February 25, 2006

The Beutlers' visit

We were thrilled to have our friends from Switzerland come visit us in Israel. Russ and Lisa Beutler (and their daughters Madeleine and Elodie) were in our ward in Oregon before they moved to Switzerland with Intel. Russ also served in the same mission as Scott. We visited them in Geneva in August 2004.

The Beutlers arrived Tuesday night. We stayed up late catching up after (mostly) getting the kids to bed.

On Wednesday, Scott and Russ went to work so they could both finish some things that they needed to get done. Tiffany and Lisa took the three girls to the mall while Tyler was at pre-school.

Three girls driving

After work, we all went to Stella Maris, the supposed location of Elijah's cave. We admired the beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean and walked along the Louis Promenade. The Louis Promenade overlooks the Baha'i gardens and the German colony. Afterwards we got bagel sandwiches from our favorite bagel shop.

Stella Maris

On Thursday morning, Scott went to work and Tiffany watched the kids so that Russ and Lisa could do some sightseeing on their own. They went to the Baha'i shrine and the German colony.

Russ at the Baha'i Shrine

After lunch, the entire Beutler family went to Caesarea, which is one of our favorite sites in Israel. Afterwards, we met at Avasi, a traditional Middle Eastern restaurant.

Elodie and Russ at Caesarea

On Friday, we all went to Megiddo. Megiddo is an Israeli national park that consists of a hill made up of 26 layers of ancient ruins. It is more famously known as Armageddon, which comes from Har Megiddo, meaning mountain of Megiddo. Megiddo is in the Jezreel valley, sometimes called the valley of Armageddon, which we drive through on the way to church every week.

Here Madeleine and Tyler are looking though an ancient millstone found at Megiddo.

Madeleine and Tyler and a millstone

It was a pretty warm day, but we still enjoyed hiking around the ruins. It was a nice change for the Beutlers from the cold Swiss weather. We brought a picnic lunch with us. Of course the kids had more fun playing than eating. The ruins were interesting and the views were spectacular.

Armageddon horse trough

One of the neatest parts of Megiddo is the aqueduct. Megiddo was besieged and destroyed so many times, that eventually residents built a tunnel to a nearby spring so they could get water even if they were surrounded. We enjoyed climbing down into the tunnel and walking through the aqueduct.

Armageddon water system

After we exited Megiddo through the water tunnel, we walked back to our cars. There we happened to meet Ritchie and Judy Whitehead who were sightseeing with their family. They recommended that we visit the Carmelite monastery at El-Muhraqa, which is the traditional site of Elijah's contest with the priests of Baal. We were glad we went. The drive there was beautiful. The highlight was the observation point on the roof of the church. We could see all of the Jezreel valley on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.

From Carmelite Monastery

We drove home through Daliyat el-Karmel, a Druze village near Haifa. We were tired so we ordered pizza and then put the kids in bed. Tiffany and Lisa enjoyed watching Olympic women's figure skating together.

On Saturday we went to church. We brought Doug Abbott with us in our car and the Beutlers took Ali.

The Beutler family at church

After church we visited the sites near the Sea of Galilee: Capernaum, St. Peter's Primacy, Tabgha and the Mount of Beatitudes.

Madeleine at the Sea of Galilee

On Sunday morning we said goodbye to the Beutlers as they left to go to Jerusalem. We had to stay behind so that we could get ready for our trip to South Africa.

We were having so much fun with our friends that we didn't think to write down any Tyler-isms or Brooke-isms.

Posted by sjbowden at February 25, 2006 8:56 PM