This post guest written by Andy.
I just got back from a three week trip on the
USS MOUNT WHITNEY where we stopped in Israel for a few days. This is actually my 4th trip on the ship, but my first with the camera so I decided to do a blog post. Here's a picture of my room. I found it perfectly adequate, but Molly thought it looked depressing. It's a good thing I didn't get pictures of the enlisted or junior officer living spaces because that really would have depressed her.
We left from Gaeta, Italy which is about 90 minutes from where we live in Naples and a much nicer area. From there we went down the Italian coast to the Strait of Messina which is the small strait between Italy and Sicily.
We then stopped briefly in Sicily, but I didn't get off the pier and there was nothing worth capturing on camera. We continued on for several more days and then we got resupplied while at sea by the USNS Lewis and Clark. It's a pretty elaborate activity. First the ships get really close alongside each other. Then someone from one ship fires this rope cannon to the other ship (which took 4 tries because it was so windy). Then they use that rope to pull other lines across and eventually get a fuel line connected.
Finally after about two weeks we pulled into Haifa, Israel.
I spent a day in Haifa and ate lots of delicious food. My favorites were the hummus, the pickles, and an awesome knish. Then the next day I took a tour to Israel. We saw a lot of stuff, but it was really rushed.
The view from Mount Olive.
The market in Jerusalem.
The wailing wall. This is the holiest site in Judaism. It's the Western Wall of an ancient Jewish temple. The gold dome in this picture is a Muslim mosque on the site of the ancient Jewish temple. Some other things we saw not pictured were the sites where Jesus was betrayed, crucified, anointed, and buried as well as the tomb of King David.
The next day I went on a tour to
Masada and the dead sea. Masada was an ancient fortified castle where some of the last Jews held out when the Romans conquered Israel around the time of Jesus. The Jewish families held out for several years, but eventually all killed themselves to avoid being Roman slaves. Someone said that it looked a lot like Arizona, so I made sure to get a picture with the Israeli flag in it.
Then we went to swim in the dead sea. The dead sea is extremely salty and it's basically impossible to sink in. One of the customs is to put mud all over your body, let it dry, and then wash it off in the sea. It's supposed to make your skin silky smooth, but I'm not sure how well it worked in my case.
After three days in Israel we headed back. It took about 4 days to make it back to Gaeta.
I know this post is really late, but February 28th marked seven months for Eloise.
The thing about doing these photo shoots for the second baby, however, is that the first is always trying to get in on the action. I only ever get a few shots done before Miss Claire barges in! Ha!
During the month of February, Eloise got closer and closer to being able to crawl, and finally, in the beginning of March, she started crawling! She's having a much better time now that she can get around a bit. Her immobility was frustrating her, but it's a new game for mom now as I have to start baby-proofing!
Eloise is also developing quite the social life. She gets to hang out with Liam, Sadie's little brother, quite a lot. Even though he's several months older than she is, she is totally entertained by him and he by her. They have a great time playing together!
Recently, all four kids (Claire, Eloise, Sadie and Liam) got to play together... they had a great time and there was shockingly little chaos, so it was good for mommy too!
After spending the night in the little agriturismo, we woke up, had a lovely breakfast of home made baked goods and went on our way. We stopped at the Custodi Winery just outside of Orvieto. Our friends had gone there a few months before and highly recommended it. 
We then continued on to a small nearby town about twenty minutes away called Citta di Bagnoregio. This little town is on top of one of the hills and is only accessible by a foot bridge. We parked our car at the base of the bridge in the nearby town, and walked across the bridge to the little town. 
In the little streets, there were a number of very sweet tiles anchored into the walls depicting Mary and Jesus. I'm not ordinarily drawn to these types of things, which are all over Italy, but I found these to be especially endearing.
Once we walked across the town, the path wound down around the side of the hill a little ways until we came to a tunnel that we read about in our guidebook. The tunnel used to be used by the town's residents to transport goods. It was a very odd and somewhat spooky place to explore. Andy thought I was crazy for wanting to go inside!
But, he did eventually follow me!
After the walk through the tunnel, we found a little place to have a bit of bruscetta, which is one of the regional specialties. We ate in a tiny little, carved out, cave of a restaurant, where they had an ancient donkey powered olive oil press, and cooked the bruscetta next to an open fire in the fire place. It was very cool!
We decided to spend some of our President's Day weekend touring Umbria, a region just north of Rome. We'd heard great thing about the area, particulalry the town of Orvieto. The region also has fantastic wineries and, like much of Italy, has a number of agriturismos (sort of like a bed and breakfast on a farm), which we'd been looking forward to checking out.
Orvieto is also known for it's cathedral with it's magnificent facade. We had a lot of fun taking pictures in front of this lovely building.
The region is also known for bruscetta. Normally bruscetta is made up of toast with chopped tomatos and garlic, but in this town, you could find platters of bruscetta with a variety of toppings. We simply had to taste the local specialty in a couple of places and it was delicious!
In this picture, the town of Orvieto sits on top of hill behind Andy and Eloise. Eloise and Claire had fun playing in the grounds of the agriturismo. 
Later, we put the girls to bed in our upstairs room and went downstairs for a lovely meal, complete with freshly baked bread and other tasty treats from the farm and the nearby region. We thought the food was good and a we were again impressed by the variety of Italian food as we travel to different regions of the country.
The view from Mount Olive.
The market in Jerusalem.
The wailing wall. This is the holiest site in Judaism. It's the Western Wall of an ancient Jewish temple. The gold dome in this picture is a Muslim mosque on the site of the ancient Jewish temple. Some other things we saw not pictured were the sites where Jesus was betrayed, crucified, anointed, and buried as well as the tomb of King David.
Then we went to swim in the dead sea. The dead sea is extremely salty and it's basically impossible to sink in. One of the customs is to put mud all over your body, let it dry, and then wash it off in the sea. It's supposed to make your skin silky smooth, but I'm not sure how well it worked in my case.
After three days in Israel we headed back. It took about 4 days to make it back to Gaeta.
