Todd Cummings Family: Jerusalem and Jericho

We've been keeping busy the last couple of weeks. Todd's parents came to visit so we became tourists instead of residents for a few days and visited some sites in the area.

We were able to travel to Jerusalem with them. That was a great trip once we finally arrived. Walking so closely to where Christ walked was an amazing experience. It was the kind of trip that made me reflect on my family--specifically my husband and children--and what we can do to become an eternal family. It was the kind of trip when I thought "do I really want to spend eternity with these people?" I concluded that yes, I do--but ONLY if eternity does NOT include road trips, high temperatures, cramped cars, and Middle East border patrol.

We started on our trip at a reasonable time expecting to arrive to our hotel in Bethlehem by mid-afternoon. We only packed some water and some dry cracker stuff for T since we'd be there soon. I'm not sure where we got the information that the border was only about an hour away. We thought an hour to the border then an hour back down to Bethlehem and we knew the border would take some time. Just to get to the border took about 2 1/2 hours.

There are 3 border crossings from Jordan into Palestine. We chose the north border because the south is too far and the middle one doesn't allow rental cars. Todd spent several hours a couple weeks ago going all over Amman to get the proper signatures that allowed us to take the rental car across the border. That wasn't enough though. At the border he had to fill out paperwork, they checked and double checked it, he got grief because it wasn't translated into English (Israelis don't like forms in Arabic), he had to buy more insurance, he had to stand in lines to get all of this done, he had to wait for a computer to be fixed, he had to make sure our passports weren't stamped and that we got a paper instead, unload the luggage to be screened, load the luggage back on the van . . .

Meanwhile he was trying to keep a bright, cheery attitude with the Israeli border guards because at any moment they could deny us entry and our entire trip would be ruined. We were afraid Critter slipped up at one point but fortunately nobody heard or if they did they didn't understand. As they were checking our passports (all 11 of us) and matching each person up to a passport they'd call out a name and we'd point out which child had that name. While going through this process Critter turns to me and said out loud "So these are the people that bombed Gaza?" Todd smiled at the guard then turned to face Critter so the guard wouldn't see and gave Critter the look that could kill. I had to take Critter aside and explain that it would be best just not to discuss the whole conflict while we were on this trip.

3 1/2 hours after arriving at the border, we were finally through and on our way. We knew we would arrive much later than planned so we opted to find a hotel in Jerusalem rather than going further to Bethlehem where we had reservations. We wanted to stay in budget but we wanted to return to Jordan undiseased. If you remember, Todd was here 15 years ago so he was using the BYU Jerusalem Center as a reference point and trying to find a reasonable hotel. When one route didn't work, he'd work his way back to the center and try again. And again. And again. And again. The roads in Jerusalem are crowded, windy (long i), and hilly. We were all carsick by the time we finally decided on the Mt. Scopus hotel. By the time we decided we probably could have just made it to Bethlehem but it did make things easier the next day being closer to the main sites. Since we missed out on half a day of siteseeing we weren't able to see the sites further south anyway.

Another classic Critter faux pas happened as we were trying to find a hotel. It was dark by this time and the weather had cooled down enough that we had the windows of the van all open. We were taking in the atmosphere of Jerusalem. Of course we saw some orthodox Jews roaming the streets but evidently Critter had never seen one in a picture or in real life. He was in the very very back of the 11 passenger van and he had a valid question he wanted answered so he yelled out so we could hear all the way up front "What's up with all the people in the pilgrim costumes?" Just typing that still makes me chuckle.

The slide show pretty much tells the rest of the story. On the way back to Jordan from Jerusalem we stopped at Jericho. The part we went to see (the old city of Jericho) was pretty much just piles of dirt and some rocks but we rode a tram up to a monastery built into the side of a mountain. That was fascinating. Getting back into Jordan was still a process at the border but went much smoother.