After a lovely welcome at Newark Airport, we got oriented and made it through security (minus a few tubes of sunscreen that were over 3.0 oz). The 11 hour flight gave us time to go from acquaintances to friends.

The schedule did not allow for any time to rest. Upon landing at 6:45 am local time, we headed east for our welcome reception overlooking the Judaean hills, where we said the 'shehecheyanu' prayer and toasted to the journey ahead. Afterwards, we descended down the hill into an ancient stalactite cavern.