Welcome Home

Hello again, dear readers. I missed you. It's been exactly 18 days since I slept in my bed, made my own food, used my own shower. East, West, Home is best. I'm tempted to slack off today, turn on the fireplace and make some cocoa, read out loud to the charges. Except I know that tomorrow I will be 19 days behind instead of 18. And those Halloween decorations are still hanging around the house, the cobwebs of October past. Jack-o-lanterns don't look as cute next to piles of unloaded suitcase junk. Nope, I better put my nose to the grindstone. But first, here's a brief recap of my trip. And I do mean brief. They say that pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll let my pictures do most of the talking.

My trip began in upstate New York. I settled in my two precious treasures with Oma and Opa and enjoyed the beautiful fall scenery for a couple of days.

They love spending time with Oma and Opa in New York, which made saying good-bye a little bit easier. A little tiny itty bit.

Nine out of ten of my siblings and most of the spouses plus my parents headed to the Middle East for 13 days of adventure. We started our journey in Petra, Jordan viewing the incredible Treasury carved right into the red rock.

We spent the next few days on and around The Sea of Galilee.

If you want to dip your feet into the River Jordan, beware. There are little nibbling fishies.

This is an underground cave in Bethlehem. There were approximately 500 million people in about 10 square feet.


We spend most of our time in and around Jerusalem. It was bittersweet nostalgia for me and my four other siblings that spent time there as students.

Here's my friend Omar, the olivewood carver and shopkeeper that I first met 20 years ago.

We tried our best to celebrate Halloween in a foreign land. The Quiet Man packed my witchy tights for a suprise.

My sister Laurie had Halloween treats for everybody. (And her ear is making a brave recovery, poor thing.)

This was my favorite spot as a student. Hezekiah's Tunnel is a dark underground tunnel filled thigh deep with water. (It used to be armpit deep with plenty of potholes but it's gone safe and commercial now.)I love to shop and hang out in the Old City of Jerusalem. It hasn't changed much.

The air in the Old City of Jerusalem is full of spices. I bought saffron and sumac and za'atar. Then I packed them in my suitcase. Now I smell like the Old City. In a good, spicy kind of way.

Our next stop was the Dead Sea for a filthy little beauty treatment.

Our first day in Egypt was spent snorkeling and lounging at the Red Sea.They had whirling dervishes for night time entertainment. They make me dizzy just to watch, but I can't look away. They also had belly dancers by the pool and I admit that I got sucked into a lesson. In my bathing suit. All video evidence has been destroyed. Violaters will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. (That means you, Jackson.)We headed to Cairo for our last stop. Yep, the pyramids and the Sphinx. You gotta see them once in your life. Or maybe even twice. But that's it for me.

We capped off our last night with a dinner cruise down the Nile. We were late enough that we had to be ferried to the cruiseship by speedboat. (That was the best part.)

This is my favorite picture from the trip. The middle aged belly dancer has just passed our table and it looks like my Dad and my husband are getting a little eyefull on the sly.

We spent our last minutes shopping at an open air market and then meeting the group for a last birthday lunch for my brother Roy before hopping on an airplane.

When they say don't drink the water in Egypt, remind me next time to watch out for the ice, too. The Quiet Man and I shared a blue raspberry slush right before we got on the airplane. Not smart. Not smart at all. That was the last time you saw us smiling till we landed in upstate New York. But now we are happy. We missed those little charges of ours. We made our own little people and when they are away from us, we miss them. They may be loud and crazy and wild, but they are ours. (And they have loud and crazy and wild in their genetic make-up. ) Huge thanks to Oma and Opa for being first-class babysitters. I hope they get a well-deserved nap sometime soon.

I missed you, too dear readers. Welcome back. See you tomorrow with more recipes.