The flight back to Los Angeles wasn’t so bad. I was able to switch my seat from a row seat to a window seat, so I could just knock myself out with my NyQuil and Ambien, and survive the flight back. Luckily it worked so that I got about 9 hours(!!) of sleep. Unfortunately, that was all at the front end – it was incredibly hard staying awake just to get on the plane! So when I woke up (over …

Yep, I have a cold. Sore throat and stuffy nose. Very annoying. Tonight’s 16-hour flight back to Los Angeles is gonna suck. Is there any problem taking both NyQuil and Ambien?

Crap, I’m coming down with something. It’s probably because the weather in Tel Aviv has been rainy, and cold at night, and I don’t have a jacket or long-sleeves.

After a late lunch, we headed into the Old City through the Zion Gate. Our time in the Old City of Jerusalem wasn’t very long, since we spent most of the day working our way around the area, but we did go into the Cardo (the old central road), then worked our way through a tad of the Muslim Quarter towards the Western Wall – just as everyone was breaking their fast for Ramadan. Good timing? Not sure. In any …

It’s not surprising that after our little “incident” up north, we would go over to another flashpoint, the border crossing at Bethlehem. Here is the infamous “fence”, and you can see some Palestinians returning home after working in Israel. This time, though, we weren’t asked to leave… but found out later that no Israelis go over there.

The last time I visited the Yad Vashem memorial was in 2003, when I was here for my sister’s wedding. Since that time, they had built a completely new complex, which opened in the spring of 2005. So this would be a new experience for me. The material was more or less the same, though it still took us about 2.5 hours to go through it – and we could have easily stayed longer. It’s a must-see if you ever …

Today we’re going on a private tour to Jerusalem. We’re meeting at the Renaissance Hotel near the beach, and on my way to meet everyone I walked by the “Dan Tel Aviv” hotel. Figured I’d take a shot of the name. Our first top will be Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Our driver, Jacob, is a pretty cool guy – but drives like a maniac. We’re in a 9-seater van, and holding on for dear life. The road …

Tonight was Avigail’s wedding (she’s my brother-in-law’s sister). They had a great location staked out about 45-minutes from Tel Aviv, and there were about 300 people who showed up. Way too much food as expected, but it was all oh-so-good! Here are two shots of the ceremony at the chupah (which ran like 5 minutes long) and then the dance floor. I left around 12:30am since I was getting way tired. (Obviously this entry is backdated so it shows up …

I babysat Nili this morning while my sister and mom went out to run some errands. She was napping initially, which allowed me to get some work done and watch the season finale of “The Venture Brothers” on my computer. But soon she woke up, and it was time to focus my attention on her! Luckily, she didn’t crap herself until her mom got back, so I dodged that bullet!

After our little border skirmish, we headed east, into the Golan Heights and towards Syria. (Hey, why not, right?) This time we weren’t on the border though, and ended up at the area overlooking the UN compound at Al Kuneitra. That was probably close enough! We then drove back to my sister’s in Haifa, working our way through the Galilee as the sun set over the Holy Land.