Masada, The Dead Sea, and Goodbye to Our Guide

Today was our guide's last day with us. We already miss him. He told us last night we had to leave by 4am sharp this morning in order to make it to Masada by sunrise. We were on the bus at 4am sharp. He said he wasn't expecting that, and we'd probably arrive 15 minutes early. Good group.

We're back from climbing Masada and swimming in the Dead Sea. We arrived back at the hotel at 1pm, and now we're taking a little rest. We'll head back out to East Jerusalem for some free time and shopping in a half hour. It was really fun, beautiful and great exercise. Just the antidote to the highly emotional experiences of the last two days. I won't say much, but let the photos do most of the talking. It took us an hour or more to hike up, and it was a strenuous workout, even for the athletes in the group. Nick, Ben and Leib tried to run their way up, but ended up having to stop and blow which allowed others to catch up. Running proved no faster than walking. Evan, who never rushed, never ran, but never stopped, was the first over the crest. It wasn't exactly a competition, but Leib laughed, "Evan is the total Tortoise, we're the Hares." We made it up to the top of the plateau in waves. The first to arrive went straight to the Guard House, the highest point in the fortress, and waited for the others. The 360 degree view was spectacular. Our guide arrived in the middle of the pack, and carefully made his way through story after story about the history of Masada, and the Four Crazy Men who influenced it most. He is a brilliant storyteller. I thought about Kyle climbing that hill with his buddies every step of the way. Would he have rushed to keep up with the guys or would he have lingered back to have all the beautiful women to himself? I'm not sure, but I know he would have loved it, and when I got to the top and saw this, I knew he would have loved this scene most. I could feel his exhilaration:

Here is more of the scene we took in, and more of the beautiful faces of Kyle's friends:

I'll write later about the Dead Sea and about our guide's final insightful comments to us.