Hiking the Crater

I will sometime get around to writing my post feast thoughts and stories, being it was my last one and I should document it but I'm still processing it at the moment and dealing with PFSing (Post Feasting) and can't take the time to write it out just yet.

So I will talk about a hike that we went on this past weekend.

On Saturday, there were 7 of us that drove down to the south of Israel, the desert, to a naturally made crater, thousands of years old. It's one of the largest in the world. That's all I can basically say about it, because I don't know any more than that, and I don't even know if I got that much right. (Ree, maybe when you comment on my blog, you can expound on this...)

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive, where we go from busyness of cityness to brownish rolling hills of the desert filled with sheep and bedouin communities. We also go from cold Jerusalem to hot desert sun, which is what I love the most. It's a beautiful drive and a stark contrast from going north - which is green and colorful. But both are really nice, B-E-A-Utiful!

Basically, on this hike, all you really see is dirt and rock, but the sky was huge and blue and goes on forever there. In fact, I've camped in the crater once before about 2 months ago, and I couldn't believe the amount of stars that were in the sky! I was completely in shock - you could see the Milky Way and just tons and tons of stars...always amazes me...

So, we did about a 3ish hour hike...the hill at the end was steep and really exhausted us all, but we conquered it. The nice thing about hikes is that you can just walk and talk to your friends, take your time, stop for pictures and granola (or Beasley if you like that kind of stuff, those are Israeli style chips for those who don't know) and then just continue on whenever you feel like it.


We also got to go hiking with Ree and Franklin's dog, Chloe, and she did a wonderful job. It's almost like having a kid around, but you take less care of it and she doesn't say anything or complain. She was a great additive to the dynamics of the group. I don't know why, but it was fun. And when she gets tired, Franklin carries her on his shoulders, which is even funnier.

That nite we went back and watched some funny SNL clips and a movie at Ree's.....which people barely stayed awake for. And made some homemade mulled wine, which reminds me of England during Christmastime (because they used to have these "mince pies and mulled wine" christmas parties).
So that was my Saturday. Fun stuff.