us to Jaffa to walk around. It was still raining on and off, and he was nice enough to stop the cab (literally in the middle of the street) so that I could run out to an ATM for some cash (because that is what the Israeli people are all about). He then drove us to his favorite spot for shawarma and falafel in Jaffa, and it was not disappointing.

We walked around Jaffa and got semi caught in another monsoon type downpour but we were lucky enough to be near a covered spot on the side walk. After a while it stopped raining, so we walked around and then back to our hotel along the beach.

Packed and showered, and waited for our 6PM farewell meeting to start at the hotel before dinner. The meeting was a great way to wrap up our trip, with Margaret (from Ireland) handing out beautiful bookmarks and a little prayer to carry in our wallets, and Emily reciting a humorous poem she had written about the trip. We had dinner at 7, a little time to freshen up, and then to the airport for our flight home.

Checking in for a flight out of Ben Gourion Airport is an experience, but we weathered customs, security and baggage check (probably not in that order, but I am sleepy) and boarded our Delta flight back to JFK. I managed to sleep quite a bit, and before I knew it, we were preparing for our decent into New York. A not so quick jaunt through passport control, baggage claim and recheck, and a bazaar trek looking for our gate, and we were on our way to Atlanta, where Kirk picked us up promptly and deposited us home!!

This was absolutely a trip of a life time and one I will never forget!!