I’ve been trying to show people some of the joys of stay-at-home vacations.
No planes, no long trips by car. These are what one could call “low-negative-footprint” vacations.
People can use the extra currency they might save to buy some local foodstuffs or locally made items. This will support small businesses in their own community and support low-transport products.
They can visit local parks, historic sites, and shops.
We can do all the reading, movie watching, or social media communicating that we want.
Also, we don’t have to get all packed and unpacked, worry about the car breaking down, or worry about the house or the car while we’re gone.
There’s more I could add, but I can’t think of it right now.
Judith said
Helen Young, I agree stay-vacations can be joyful especially when traveling for work is routine.
This seems an opportunity to urge everyone so fortunate as to be able to travel on one of the trips with Professor Ehrman to not pass it up. Israel was amazing!
You got to travel with Bart to Israel! That is amazing!
I wish this forum allowed people to post pictures!
However, you can make a slideshow video, post it on YouTube, and then share the link here if you have the time and chance. 🙂
Yup, I’m hinting… I’d love to see some pictures. But if it’s too much, I get it.
Maybe people could start a thread and call it ‘Traveling with Bart’ or something like that. It would be great to hear people’s stories and maybe even get some visuals.
I’ve always wanted to go back to the Middle East and especially to the area of northern Galilee around Mt Hermon since it is now partly accessible and plays such an important role in the Book of Enoch. But I just can’t justify playing tourist now while pretending the current ugliness in Gaza is not going on.
My first visit to Israel was in 1996. I went to Tel Aviv on business, but I managed to arrange a trip to Jerusalem with an old Jewish guide. He was a great guy who had come to Palestine as a child in 1936 with a family of Zionist persuasions. We both visited the Temple Mount without a problem: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. David greeted the Arab guides and shopkeepers cordially. In 2018, I went to a performance of the Batsheva Dance Company. The Temple Mount was off-limits to me—only Muslims were allowed to enter. On Palm Sunday, I headed from the Old City to the Lions Gate, walking against the flow of the procession. I took photos and made videos of this joyful celebration. I went outside the gate and stood outside the wall with pilgrims waiting to enter. Suddenly, the secret police rounded up some young pilgrims, causing outrage among the crowd. Immediately, soldiers appeared on the walls, their weapons pointed at us. This situation lasted several minutes – a cleric went to negotiate with the police. This all happened to the sound of very loud Arabic music, played by young Arab Muslims to disrupt the Christian celebration. Today, the situation has clearly worsened, but as the old Polish proverb goes, “It’s not so bad that it couldn’t get worse.”
I was over there in a time of relative quiet, between the Intifadas, in the early 1990s. The highlight of the trip was the direct six hour bus ride from Jerusalem to Cairo on the so-called “Peace Line” (Route 100). Following the Camp David Accords, a bus line in Israel and another in Egypt partnered to run daily buses between Israel and Cairo.
There were departure points from Israel in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The bus drove straight through the Gaza Strip, crossed the border at the Rafah Checkpoint, cut directly across the North Sinai highway, crossed the Suez Canal via a ferry at El Qantara, and arrived in Cairo. Everyone was so optimistic in those days that it was the beginning of something. Unfortunately it only lasted until 1996. Today much of that route is simply inaccessible for either tourism or commercial activity for obvious reasons.
I was fortunate.
Helen Young said
I went to a local park and saw some ducks 🙂
.
. (never mind) . .
Ducks are weird. But it’s the good kind of weird. I replenish my soul at a couple favorite shady spots beside a lake in a nearby park. Without fail at some point I look up and this same family of ducks approaches me. I know they’re the same. I recognize them. I don’t feed them. They just waddle up and stare at me as if expecting me to give them some information. I like them because they aren’t noisy and messy like those vile Canadian geese. Geese should be methodically hunted and exterminated. But when I went down to the County Parks & Recreation office to purchase a goose hunting licence they gave me the same strange look I got up in Wash DC when I tried to secure a pigeon hunting licence.
