Day 87

Leslie and I at the Cemetery 

John A. Clark of Farmington Utah

Katie and I on Carmel Ridge

Me, Katie, Lauren, Kara at Caesarea

On the shore

Mediterranean Sea at Caesarea

Ruins at Caesarea

Caesarea

Thursday. The 24th of November.

Happy Thanksgiving! This morning we all got up early and finished packing and getting our stuff ready to go. At breakfast there was another group of college age students that have been traveling around for a few months. I was so confused who they were for a minute because they were our age but not part of our group! So odd. We loaded the busses and headed out. Our first stop was supposed to be forty minutes away but it took almost two hours because of the traffic. We stopped at the German Templar Cemetery where a few LDS missionaries are buried in the 1890's. One of the missionaries was from Farmington. We then drove up to a Monastery on Carmel Ridge where Elijah talks with the priests about Ba'al. The other class reenacted the story for us. We then sang in a small chapel for a while, the acoustics were really great. A lot of other tourist came and listened to us, one even said that we sounded like angels. We went up onto the roof and looked at the view and could see all of the Jazreel Valley. Our last site was at Caesarea, it was a giant city right on the coast of the Sea. Huntsman talked to us for a few minutes in the theater and then down by the water. Then we were free to wonder for about an hour. It was so nice, the sea was beautiful. It was so nice being by the beach. There were ton's of ruins there as well, we walked along the coast and looked at the ruins for a while. We ran into this man and his wife who went to BYU and were living in Italy. They were interesting, but nice. We got some ice cream then got back onto the bus for the last time. And started driving home! But I was about to kill half of the kids on my bus, because they sang the same song over and over and over again. Literally it was two and a half hours of the same MJ song. Finally Huntsman got on the speaker and told them to stop. We finally got back to the center and it was all decorated for us! It was so exciting, there were lots of Christmas trees and fun lights. I was so happy to back to my room and my soft warm bed! I took my stuff to my room then talked to the family for a little while. We had dinner at six and we were supposed to look decent because they had prepared a really nice Thanksgiving dinner for us. It was so exciting. They had a huge buffet table set up for us full of yummy foods. Obviously it wasn't the same kind of meal I would have at home, but I still enjoyed it. The desserts went so fast, so Katherine and I literally stood by the table for five minutes waiting for them to bring us out some more. Eventually we got some. The kids from my bus performed their song that they had practiced for twenty years. I then went and put my laundry in, lucky timing for me that they weren't all full. I talked to the fam for a little while again. Once I was done talking and doing my laundry I ended up making a Christmas list. Mainly I just went around and asked people what there favorite books were and looked them up. Finally around midnight I went to bed, not having done any of my homework.