George and I had an unexpected opportunity to go to Israel in late March 2011. What a trip! This was our first visit to the Middle East, and we weren't sure what to expect, so we didn't do our usual thing and extend the trip for several days after the rest of the group departed. That was a mistake – now we're going to have to go back again, because we had nowhere near enough time to explore Jerusalem, or visit any of the Crusader cities, or taste all the Israeli specialties, or fly all the paragliding sites.
March was the perfect time to be in Israel: The northern part of the country was green and lush and blanketed in wildflowers, while the desert wasn't killer hot, and the hike up Masada was a pleasure. Here are my scrapbook pages; I've included images of the 2-page spreads, which are probably too low res to read the journaling, but I think the double pages lose something when they're only presented singly. I still need to do a few more layouts from our London excursion, but the Israel part is finished.