Stephen said
Helen Young said
I went to a local park and saw some ducks 🙂
.
. (never mind) . .
Ducks are weird. But it’s the good kind of weird. I replenish my soul at a couple favorite shady spots beside a lake in a nearby park. Without fail at some point I look up and this same family of ducks approaches me. I know they’re the same. I recognize them. I don’t feed them. They just waddle up and stare at me as if expecting me to give them some information. I like them because they aren’t noisy and messy like those vile Canadian geese. Geese should be methodically hunted and exterminated. But when I went down to the County Parks & Recreation office to purchase a goose hunting licence they gave me the same strange look I got up in Wash DC when I tried to secure a pigeon hunting licence.
I have a licence for my pet cat. Actually, it’s a dog licence with the word dog scratched out and the word cat written in in crayon.
Jill_L said
We had three baby ducks once. Their first exposure to water was that in our bathtub. When we put them in, they took right to the water zipping around the perimeter of the tub like three underwater torpedoes. Hilariously delightful.
That’s sweet.
I knew some people who had an attack duck. He would bite people’s feet if they walked into their yard.
Helen Young said
Stephen said
Geese should be methodically hunted and exterminated.
Excuse me Stephen, but do you mean that as a joke?
Well let’s just say my response was semi-hysterical. 
It’s just that at this lake I visit the geese are noisy and they shed and sh*t everywhere. Like pigeons, except louder and messier. I prefer ducks. Best of all is the sizable population of turtles.
When I walked out on my front porch this morning there was a medium sized black snake* sun-worshipping on the steps. I was loath to disturb it but as soon as it noticed me it took off in the grass lickety-split.
I have a non-aggression pact with nature. Outside, in their domain, I do not interfere. Last week I had a big beautiful ** you do not have permission to see this link ** on the same porch. They are an invasive species and there was worry that they might harm the local spider population by competition for resources. There was a recent study however that revealed that they prey on an almost completely different set of icky bugs and pests than our homegrown population. Hooray for illegal immigration! (Nobody tell ICE.)
Unfortunately over the weekend we had a short but mighty rainstorm and when I went out the next day the Joro and his web were gone. I wish it well wherever life blows it.
* They eat mice. Which do you prefer?
The only things that I’ve seriously cosidered exterminating are the COVID and AIDS viruses and perhaps a few other viruses as well. At least they should be limited to a harmless few, if that is possible.
I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get used to the sense of humor of a few people on this forum. I’m just not sure if I can.
Anyways, more on the wildlife later. 🙂
Unfortunately over the weekend we had a short but mighty rainstorm…
This statement should not be construed as a general dislike of rainstorms. I even like lightning as long as it is off in the distance. The rainstorm was unfortunate of course for the spider and my appreciation of it.
Sense of humor? What sense of humor?
Stephen said
Unfortunately over the weekend we had a short but mighty rainstorm…
This statement should not be construed as a general dislike of rainstorms. I even like lightning as long as it is off in the distance. The rainstorm was unfortunate of course for the spider and my appreciation of it.
Sense of humor? What sense of humor?
I lost my sense of humor when I was 8 months old and was clawed by a psychotic, insane monster. My mother remembered the date; I remembered the trauma. I was subsequently thrown on the trash heap of humanity because I was no longer “intact”.
I’ve been working on getting it back ever since – my sense of humor, that is.
Something has got to be funny out there somewhere. Maybe it’s just about figuring out what and where.
Sometimes I like the rain, and sometimes I don’t.
2380 said
I have seen Leap of Faith a long time ago.
My father who was a Catholic farm boy, said he and his brothers used to climb a hill outside of a “revival” meeting and laugh like crazy. It is what it is.
Have you seen The Mission with De Niro, Irons, Neeson?
No I haven’t seen The Mission.
Have you seen The Intern with De Niro?
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