Hello again everyone!

If you would like to hear about and see more pictures of our great trip you're invited to join us Sunday Dec 5th at 1pm at Ventura Missionary Church.  We will meet in the fireside room.  We'll have treats :-)

If you'd like more information please e mail me at boballenproductions at gmail dot com or call me at eight zero four-two one eight-three four zero four.

Its Over!!

Well, it was a fast and furious 2 weeks in the middle east!  BIG thanks goes to Bruce Little at Select Travel and American Israel Tours for putting such a great itinerary together for us.  Also to our guides that gladly shared their knowledge with us.  Osama in Egypt, Madeline in Jordan and Shimon in Israel.  we would have been so lost without them, actually we REALLY would have been lost without the bus drivers Mohamed in Egypt, Achmed in Jordan and Elie in Israel.

From Cairo to Tel Aviv and everywhere in between, it seems like we saw it ALL! :)

Travelers, we'll be getting together in the next few weeks for a De-briefing and I'll email everyone.  we MAY even have a get together at the church so we can fill in everyone else that would like to know what happened, the stuff we saw, some pictures and what we have planned for our next trip in 2012 : )

I'll leave the Blog up for a while so you can let people know its here and let them look at everything we did.

By the way am I the only one that woke up Tuesday morning at 3 am? yelling "VMC'rs, SADDLE UP"

Bob

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Last bus ride

What a whirlwind 2 weeks. Can't wait to give everyone the details. But for now it's nap time.

Home!!

Well almost :-)

Grand canyon

Next stop HOME!!!!

36000 ft over campo Colorado

Over Washington Pennsylvania

On our way home. Should touch down about noon. Should be at VMC around 2ish.

At the gate

Here we are waiting. Just beyond that door is a Boeing 747 with my name on it. YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Checkin

Went pretty good. The group is at the gate with all their belongings. I'll let ya know when we board.

Farewell dinner

Sad that we're leaving.

Sunset

Overlooking jeruselem

Shopping

Last min shopping before our farewell dinner and midnight flight

Tour guide

Talking about Bethlehem

At St. Catharine

Entering the church

Our group

In Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Our bus :-)

Looking out the end of the museum

Inside the museum

Childrens memorial

Our group

At the avenue of the righteous

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Heading into the holocaust Museum

Final day:-(

The sun rises on our final day of the trip. Its been alot of fun but we're ready to come home. :-)

Sunset

Over the dead sea. Beautiful!!!!

Mudd hugg

Bob got one from Harold :-) we were more worried about the rocks hurting our feet tho.

Dead sea mud

Harold White letting the mud have it's way with him. Doesn't look a day over 40 :-)

Dead sea

Most of us floating in the dead sea. We really are floating. It's hard to put you feet down.

Masada

Our group looking at the siege ramp.

Masada

The Roman siege ramp

Masada at the top

Overlooking the dead sea

Masada

At the top just out of the tram.

Massada

The fortress of massada

En gheddi

The place where David hid from Saul

Scrolls cave

The actual cave where the dead sea scrolls were found.

Dead sea scrolls

The area where the scrolls were found

Enjoying a Cigar

With Allen!

Pastor Gary

Giving the word and leading us in song. He is SUCH a blessing.

The garden tomb

Our group entering the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid.

Garden tomb

The area know as galgotha, Calvary or the place of the skulls where Jesus was crucified. See the skull in the rock?

Garden tomb

Entering the garden tomb area

Damascus gate

Jesus came out this gate to be crucified. The REAL gate is the one underneath to the left.

Our group

Waiting for the bus after a busy day at the market

More of the market

Machane ja Judah

The Jewish market in Jerusalem

WAY FUN

Model of Jerusalem

As we head to the dead sea scrolls you can see the model of Jerusalem behind us.

Underground Jerusalem

Starting the tour

Temple

A model of the temple in Jesus' time

Dead sea scrolls

Here are some of them

Western wall

Me offering up prayers for my kids (all of em) and grandkids. We miss you guys.

Western wall

Allen Huff putting in prayers for Barry and a friend.

Western wall

Dan Kral at the wall

Wailing wall

The closest point for the jews to the holy of holies.