Where a professor takes his wife on a date in Israel!

Today was a day just for Sharon and I to relax, get over the jet lag, and do something in Israel that we won't get to do on the IFL tour. So at 8 am this morning I was at Budget Rental Cars in Tel Aviv to get the car for the day.
Where should I take my beautiful wife for a day she won't soon forget? Why not . . . start the day by trying to get to the significant site of Gezer, one of the three major cities that Solomon fortified (1 Kings 9:15) but we were stopped by a muddy river bottom that we couldn't go through! So why not . . . to the Emmaus the traditional site where Jesus revealed himself to two disciples who recognized him in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13). . . then a drive up the Aijalon Valley all the way to Beth Horon on the Beth Horon ridge route (we had to stop at the more modern Jewish Beth Horon and take a picture down to the Arab village and beyond to the Aijalon Valley since this area is part of the West Bank [see the picture to the right]). Here I read Joshua 10 that I had preached last week at Waterbrook Bible Fellowship. Sharon and I were literally standing between Gibeon [where the sun stood still 10:12] and the Aijalon Valley [where the moon stood still 10:12] as I read about a day like no other in the history of the world (10:14). Then . . . on to Zorah the birthplace of Samson (Judges 13:2) . . . to the Sorek Valley where Samson lit the Philistines grain on fire (Judges 15:5) . . . to Tel Beth Shemesh the place where the ark came to rest after the Philistines sent it on its way on a cart pulled by two milk cows (1 Samuel 6:12) . . . then over a ridge to the Elah Valley where David fought Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2) . . then back to our hotel on the Mediterraean Sea! In the middle of what I would consider a great date, I stopped with my wife at Aroma Coffee for a fresh sandwich and chocolate coffee (and a stop to at Canada Park)! What more could a wife ask for on a date with a professor!
For me, to travel and stop and read the Scriptures about the sites with the one I have loved for almost 35 years now is an amazing experience. Sharon is having a short rest now before we greet the 13 other professors who are arriving shortly or I'd give her a chance to express her feelings about the day. For any ladies reading this, if she is somehow disappointed in such a "biblical" date, I promise you I will buy her some jewelery in Jerusalem!