Day One

Whew...Day One flew by in a blur. After arriving seemingly early about 8am at the Pilgrim Reception Center to register with 400 of our newsest closest friends, it was mid-day. The Ferdowsi's from Nashville are here, too!

We had just a little time for Brian to escort Paula, Dustin, Ethan and the three of us (Geo was off on an errand) to the Hadar district for some great falafel (yep, we'll have a lot of that while we're here), and while we waited for the food everyone tried to decompress a little.

The rest of the day was spent in orientation, then quality time at the Shrine of the Bab, read, meditate, say prayers, and rest up at the Pilgrim House adjacent to the Shrine.

Tomorrow will start early with a visit to Bahji...but I get a little ahead of myself. More tomorrow.:-)

Preparing for the experience....

Today flew by...actually I don't remember too much of it. After the blog entry, I collapsed in bed and didn't wake up until 2! I must have been really, really out of it, and this is from someone who normally gets up at 5:30 and never, never sleeps in.
Geofffrey and Brian came over and Geo chaired our first family planning meeting...
We were then joined on the balcony and just relaxed most of the rest of the afternoon into the evening with the other pilgrims staying at Haddad's Guest House...all from Canada.:-)
This evening Paula Bailey, Dustin and Ethan arrived from Birmingham. We all went out for a generous serving of fattoush salad, meat and meatless hummus, tabouli and enough pita bread to go around. Gosh, it seems like we've been here for days ... and it hasn't even been 24 hours!

:-)

We Have Arrived.....

Good day one from Israel!

We had the fortune of spending several hours in Cincinnati on the way over ... had brunch with Katrina and Jameh and Taleh, and then happily Nafeh goined us for a while for a wonderful stopover. The flight from JFK was only 10 hours so it was manageable. But we were still pretty wrung out. We had better seats but I still got the middle seat...how does this happen?????
Nonetheless, we arrived in Haifa on what seemed to be an agonizingly slow Sherot drive up the coast but the weather was delightful. We have moved into our home for a month at Haddad's Guest House and we were greeted at the door by Andrew.
There were other pilgrims already here...a small family group from Vanvouver, Canada...and a Baha'i from Botswana.
The view of the Gardens from the balcony was great:

We did a little walk around to the first terrace gate and then by Geo's work place to stretch our legs. A little earlier, Geoffey and Brian had gone out to fine some falafels for us....it was almost worth the flight over. :-)
I awake groggily this morning (R is still sleeping , its 8:45 already) and I opened our little window to the world...such a great temperature for a decompression day! And the morning view is priceless:That "shroud" is a protective covering while earthquake-proof modifications are made to the Shrine of the Bab.
We'll have brunch with the guys (I think Geo is cooking) and then go to the Pilgrim House or the Pilgrim Reception Center, have some Persian Tea, read, relax, and get ready for the Pilgrimmage to start tomorrow.
We wish you all were here, and I will do my best to keep my blog daily.