so many pictures, so much information, so little time...

picture taken from a little ways down Masada, a Herodian fortress where some Jews killed themselves to avoid being taken by the Romans in 73 AD. yes, we hiked up.

everyone else took the tram down. Erica and i ran down and made it in 12 minutes 32 seconds. it's a 1000 foot ascent/descent with 700 uneven rock stairs and switchbacks. i'm proud of us.

the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) building

the Western Wall at night

we did some exploring in these caves. definitely not for anyone who's claustrophobic.

Qumran cave - one of the caves where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and other scrolls.

Hezekiah's tunnel. long story but it's basically a tunnel running underneath part of Jerusalem. there's about a foot of water running through it and you just walk through it. it was refreshing after a hot day outside.

beautiful Eilat on the Red Sea. we snorkeled there.

Laura and I with the Elah Valley behind us. The story of David and Goliath happened took place right behind us.

Red Canyon hike; a cool little hike Nate took us on

Dome of the Rock

Judean Wilderness. It's BLAZING hot here, especially in the wildernesses we've been to. 100+ degrees F.

Nate took us to a watering hole type place and we got in. And then we saw this sign. Contaminated water really is healthy for you.

these pictures are in no particular order, and don't really summarize what i've been doing for the past week and a half because we've done SO much. every day is completely packed and we pull 10 hour days every day. to summarize though, the past 4 days or so we were in the south of Israel, going through the major valleys and wildernesses, and ending up at the Red Sea in the south. then we made our way back up to the Dead Sea and Masada. we're at a Christian kibbutz in Jerusalem right now and tomorrow we head off to the north. i really like that it's way more intense than any other normal tour group though. i feel like it's so much more informational and it pushes us physically too.

i'm having SO much fun and it's been great getting to know other people on the trip. i've been learning so much about God and the Bible through seeing these places, and Nate has been good with making us reflect on what we're seeing and learning so that it doesn't become just a whirlwind tour of sites. i'm kinda dreading coming back to real life after all this is over. it's weird, i was realizing that when i go back home, it's not like i'm just going back to a vacation before school starts again, i'm going back to the rest of my life. weird, but adventurous i suppose. i wish i could better express how much i am enjoying this trip and learning, but today is our day off and we had our second test this morning so my brain doesn't want to do much of anything right now. thanks to all of you that have been keeping in touch with me. i'll hopefully be getting back to all of you that have been emailing me sometime soon. until next time...