End of a weekend of Shuttles

We found a bar with half price drinks and had wonderful drinks for an unbelievably low price. I believe we paid less than 2 dollars a drink and tore the town apart. The next day on the way to the airport, Condor stopped next to the most hideous dunken donuts stand ever. A huge confederate flag was flying which was kinda crazy. We took a photo to have the event detailed.

Beach time

One of the biggest additions to the trip to see the space shuttle was getting a day on the beach. My parents condo was on the beach so we took the beach. A huge umbrella, a milf with a tight butt and some beach football rounded out the day. Both Condor and I got really burned which turned out to be very painful and eventually ended in some serious lobster skin! Absurd cars were found on the ride down there as well.

Friends and smoke clouds

I took a few photos of our buddies and a few more snaps of the smoke trail. The most amazing thing was being able to see the huge assembly building over 7 miles away and still be that big. Also, notice how good Suser, Dave and I look while Condor looks like a weenie.

Shuttle Launch

We got to watch the final space shuttle launch of all space shuttles, STS-135. The launch was delayed a short while but with incredible fanfare the shuttle took off! We watched as thousands of people cheered then wept in the beauty of it all. The rockets were sooo bright and the sound was thundering. My wonderful friend Condor, his lovely girlfriend, Susie, and her erudite brother, Dave, accompanied us. I have never seen people so joined together in one common cause. A wonderful feeling.

SNASA

We arrived in Cape Canaveral after a hair-raising ride in a pumped up Dodge Challenger. We arrived at the visitors center and got to see former space vehicles and quite a few people (close to 400,000). Mind you it was about 4:00 AM so we were a bit groggy but got cool stuff from the visitors center before moving on too something even cooler.

Ashley Visits

There is a wild girl I know named Ashley who came to visit for the weekend of the 4th of July. It was great! We had really really good ice cream, played putt putt. Destroyed each other in laser tag. We later caught a minor league baseball game along with awesome hotdogs and amazing fireworks (in multiple locations). The next morning, great walks were had in billion degree heat on the riverwalk. One of the best weekends in Augusta!

Home for a while

I came home for a few days. I barely had time to process before I saw Will with his new fiancee/wife (not sure what they were at the time). Later that week we rocked out at Rocklands. Then Horowitz passed out and Capito's girlfriend gave the thumbs up next to his passed out self. Many adventures were had.

Final Night

Thinking I had to be on the plane the next morning at 12 noon, I returned to Tel Aviv. At the border to the West Bank, I was detained by probably the hottest 5 female soldiers I have ever seen. They took part of my car apart, grilled me on various questions, reviewed my passport multiple times all the while I was checking them out (as best one does with women wearing combat uniforms). The entire time we had stayed in Tel Aviv, we had barely found hostels for $100 dollars. All of a sudden I found a beautiful hotel for $100 with huge rooms and my own bathroom. Granted it was for deeply spiritual Jews but I just didn't go to to the free services they had each night. Later on I walked to the beach for a gorgeous sunset. Now comes the twist, Orbitz gives notices 4 hours before you flight leaves. At 8 pm that night, I get a text saying my flight leaves in 4 hours. Plenty of time but I was out with some random Israelis and kinda tipsy. I made it to the flight for an epic journey home (I had a whole row to myself). I met up with Megan in the early morning for a few hours in New York where we had mimosas at 7:00am then wandered throughout a parade going on. It was glorious.

Dad

So although we have many quirks, such as he throws energetic dogs into my bed while I am asleep or sneaks up on me to pull my leg hairs when I am asleep, my Dad is still my best friend. I share with him everything and he is goof who makes me laugh. We have gotten in trouble, seen many cool civil war sites and he has monsterous big toes. His secret weakness is pressing on his thumbnails and porkroast. I love him and I even I put a sticker on the telephone stating "It's hard to be cool when your dad is goofy." Sometimes I can steal his uber comfy chair but Greg Nightingale seems to be able to sit it when he isn't there.

Lost in West Bank & Herodium

I got seriously lost in the West Bank. I probably drove around for 2 hours and asked probably 15 people where I was supposed to be going. I also left the Israeli controlled areas and followed two Palestinians down a dirt road. They were soooo friendly and got me where I needed to go. The love and the help I got from the Palestians, they were absurdly nice and not even family would help as much as they helped me. Finally I made it to the ancient city of Herodium which was built by Herod the Great and held off invading armies for a long time. It was also used by the Israeli Freedom Fighters.

Inside the Church

I entered the church through a door which was reduced in size to make you bend over and bow toward God. The inside is 1700 years old and so pretty. Many of the churches in Israel are overly done up and very ostentatious. This one was a bit more subdued. I also entered the Grotto of the Navity which is apparently the original stable that Jesus was born. My guide was fantastic and took me on a trip on the entire place.

Soraya Leaves

Sadly, Soz left me and I was on my own. I headed to Jerusalem for the night and bought copied DVDs. The next morning I headed to the West Bank and Bethlehem. The border crossing into the country was easy as pie. I saw the church built above where Jesus was born and the oldest continuously operated churches in the world. I met a girl and her mom there and Dorina thinks she is coming to the states and may meet up for a beer.

Eilat

So we made it back and went snorkling. The guy at the diving place told us that diving would be pointless so we just snorkled and then dove down. While snorkling, there were scuba divers not 5 feet below me which was silly. I also dove down to about 50 feet underwater to see reefs and wrecks closer and totally suprised the scuba divers. That night we had the most amazing fish I've ever had from a little hole in the wall restaurant. We took pictures in front of beautiful waters too.