Tag Archives: Travel

Road Trip

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I’m packing at the same time as I’m trying to meet all of my “end-of-the-school-year” deadlines/activities. We are getting ready for a month-long road trip. It reminds me of packing to go to Israel. Making all the decisions about what to pack and what not to pack. What can I get on the way when I need it? I’m making those kinds of decisions as I prepare for the road trip.

This picture of the Garden of Gethsemane caught my eye while working on another project.

Our month-long trip includes 5 days at a writing conference (https://colorado.writehisanswer.com/). That is the only time we have planned. The remaining trip includes visiting family, but there are no specific plans.

This is the first time I’ve been able to take a trip like this.

As I look at this picture, I see things that are obvious, like the walls, the arches, and the flowers. They are obvious as the 5 scheduled days are obvious. But there is a lot that is not clear. What are activities hiding in the nooks and crannies? Where will we go? What will we do? Roy and I will find the answers over the next month. I’ll share the answers in my blog on the first Friday of June.

Yad Vashem Memorial Pin

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The Yad Vashem Memorial Pin

One of my most treasured purchases in Israel is this Yad Vashem Memorial Pin because it has so many deep meanings and memories.

Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to all who died in the Holocaust. The Jews who died are remembered as are the Gentiles who helped them in the fight against Nazi Germany.

The blurb inside the packaging says “The barbed wire stem recalls the pain and trauma of the Holocaust, while the leaves stemming from the wire symbolize the rebirth and hope that emerged in the wake of this unparalleled tragedy. Wearing this pin expresses your commitment to remembering the past in order to ensure a better future for our children.”

I’ve worn a pin like this several times. I should say I’ve worn and broken pins like this one. Now I keep it safely in the packaging. The pin is made of soft pewter and is fragile.

Even the easy breakage of the pin adds to the meaning for me as I listen to the chaos and hate circling our world today. So many people behave as though they only see the barb wire and ignore the leaves. For me, as a Christian, I see Jesus in the leaves. He is my hope.

NOTE: This was on my heart today when I set up a different blog, so I changed the subject. I will be blogging about how we felt when we visited Yad Vashem in January.

Israel Food Memory

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This month rather than post a recipe for the food I loved in
Israel, I chose to post a fun memory about food. Now, I’m fairly sure this is
not traditional Israeli food, but thanks to my grandsons, I’ll always connect
it to Israel.

When our oldest grandson was thirteen, we took him on a trip to Israel. He
quickly made friends with another thirteen-year-old boy on the trip.

When they went downstairs to breakfast at the hotel the first morning, they
discovered a favorite breakfast. Pancakes with chocolate syrup. Maple syrup was
available, but it was promptly ignored in favor of chocolate.

These two teenage boys went back for helping after helping. Sometimes it was
hard to see the pancake drowning in the syrup. In fact, they didn’t eat
pancakes with chocolate syrup, they ate chocolate syrup with pancakes.

A few years later, we took our second grandson to Israel. His favorite
breakfast — pancakes with chocolate syrup.

To both boys’ disappointment, when they got back home, Mom did not serve pancakes with chocolate syrup.