New York to Jerusalem to New York to Minnesota to Montana to Michigan and back again in nine days sounds crazy right? Welcome to my family summer vacation. Since we were all busy with work and other commitments for the majority of the summer, my family had to dedicate a small portion of time to spend together! This summer also happened to be my cousin’s wedding in Jerusalem, and we needed to plan around that as well. It has always been my dad’s dream to go out west and visit Yellowstone National Park with us, so we ended up combining the two trips into one crazy experience.
First off was the trip to Israel, and it was such a great time! We stayed in Jerusalem along with the rest of my extended family for just four nights (not even enough time for the jetlag to set in!) During the days my cousins, brothers and I would go exploring; one day we went to the Old City to see the Kotel (the Western Wall), another day we saw some Christian churches, and we also walked around the Arab Shuk and Jewish Quarter. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was a first for me, and it was absolutely beautiful inside with all of the different artwork and decorations.
After a few days of touring, it was finally time for my cousin’s wedding! The ceremony was held at Beit Shmuel, a hotel that has the most beautiful view in all of Jerusalem! It was so great to be able to see all of my Israeli family and to spend some time with them.
The following day, we were all off on our separate ways and back on a plane toward Big Sky, Montana and Yellowstone.
While in Montana we got to see some amazing sites at Yellowstone National Park and we also went on great hikes! We saw the famous Old Faithful Geyser, as well as other geysers that had the bluest water I have ever seen. There were also a ton of uprooted trees that had gnarled roots that looked like pieces of art. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing tons of elk and bison- I even saw a bison that stopped traffic for a good ten minutes while crossing the road!
While nine days was pretty short, and probably a quarter of it was spent in the air, this vacation was a great time for my family and I, and one of the most scenically beautiful ones yet!