Vacations

Bill and Laurel came by Sunday evening. It was fascinating hearing about their recent trip to Hungary and Israel, and about their son's recent wedding in Israel. They told us about how it was a very simple outdoor ceremony, on a hillside without any modern development in sight, with everyone dressed very casually, and how they could easily imagine themselves celebrating in the same way in the same spot a thousand years ago.

Graham and I look forward to visiting Israel again. For years we tended to take turns deciding on where the annual non-family vacation would be. Graham would always want to go camping or on some cycling trip, and I would want to go to Israel or to some relaxing resort. About 6 years ago, I dragged Graham to Israel. It was at the height of the Arab terror war against Israel, before the very effective security fence was built, and he thought it was a crazy time to go. But almost from the first minute we were there, he was enthralled and thankful that he had decided to humor me.

When Graham was diagnosed with cancer, we were in the midst of picking vacations, and of course I had been saying "Let's go to Israel again!" and he had been saying "cycling and camping in Utah!" Even though we were told at the time that he likely had another 7-15 years of good quality life, I felt so bad that he would have so fewer vacations than me, that of course I right away caved and actually agreed to go camping with him and 100 other people who love talking about bicycle gears. Turned out to be a great vacation! But we're still hoping to visit Israel again, perhaps in a year or two when the cancer treatment will hopefully be a distant memory. And Graham has figured out the perfect combo for us - the Bicycle Ride Across Israel. :-)