Israel is like America, only different. We went out to a resturant called, "Anna Ticho House" or "Anna Ticho" or "Beit Ticho." Lisa Gerwin and told us to go there, so we went. I asked for the address at the hotel desk and they told me it was on "Rav Kook (cook) Street." We got in a cab and asked the driver for "Rav Kook Street." Since this is Israel and everyone is all up in your grill, he asked why we wanted "Rav Kook Street" and I told him "Beit Ticho." So then he got all steamed, "If you want Beit Ticho, say 'Beit Ticho' and I'll take you there, why are you beating around the bush saying 'Rav Kook Street?'" I think he was insulted that I assumed he didn't know this particular restaurant.
Ticho house was owed by Dr. Ticho, opthomoligist, and his wife, Anna, an artist.
After her death, she gave her house to the City of Jerusalem. Today it is a restaurant and art gallery.
yum
The view from the back patio where we had breakfast.
Crazy-delicious Israeli breakfast.
Cool interlock: There is a card-key slot just inside the hotel room. When you enter, insert the key and lights and air-conditioning come on. When you leave, your key is always right by the door, grab it and go and the lights turn off automatically.
Laundry in the tub. Note khaki pants and blue checked shirt. This is my favorite Israel outfit, worn in almost every photo. (In fact, I'm wearing it right now as I blog at SJC.) I believe one should get one good looking outfit, wash it as necessary, and wear until its threadbare. If it looks good, it looks good. Who cares what you wore yesterday? Lindee believes it is important to change it up for the sake of change. My "favorite outfit" philosophy is shared by five-year-olds around the country.
Benjamin
Naftali
More tribes...
More tribes...
In 1967, the Jordanian Army attacked the hospital damaging some windows and destroying others. Chagall repaired the windows after the war but left the shrapnel hole in the bottom left as a reminder.
This time I'm blogging stateside. Here is the sign for the hospital shopping center and hotel. They allow patients to get out and families to stay close. 
The stone sign on the hospitial.
Israel is like America, only different.
Sharon is arranging our entry to the synagogue with the Chagall windows.
The synagogue holds services daily and allows visitors, too.
On Friday afternoon, we went to Machane Yehudah buy food and be with Jerusalemites preparing for Shabbat.
I had my first slack-jawed moment at the Jerusalem Archeological Park, on the western wall of the Temple Mount.
This is the end of an arch that was part of the Second Temple Mount and was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. In 1967 it was approximately at street level and there is graffiti carved into the wall at that height. The Israeli archeologists carefully excavated down to the bedrock.
Here is Sharon at bedrock level standing on paving stones from the street around the temple.
And this is a crater in the pavement on the bedrock. 
Among the stones that had been on the arch was this one. Sharon asked me to read the inscription on it. It says "Bet Tekiah..." This stone on the arch marked the place where the Levite, tribe of Levi, (out team) would stand and blow the "tekiah" call on the shofar.
Lindee above the temple mount.
The Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall below. Covered staircase allows tourist access to the temple mount, the previous staircase was unsafe.
Kids in the area below the Kotel. Signs read "Charity" and "Jews, keep Kosher."
We went to the Jerusalem Archeological Park on the southwest corner of the Temple mount.
Above the archeological park.
Ethiopian priest outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchure
Ethiopian chapel inside the church.
Icon of Mary
Rock on which Jesus's body is believed to have been washed. Archeologists indicate that this cannot have been the actual rock, but it is an object of veneration.
We entered The Old City through the Lion's Gate. See the lions above the entrance? They are actually panthers.
Random alley in the Old City.
Sign for the Via Dolorosa.
A church built on one of the stations of the via dolorosa.
Inside that church.
Candles at a chapel along the way.
Bill holding a cross at the end of the Via Dolorosa outside the Church of Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrims rent crosses to carry along the via and then they are stacked by the church and returned to station 1. Bill has cred because he had been a Jesuit.
Same night in Jerusalem, we walked home through "Liberty Bell Park" which has a replica of our Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
Practicing Judiasm in Israel is different from practicing it in Oregon. A bonfire in parking lot in Oregon will get a visit from the fire department and police. The same bonfire on the same night in a parking lot in Jerusalem is a celebration of the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer. The Omer is a seven week (49 day) period between the Exodus from Egypt [Passover] and the Receiving of the Torah at Sinai [Shavout]. Traditionally, its a period of no weddings or parties, but on the 33rd day, you can cut loose! 
First night we had dinner at "Joy" in Emek Rafaim [the Valley of the Ghosts (because fog forms there)] in Jerusalem. Here is a vet we saw walking back to the hotel.
And a lost dog poster.
Lindee and I arrrived in Jerusalem. Here we are on Haas Promenade in Talpiot, overlooking Jerusalem. The group welcomed us and we dropped a quick Shehechiyanu:*ברוך אתה יי אלהינו מלך העולם, שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה
*How do you like me now?The early settlers were evacuated from Talpiot in the wake of the 1929 Hebron massacre, but later returned. When the British left Jerusalem in May 1948, a Haganah military brigade launched Operation Kilshon to seize security zones previously occupied by the British and defend Jerusalem against attack by the Arab Legion. The British army camp in Talpiot, known as Mahane Allenby, was one of the strategic sites captured in this operation.[2]
After the Israeli War of Independence, Talpiot became the frontier, surrounded by Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem, although Israelis continued to live there. The neighbourhood expanded significantly after the 1967 Six-Day War. New residential districts were established in the enclave formerly controlled by the United Nations, which had been a no man's land. A large industrial zone developed on the outskirts of residential Talpiot to house the businesses evicted from Mamilla.
Over the last decade, Mahane Allenby was torn down and luxury towers were built on the land.
Things are different in Israel, here is the Hadassa Hospital where, on your left, the Synogague has stained glass windows by Chagal. Ultrasound is straight ahead.
The windows. Three of the twelve tribes.
Flags outside the hospital complex.
Hadassa Hospital has a gigantic excavation under way and I asked Sharon why. She said that Hezbollah has been targeting hospitals in the North (Galillee) and now Israel realizes their hospitals are targets, they decided to build an underground pavillion with three stories of operating rooms and a sheltered place for ambulances to unload.
