The journey begins

Kirby and I arrived at Tel Aviv airport yesterday morning at 3 am. I am not sure why planes land at 3 in the morning, but apparently it wasn't an uncommon occurrence because there were plenty of people there. Our host for the first part of the trip, Daniel, was waiting there for us at the exit from customs. I feel badly having him come all the way from his home to collect us at that unreasonable hour but we were thankful to have a friend there. The trip to Israel boasted layovers of 6 and 11 hours in Portland and Amsterdam, respectively but was pretty relaxing on the whole as I took the time to read Daniel's book on the Natural History of the Bible. This gave me ample opportunity to read and sleep as needed. Daniel's home is situated on a spur of Mt. Carmel in the north of Israel, not to far south of Haifa. It has a commanding view of the Mediterranean Sea and the skinny coastal plain. Since arriving 24 h ago, we have been the receipient of wonderful hospitality, feasting on grapefruit from Daniel's orchards, eating cheese from Denmark, brought back from his wife Michal's latest trip (an archaeologist at one of the universities here), visiting the ancient site of Ceasaria, complete with lunch at the edge of the small harbor that was constructed there, and dinner at the best Falafel house in the Middle East (at least that is what Daniel thinks). He also treated us with a reading from Isaiah on the besiege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians with commentary from Michal of the history of the people at that time (she specializes in the Bronze age).

Jet lag has not been too bad for me. We slept after arriving hear around 5 am, and also had a nap in the late afternoon. Being out in the sun all day helped too. The weather here is wonderful this time of year, in the low 80s during the day and 60s at night with a low humidity. I have uploaded a few pictures as well. The first shows Kirby and Daniel at 4 am riding the train back to Binyamina, the closest stop to Daniel's home. The other are of the coast at Ceasaria, standing on top of the aqueduct that fed water into the town of Ceasaria, and Kirby and Daniel in his study, figuring out how to get Kirby's email. Today, we plan to see more agriculture and the Sea of Galilee among other things.