In the Holy Land - We Have Landed

We arrived late afternoon on Monday morning after a slightly longer than expected flight due to some bad weather in New York.  Coming into New York from Los Angeles, we circled JFK for about 90 minutes when the pilot announced that we would have to divert to Philadelphia- a cry went up from the plane- reminiscent of when the children of Israel were told in the dessert that shrimp would not be kosher unless eaten in a chinese restaurant.  But this time the Almighty heard the cries of His/Her people and not 20 seconds later the pilot came back on the PA and told us we had been cleared for landing at JFK.

We landed safely connected with those waiting in NY for us - stretched out legs had a nosh and then back up in the air for our 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv.  

What a feeling coming over the suburbs of Tel Aviv as we made our approach to Ben Gurion Airport - the city has grown so much.  We landed, we cheered, we hugged, we said Shecheyanu and made our way through customs to our bags (they all made it with us) and to our buses to meet our guides Mike and Yishai, Dani and Ariel.

A short trip to the hotel - a shower, also deserving of a blessing and then quickly to our Orientation Session with our guides and then off to an incredible dinner at Maganda - an Israeli/Middle Eastern Restaurant in the heat of Tel Aviv's Yemenite neighborhood.  The food was good and plentiful and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and each other's company.

We leave early Tuesday morning for a meeting with our Partnership High School, Independence Hall, the archaeological at Beit Guvrin and then down to the dessert for our Bedouin camping experience and camel rides!