361.January 05

Chicago, IL

I left for Israel today, starting at Chicago O'Hare, to travel and study with Professor Simon-Hanson of Luther. It was to be a month long course covering the history of the bible using as it's home base Tiberias, which is on the shores of the Lake Kinnaret, the harp, the sea of Galillee. We were asked to write a journal for the class, and we travel from place to place. Everything is very close together in Israel, so the bus rides were never long, the food was tremendous, and this is my first chance to drink ale, which I quickly fell in love with at Big Ben tavern in Tiberias. I travelled with some great people, and definitely the group was very diverse in interests and studies. (One was my girlfriend at the time, and perhaps it was a mistake to travel together, because we did have some trying times already on our first trip together, as we would on all of our journeys together over the next 2 years She'll be referred to as Becca in all of these journals, and as you see, she travelled with me from this trip until Summer of 1994).

(This trip was to last nearly a month, and this my first time abroad. We passed through Frankfurt on our way, and I remember vividly that morning seeing the H&K94 rifles in the airport in both Frankfurt, and upon our arrival in Tel Aviv. We were definitely entering another world than I knew. Security at that time seemed very lax in the USA, except when it come to drug sniffing dogs. On the way back, I remember the dog that spent a long time going over my suitcase, which was full of wool blankets and chess pieces. But we'll get back to that at the end of the month. This trip will be my 2nd attempt at a travel journal. The first completed as Lars Friske and I passed through Ontario and

1993

Cornwall, UK

We took a bus to St. Ives and looked in Art Galleries and went shopping. Later that night we went to Mousehole, in Cornwall. The Christmas lights were gorgeous. There were sea serpents and all sorts of creatures in the light show across the water. We wrote in our journals and in letters and cards. We drank bitter.

1994

Minneapolis, MN

Patiently, I write small. I remember the necessity of small letters across foreign correspondence. That became such a goal of mine. But the only response I'm looking for here is initiative.

1998

London, UK

Departing from London, Islington, Kate's flat: This morning I woke any number of times, to check the time, thinking I was late for my flight. I finally dressed at 6:45 and left shortly after 7:00 for Gatwick via Victoria. I got there before 8:30 and ate at Yates in the airport, a full English breakfast for £5.50. This is the end of my journal for this trip. (The red journal is now finished.)

2004

Tonight I made pizza with some more of the crust I prepared on New Years eve, covered with little smokies from new years eve also. It was a brilliant concoction with an alfredo barbeque sauce. We watched "The International" with Clive Owen, and both loved it.

2010

We watched the last episodes of Sherlock on Netflix. Rachel brought a pizza home from her shopping trip, and we shared half a bottle of cheap white wine before bed.

2012

Tonight we drank a bottle of 2018 Primitivo from Maryhill Winery, a seductive and spicy wine. We enjoyed many episodes of The White Lotus over dinner. The day was cold and windy, as the rest of the state and much of the country was covered by a blizzard. I installed new AP's at work until late, and then came home to a wonderful meal that Rachel had prepared with our left-overs.

2022