Israel Oct.11-12, 2011 Day 1-2

As many of you know I returned from Israel on Oct. 20th.  On Nov. 5th Jesse went to the ER in acute renal failure and was transferred to Hershey Medical Center.  He was home in 3 days and then on Oct. 12th he went to the ER again.  This time he went by ambulance and when he left, I was not sure I would see him alive again.  His diagnosis was CHF (congestive heart failure) and a mild heart attack.  After 3 days in our local hospital (for which I am so thankful) he was transferred to Altoona-a major heart center-for a cardiac cath.  It was decidedly worse than the one he had in Mar.  He was given a choice of heart surgery or nothing.  He chose the surgery.  After a week of medication to eliminate excess fluid and 7 units of blood, he had a triple bypass.  It was a long recuperation period with decreased lung function because of the fluid.  Finally on 1/1/12 he walked to the car without his 4 wheeled walker and MD on 1/6/12 was amazed at his recuperation with all that was wrong with him.  One of the heart doctors wanted to know why he didn't have the surgery in Mar.  I said it wasn't offered but...in that time frame we were evicted and moved into an apt. where we don't have to care for the outside, we downsized which was needed but wouldn't have happened if we weren't evicted.  Jesse was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration and started treatment for that and thus has saved his eyesight.  Because of the underlying health issues that were discovered through ER visits, he was in much better health to go through this grueling surgery.  He was able to help out in IL with babysitting and I was able to take my trip to Israel.  God was in control of the whole situation and I thank Him for that and for giving me one of the desires of my heart, a trip to Israel.

Israel Trip

Jesse dropped me off early at State College so he could head to IL to help with babysitting while Olivia was having further cleft palate surgery.  Our plane was 45 min. late arriving so we were 45 min. late in leaving.  I met the rest of the group of 13 before we boarded our short flight to Philadelphia.  

Our plane arrived late in Philly also so we had an hour delay while they cleaned and got food on board and then another hour delay because someone was sick and her meds were in her checked luggage.
Finally our US Airways bus took off for an 11 hour ride to Tel Aviv. My roommate for the trip hurt her foot quite severely so was unable to make the trip. Two weeks before our trip I tripped over our bed slats and bruised my shin and knee. One week before the trip I had pneumonia and seriously considered cancelling. Because of my knee I bought walking sticks.  I couldn't have made it without them.
As we were boarding the plane and I was looking for my seat, I saw a Muslim woman and thought "Oh I hope I don't sit with her!" Well, that was my seat! She was friendly but talked with a very heavy accent so I didn't understand everything but I could understand when she told me that her Mother who she lived with died 6 months ago and she had spent a month in Toledo with family. As I looked at her-her hands looked like "man hands" My overactive imagination went into overtime-was she a man dressed as a woman who was a terrorist? Should I tell someone? How stupid would I feel if it were nothing? Luckily reason took over. She then asked me how old I was and I replied that I had turned 67 the Friday before. She then wanted me to guess how old she was. I told her that I NEVER guess ages-that I am not good at it but I said you're over 20. She then told me she was 45-so glad I didn't guess the 60 I was thinking.  When I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I accidentally grabbed her seat belt while looking for mine.  She was startled awake and said in what sounded like an angry question to me, "Are you trying to steal my seat belt?"   I explained that I was looking for mine and it was an accident that I grabbed hers.  She quickly went back to sleep.
My 1st views of Israel flying into Tel Aviv.

 

This was our purple bus that was our transportation for our tour of Israel.

We rode to our 1st motel in Netanya called Blue Bay. We arrived after dark and there was a full moon for our 1st night in Israel on the bank of the Mediterranean Sea. Even though it was too dark we walked down to the beach and tried to take a picture. We arrived on the day before the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot, Feast of Booths) Leviticus 23:42-43 Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your decendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. The full text is Leviticus 23:37-44. On this day we 1st heard of the "Shabbot" elevator. It stops on every floor so that a devout Jew would not have to do any work and push a button. We had a buffet dinner at 7 p.m. I have no clue all the types of food I ate but I do remember eating a small piece of fish that was very salty and I didn't care for that. I started out taking pictures of everything so here is the buffet and a picture of the shower in my room.