Welcome to the Holy Land

During the week of Thanksgiving, Julie and I went to visit Aron in Israel. It was eye opening, cool, sad, wonderful and exhilarating all at the same time. You see Julie hasn't been to Israel in 33 years and I haven't been there in 20 years.

Israel has grown up!

This little third world country has grown into a modern industrial and agricultural state. We're only talking about a country the size of Rhode Island. Yet, the Israeli economy is no longer dependent on just tourism.

The week before we left we watched CNN and Fox news. We didn't visit the same place that's the cable news people seem to be visiting. Believe it or not, not all Israel's have their heads hiding in a fox hole. This country is alive and well, young and old, religious and secular are out and about going about their daily lives.

I felt safer walking the streets in Jerusalem at night then I do here in beautiful Birmingham, Alabama. Yes, most the young people are in the service and carry guns, yes you have to go through metal detectors and show your backpack's contents to enter a restaurant or a mall.

When Aron took us out to dinner in the Arab village in an Arab restaurant and he ordered in fluent Hebrew just outside of Jerusalem we felt no danger. Weird, just plain weird.

Ok, enough ranting.

I did a couple of art projects while I was there (like you thought I wasn't going to play with my camera). I already have one gallery in Birmingham interested in a show and I'm working on another in San Diego at the end of the year.

As Julie and I were sitting in a cafe having yet another cup of wonderful Cafe Mocha. Julie turned to me and said, "When are we coming back"? Soon hopefully very soon.

Paste the link below into your browser for the slideshow -
www.altmarkphoto.com/slideshows/Israel/iframe.html