We are treated kind of special as the hotel has given us our own banquet room with our own buffets. The food is the same, but we have fewer people to contend with as we fill our plates. By this time I have tried about everything they have offered us at least once and I choose the things I like best among the offerings. I heap up the dill pickles. The dill pickles here are the best I have ever had. I wish I could take some home.
We eat with friends and the farewells begin as we will all take different routes as we head home. There are several speakers to address our tour as we finish eating our food. One is the owner of the tour company, a Mr. Amie. He seems like a nice man. His mother was a holocaust survivor and he offers us a free book of her story. Dr. Wood, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God who has been with our "Red Bus" group most of the time addresses the tour as well. Our guides, Eli, Ilan, Wave and one I can't remember his name, are all recognized. Eli as typical gets the loudest ovation. For some reason, Eli very much endears himself to everyone.
There is more but we are eventually instructed to go outside the hotel and find our suitcases and take them personally to our bus and ensure they are loaded on board. It takes a few minutes but I am able to find both of our bags among the hundreds. I escort them to the Red Bus and they are loaded. I think this might be a good time to use the restrooms. I find the banquet room restrooms and enter. They are pretty much the most over-the-top nice rest rooms I have ever seen. I don't know why here in Israel of all places where I have experienced the most primitive of potty rooms, but wow. I enter a private commode room that is huge with marble floors. It is big enough to throw a party in. It is richly paneled. It has a huge, heavy locking door. Inside this commode room, it has it's own wash basin and fresh cloth towels. Beautiful framed pictures adorn the walls. Fresh flowers in a vase on it's own shelf. Care for a little cologne? There are a few that you can try. The mirrors are large and well lit. I think I would like to hang out in here for a little while it is so nice. I leave feeling like I have seen how the rich and famous have it.
I find Indiana Jolie and we board our bus. It will be just over an hour's ride to Tel Aviv and the Ben Gurion International Airport. Ilan, one of our Israeli guides is our helper to get us through customs and security. We are coached as we drive to the airport as what to say and what not to say when we get to customs and security. Essentially we are told to keep it to "yes" or "no". Do not volunteer information. Do not elaborate. Do not lie. If we are singled out for questioning keep our answers short. None of this is to be devious, it is just some experienced advice. The more information that is volunteered, the more the security people have to cross check with the other security guards. More information leads to more questions. More questions lead to more volunteered information which leads to more questions, etc., etc. Keep it simple, keep it short, keep it truthful.
We arrive at the check-in gates. We get our suitcases checked quick enough. Sure enough, while the entire group is standing there I am volunteered by one of the security people for some questions. We step about 20 feet from the rest of the group. She is a collage age lady that is home after attending university in America. She peppers me with questions. Where have I been? How long have I been here? What did I purchase? Did anyone give me anything? What is my occupation? Who is the group I am traveling with? Do I have anything I need to tell them?
This lady was pretty good. They way they ask the questions makes it easy to say too much. The last question I was unprepared for, I wanted to think of something to tell her but kept my mouth shut. After about 15 minutes and her conferring with other security people I am allowed to return to our group. Everyone wants to know what she asked me. I am a little nervous to talk about it much as she is still standing near by. I shrug and say it was nothing.
From here we descend to another floor and we wait in line for customs with our passports in hand. We get a short line but the guy in front of us must have had some sort of a rap sheet as they question him for a long time. We are next to see the agent but we must wait for Mr. Terrorist to get done being questioned. They finally take him somewhere else and after another five minutes of our agent fiddling around in his cubicle he motions us forward. We slip our passports under the glass and he looks us up in his database. We must look pretty benign because we pass pretty quickly.
We walk down the long concourse to our gate and wait for our flight. it is the beginning of another endless night since I can't possibly sleep on airplanes. Hopefully my seat will have a working movie screen and a working earplug port this time.
We board and the flight is very full. Our seats are right next to the restrooms. Oh joy. There is a cute Jewish family in front of us. The young dad and mom sit across the aisle one row in front of us. Their two young boys are right in front of me and Indiana Jolie. The boys are a non-stop whirl of motion. They wrestle, they climb up and down the seats. The need this, they need that, and the parents are the accommodating kind. They have me worn out before we taxi to the runway.
We lift off and Israel is soon a cluster of small lights in the distance. As we gain altitude flying west we get a longer version of sunset. Wow. Time has passed so quickly but we have been gone from home so long.
We are served a meal. Do we wish kosher? Sure, why not. It is ok. I eat my meal as it hops up and down on the tray that descends from the seat back that holds the fury of a miniature whirling dervish that barely slows down to eat.
Soon all the meals and drinks and blankets and pillows are all passed out and the plane quiets down except for the perpetual motion machines in the seats in front of us and the line of people that form next to me to use the facilities.
I look at the choices of movies that are offered. Good deal, both the screen and the earplug port are in working order. I look at my watch and determine that if I get right on it, I can watch four full length movies before we touch down in Philadelphia. I do. About the equivalent of 2 a.m., the inexhaustible energy sources in front of me pass out. About every 20 minutes or so the stewards walk up and down the aisles offering water to anyone who wants it. They must be hoping to prevent dehydration or deep vein thrombosis or something. This of course keeps the line to the restroom always past where I am sitting. Indiana Jolie sleeps blissfully through most of the flight.
When we arrive in Philadelphia we grab a quick breakfast at the airport before we have to board our flight to Phoenix. We snap our pictures by the Lego brick Liberty Bell.
We smartly and strategically booked a hotel that is on the light rail line that runs through Phoenix. We arrive at the International terminal and get a shuttle to our hotel where we stashed our other suitcases while we were in Israel. It will be great to wear some different clothes! We are happy to check in and sleep for a couple hours before making ourselves get up at the standard time to get back on our regular awake/sleep schedule.
We decide that we need to stay busy all day so we can sleep all night. Indiana Jolie says she would like to visit the Phoenix Zoo. I can think of nothing better so we head out. We pay our $4 to ride the light rail all day. This also covers all the transfers we need to catch two different buses that will actually take us to the zoo. It is too easy. We get to the zoo bright and early before it is actually open. We are there waiting in line with all the stroller moms and toddlers. It is a nice zoo as far as zoos go. Indiana Jolie got to feed a giraffe as well which made her day. We see much and enjoy the experience. About mid afternoon we kind of "hit the wall" energy wise and decide to catch the bus back to the light rail. We go to the bus stop which lists the time. We have to wait an hour and twenty minutes which feels more like one hundred days.
The right bus finally arrives and we catch the light rail back to Tempe. We get off at Tempe to find some food which is more walking in our depleted state. Tempe is the University town for ASU. There are lots of fun places to eat and shop but I just want to eat and drop. Indiana Jolie wants to look at shoes and clothes. I in zombie like fashion follow.
We finally board the light rail and return to our room. It is a little early to go to bed so I decide to try the spa down by the pool. This feels fabulous. I am in the mood for an all night sleep which I do.
We get ourselves up in time for breakfast and head out to explore Mesa at the end of the light rail system. After waking a half dozen additional block we find the places where there are some antique stores and junk shops. We easily fill our time until we have to come back and ready ourselves for our flight back to Alaska and home.
It is surreal that we have been half way around the world and back. We have seen more than we have anticipated and have grown in knowledge and experience. It indeed has been a trip of a lifetime.
The end.
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