First off thank you to substitute bloggers Mike Steger and Reliable Ray Walcott who "covered" for me while my family and I enjoyed our time traveling in Israel and for one day in Jordan.  A special THANK YOU to Gotham's travel agent, Laura Avital, who arranged and organized -- perhaps "curated" betters represents things -- special experiences throughout the State of Israel and Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  From the outset, we decided not to tour with any larger group; we have friends who visited Israel as a group but we limited our "group" to five -- Shelly and me, our daughter Marisa, son Jonathan and his wife, Carrie.  We flew from JFK into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.  There, our VIP representative holding a sign with our name on it eased our way through security and customs to our transit to Tal By The Beach hotel where we enjoyed our first three nights.  Our first day was a "recovery" day after the long flight; I enjoyed the rooftop view after breakfast:

That eve we enjoyed dinner at a place Marisa recommended from an earlier visit, Whiskey Bar & Museum, site of a former Mossad tunnel.

On the next day, our first of seven days of touring, our truly spectacular and knowledgable guide (and driver) Netaniel Petrushka, met us and we drove to the old Port City of Jaffa and explored its splendor and history.  We returned to Tel Aviv for a Carmel market tasting tour with our guide, Ohel who curated our culinary visit. We saw gentrification on the alleys just beyond the market.

The second tour day, we took in the ancient City of Caesarea, visited the Ein Shemer Kibbutz and learned its history and evolution from collective to privatized self-sufficiency.  

I likened that ownership change to when two veterans housing developments in northeast Queens went private.  We then walked through the Ramat Hanadiv Gardens dedicated to Baron Edmond de Rothschild. We visited another historical and archaeological site where outside this tower, I viewed this:

In Zichron Yaacov we dispersed for lunch and I enjoyed most delightful and plentiful falafel at a most reasonable price.  We stayed the next two nights at Villa Carmel in Haifa.

Day three of our touring, we walked ancient and mystical Tzfat where I "deposited" a Tzedukkah offering 

on behalf of my longtime friend, City Council Member Kalman Yeger, drove to the Sea of Galilee for a boat ride and enjoyed a wine tasting at a small family-owned kosher winery.

Day four featured a look at the beautiful Bahia Gardens and  the Crusader town of Acre (today, Akko).  

We explored the old fortifications and a walk through its markets.  Next stop Jerusalem for four nights at Prima Kings Jerusalem; as you can see each hotel welcomed us when we reached our rooms.

Day five featured a visit to ancient fortress Masada.  We took a cable car to the mountain top and viewed the "ruins" of last stronghold of the Jewish Zealots in their struggle against the Romans.  Next stop the Dead Sea where we "bathed after a nice lunch.  

We visited the Vad Yashem Holocaust memorial and museum; it was a moving experience.  From there, we visited the Israel Museum, viewed its model of Jerusalem that depicts the City in the period if the 2nd Temple and its Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.  A tour of the Knesset, Israel's parliament building, followed; we saw the Knesset Committees Wing -- sat in a committee room and its Plenary Hall, Chagall Hall, and the exhibit of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.  I found interest the oval shape of the committee room table; my experience with the (New York) City Council, (New York) State Legislative and Congressional hearing mostly involve sets up with the elected officials facing the hearing witnesses rather than each other in a manner that facilitates discussion.  

It proved fortuitous to visit that day as the evening saw the beginning of protests outside the residence of the Prime Minister a few blocks from our hotel that carried over the next day outside the Knesset.

Monday, our seventh day of touring, we visited the Old City, its City of David with tunnels and archaeological digs,

the ancient commercial Street, Cardo, and Arab Bazaar, and viewed the old city from a synagogue rooftop, and placed our messages and prayed outside the Western Wall.  

There I picked up a Chai made of stone from the Temple Mount Sifting Project at Moriah in the Jewish Quarter.

Tuesday, we departed Jerusalem for Ben Gurion Airport for a quick flight to Ramon Airport to reach Eilat on where we stayed overnight at luxurious Leonardo Plaza from where we took a quick dip in the Red Sea/ Indian Ocean.  Early the next morning, we were driven to the border crossing into Jordan, we had guides to aide our passages to and from the Israel and Jordanian sides.  Inside the Jordan side, we met our extraordinary guide Amani and amiable driver Adnan who drove us through Aqaba to reach Petra; the ride included a picturesque mountain landscape that looked like a series of landscape paintings.  Petra was amazing. 

Passing through a series of narrow passages we reached the "Treasury" -- it is one thing to view it via TV documentaries and another to visit it in person.  We enjoyed a buffet lunch in town until commencing our return to the border, crossing back to Israel, grabbing our luggage at Leonardo Plaza and then heading to Ramon Airport for our return flight to Ben Gurion Airport.  We stayed Wednesday eve in our first hotel in Tel Aviv and headed the next day back to the Airport for our nice flight home.

There are more pics I need to cull from the iPhones of my companions.  Shelly plan to create a book of pics of other memorabilia.

It really helped to have an experienced travel professional to plot out a fabulous vacation.