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Well Denise, way to get me off my butt! :) We have been in Adelaide for a week now, but in my defense, the internet is pretty crap. Of course, it doesn't help that I've been trying to download a month's worth of Grey's, Private Practice, and Desperate Housewives (and then of course, I had to watch them...)

So Israel and South Africa are two wild and crazy places. In all senses of the word. And in some that I'm not going to put in print (being at least slightly less stupid than Rod Blagojevich. Seriously, Illinois. What is wrong with you? Is it really possible to exercise such great and horrific judgment at the same time? Or do you just go into the voting booth and shoot craps until you have a winner? Maybe I shouldn't ask.)



Hopefully I will get around to writing about most of this eventually, but in the meantime, here are some pics from Israel. We had a couple of partial days of sightseeing in Jerusalem and then spent the weekend in Nazareth/Galilee. On Sunday we drove, basically, the entire length of the country, from Nazareth down to Eilat, stopping at Jericho and Masada along the way.

Eilat, quite possibly The Tackiest Place on Earth, is a little wannabe Atlantic City city on the coast of the Red Sea, which I think means that both Jordan and Egypt are visible from there (definitely Jordan--not sure about Egypt). It's quite an interesting cultural mix: Israelis, New York Jews on vacation, Russians on vacation, a handful of French (who cut the line at the border crossing), then joined by 500 physicists. And all living up to stereotype at a speed that was positively staggering. Staggering. And that's all I have to say about that. Except that never, as long as I live, will I be able to erase from my eyeballs the image of (multiple!) 60+ year-old, 300-pounds-and-counting, Russian women lounging on the beach IN BIKINIS. Never.