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Heather's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 8/20/00 -------------------- 8/19/00 8/18/00 8/17/00 8/15/00 8/14/00 8/12/00 8/11/00 8/11/00 8/10/00 8/10/00 8/10/00 8/9/00 8/7/00 8/6/00 8/5/00 -------------------- Heather's Introduction

August 18, 2000

August 18, 2000
Friday

I slept in until about 1 p.m. today! I hate that, but I needed it after that hike.

Mom sent Dad and I into Bethlehem to do some vegetable shopping. So, Dad decided to take me over to King Solomon's pools, which are there in Bethlehem. I had never seen them before, and it was amazing!

Apparently, during King Solomon's reign, an aqueduct from the northern part of Israel ran down through Jerusalem, all the way to the Temple Mount and the pools were a type of reservoir that caught the water, in-between the cities.

There are three pools and each one is very large, but shaped uniquely different. We aren't sure what they were always used for because two of them have tiered steps that look like they could have been used for recreational purposes. Nevertheless, they were so much fun to look at.

After we were done there, we headed out to take a look at Beit Jalla, which is where my brother was born. It is inside, or adjacent to Bethlehem. Either way, it was real close. It is a very beautiful town.

(Update: Beit Jalla is where the shooting has been taking place from the Palestinians, into the Jewish section of Gilo, inside Jerusalem.) Beit Jalla is mainly occupied by Christian Arabs, and there are many beautiful churches, and monasteries there.

Well, we had a purpose in going to Bethlehem, so we needed to get over to the vegetable market for the Shabbat dinner Mom was preparing. I had fun going through all the vegetables and fruits. I even picked out some fresh dates for my mother-in-law, which is all she wanted from Israel!

Mom had invited a few friends over to have dinner with us. One of them is a girl I had known when we lived in Seattle years ago. She happened to be in Israel at the same time I was. I had not seen her since I was about 14. It's interesting how things like that can happen! Anyway, Mom cooked a fabulous meal as usual, and we all had a great time.

I ended up packing for most of the night after the company left. It was hard for me to go to sleep because I had slept in so late that day, and I knew that I had to get up early the next morning for church. This was also the last night of sleep that I was going to get before my trip home! Just my luck!

Photo: My dad and I are sitting on the top of one of the pools. There are 3 altogether. ~
Photo: My dad, down in the second pool. ~