Part 2

Davening at the top of the Mountain was amazing. We reached Shmone Esrai just as the sun was coming over the horizon.

After freezing our butts off we finished up davening and began the hike. It was pretty much a straight forward hike, with some points that were quite strenuous. Before we knew it we were at the top looking out over Eilat, and the first real body of water we had seen in 3 months.

The views were incredible. One of these days I will finish making my way through the 866 pictures I took on the trip and actually upload them! Oy.
Next we started our crazy descent down towards the bus and onward to the hotel. Long story short, it was a long way down and we were all dead to begin with. We trudged our way down, and when we got down lunch was waiting for us by the buses. Yes lunch, we finished around 130 ish. From 430- 130. That was a really intense hike, and I would so do it again.
Our hotel was in actual Eilat, and was a very nice holiday inn. But wait its still the middle of the day. So we boarded the buses again and everyone went snorkeling. If you wanted you could have gone snuba diving. I went snuba diving. It was amazing. We went down into the coral reef in the sea, it was so beautiful down there. For those who don't know, snuba diving is like scooba diving only instead of the tank being on your back, it was on a raft on the surface, and you were connected via tube to the air supply. Very interesting and a ton of fun.
Then we went back to the hotel, and everyone showered. From the hike to the water, we needed it. :-). After chilling around for a little while, we had Maariv and Dinner. After dinner, as dead as we were, we loaded the bus yet again to go bowling. I had a pretty good game, and almost won the prize for best score. I came in at # 3. Then we had the option to go out and explore the town, and with the last bit of energy that I had, I went with a few friends and found the boardwalk style souk. We walked on the beach in the dark for a little while, I love the sound of the waves, and the water splashing around in the darkness. It's amazing.
The next day was the water sports day. The yeshiva sponsored everyone to go out on the water in a glass bottom boat. They also paid for everyone to go banana boating. Now, the guy driving the speed boat that dragged the banana boats needed someone to stay on the boat with him to watch and make sure no one fell off. Well I ran forward and was on the boat before anyone could even think of beating me to it. For those of you who don't know, I love being out on the water, and even better, I love being in a speedboat in the water. Well I got to talkin to the driver of the boat, and I told him about my love for boats and the water, and his response was (in deep Israeli accent) "ok good, you stay on with me whole time then." Sweet! And I did just that! Turns out the boat was 3 months old and had just come in from North Carolina. It was so powerful I was getting thrown about when I was sitting while trying to take pictures. But when I stood up, I got my 'sea legs' back right away. My friend was watching and later told me, I looked like I was born on a boat. He said I looked so natural.
Beautiful boat on a beautiful day on beautiful water. lol. I had the time of my life. When the day was over we went back to the shore, and walked around some more. I got an amazing fruit smoothie. Bannana and Strawberry. The person making it looked at me like I was crazy, she was like you dont want anything else in it? And I was like nope. And it was sooooo good. Yum. Then we came home. That was pretty much the gist of it. Now to catch up on what we did since then.

It has been pretty normal here. I got a new phone, so that is fun. Now I can blog from wherever I am because I have internet on my phone. Nice. Yesterday we had an interesting trip to the local Tel Bet Shemesh. Tel Bet Shemesh is an archeological dig where the Jews fought against the Philishtim. That was really interesting. One thing about this country that really fascinates me is that I am finding shells everywhere. Everything was under water at one time, and yesterday I found a sponge. Incredible. Thats pretty much it! Ok now to work on the pictures.
Hope you all have a great Shabbos, and look forward to more regular updates on the blog again. As well as more pictures on the gallery. Have a good day,
Jesse