Pilgrimage aboard USS MOUNT WHITNEY

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.