Summer Job: Professional Traveler

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Entering Jerusalem is the single most exciting drive of your life. You ride through desert for so long, passing nothing but rock dunes and the occasional smattering of Bedouin shacks tucked in between more rock dunes. In the distance, small towns start to pop up as the outskirts of the city are on the horizon. Then, down into an underground tunnel you go, and when you get the end, your eyes are glued to your window watching the tall concrete barriers fly past. Finally, the concrete starts to lower and up rises THE city, Jerusalem, an ancient holy land of limestone buildings that line the mountain side. The bus is silent. This place is so special to so many people and we have the privilege of soon also walking its streets.

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Bet She’an National Park

Back in tiny ole CT, you might hear a ghost story about a house being build on an ancient burial ground. Can you imagine starting a construction job and finding an entire city?!? This place was once huge and prospering until a magnitude 8 earth quake hit in the middle of the night and completely destroyed it. Those that survived simply left - the damage was too great to rebuild. Archeologists have only excavated the main square because today the residential area lies under a modern day city. Can you imagine knowing that you live above that?

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Safed, assorted memorial sights, and Jeep rides in northern Israel One thing I am really loving about our tour guide Aharon is his ability to break history into pieces and explain them as we go - almost like weaving together a live action story. The battle was fought HERE and that’s why this is still a mine field. See this topography, why was this battle so important? He takes his job seriously and the history of his country seriously. As a fellow teacher, I appreciate that.

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Akko

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Caesarea, a view of Haifa, and the Rosh Hanikra Grottos

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My favorite museum so far has been the Underground Bullet Factory Museum. Before Israel was a state, a group of Israeli fighters went to great lengths to disguise a bullet factory as a laundry facility on a kibbutz. The bullets were used during the War of Independence. If they were caught, it could have meant execution by the British! Their understanding of the need for a Jewish State was so strong, they were willing to risk everything to support the Zionist movement. The top two pictures are from this museum. The rest are from our walk around Jaffa, an old port that is part of Tel Aviv and a section of the city with a large Arab population. We got to hear the call to prayer! I thought that was very cool.

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Tel Aviv is like if New York and San Diego had a baby. The coastline is beachy and active but the drivers are very aggressive and you have to look both ways for motorized scooters and bicycles before looking both ways for cars. We toured the city and then went out to see underground caves. As young of a state as Israel is, there is just so much history here. My brain is exploding!

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On the idea of Home

It was eleven years ago that I got off a plane in Tel Aviv and boarded Taglit Birthright Bus 619. I remember one of the first things the tour guide said to us was “Welcome to Israel. Welcome home.” I found that statement so silly. At that moment, it was a foreign country that I had only learned about through pictures, and was only entitled to because I was raised Jewish. By the end of that ten day experience, I had never felt more at home in my life.

I had never been surrounded by so many things that were inherently familiar. I had never been so immersed in a foreign culture that wasn’t foreign at all - it was my heritage. It was my people. It was a place where I immediately belonged. So much that I grew up with that made me different was suddenly everywhere. I was no longer the token Jewish teacher - I was a Jewish student and that felt really wonderful.

In coming back to Israel, on a guided tour with my family, I assumed it would be kind of the same sights and sounds again. What I guess I forgot to take into account is how much can change in eleven years. How much I have changed in eleven years.

It is a week into this trip, and today was the first day I was compelled to write and post. What follows from here are pictures and experiences from this once-in-a-decade trip home.

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My last day here in Olympic, I tried to hike the north shore of Lake Crescent only to find the trail was closed. I will never be mad about finding another dock on a quiet foggy morning, though. I traveled back up Sol Duc - eventually making my way to the hot springs - and stopped at Salmon Cascades and hiked a little bit of the North Fork trail. Today, more than most, I felt like I got a glimpse into wilderness. The pouring rain made the power of the cascades even more prominent. The North Fork trail was like stepping back in time - I meandered maybe a mile of this back country trail and found myself on a tiny strip of dirt feeling very small under gargantuan moss covered trees. That last picture on the bottom right - there is a big dark stump at the end of what you can see of the trail - that is a root system from a fallen tree and those roots where taller than me. This valley is HUGE - and monster size trees fell across them ... there is no human presence to alter the appearance. Things grow wild here. Thank you National Parks Service for helping to keep it that way.

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My favorite kind of beach is the Pacific Northwest kind. Big rocks jutting out providing a play ground of beach meandering. I sat for an hour watching crabs and other sea things in their little tide pools. And of course, more pictures of trees on the hike back.

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I made the trek out to Ozette Lake today to hike the Cape Alana trail out to the Pacific Ocean. I’ll be honest, this was going to be the longest trail I had hiked alone and that put me on edge. At one point, I literally was singing to myself in the woods because I just couldn’t take it anymore. Then, I rounded the corner, and the breeze picked up and I could hear seagulls and there was the ocean peaking out from between the trees! I walked out of the dark forest and the salty breeze was there to greet me. And a deer. The coolest thing about this hike was that it was a lot of bridges and board walks. Life is so persistent here that green things were growing along the sides of the boards where people didn’t walk.

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More from Hoh Rainforest because I couldn’t just pick ten pictures!

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Hoh Rainforest. Just. Sigh. My new favorite. Gallivanting around on mostly empty trails, I didn’t know so many shades of green existed. Multicolored moss hangs from every tree limb while spring water streams cut their way through the forest floor. I gained a true appreciation for nurse logs here. You can see where a tree fell and died YEARS ago and how new giant hemlocks were able to grow from its trunk. I want to be a nurse log when I die. Is that a thing?

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A short and mesmerizing hike through Ancient Groves rounded out my second day. You walk through an old growth forest with the opportunity to observe wandering streams, wet lands, giant Douglass Furs, and truly start to appreciate just how much life is supported here. This was my favorite of the day.

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Attempting to hike to Mink Lake in April is, it turns out, foolish. You start out with 55 degree weather and as you ascend you start to notice little patches of snow … but also you start to see alpine ridges peaking through the trees - so onward! I reached a point where every step I took my foot was sinking knee deep in snow … and finally I said enough was enough and turned around. Next time. When I come during the summer.

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Sol Duc falls - notice there is not a single person on the bridge or any viewing areas! Im getting spoiled with the ability to capture nature without a bunch of other people in my pictures ...

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Spending the entire length of the trail without seeing a single person might sound unnerving - but these forests are magical. The quiet air and low lying clouds make you feel that at any moment, you’re going to catch a fairy or troll out doing their day to day tasks. Life grows on every surface possible here.