Mary's Day

For Mary's special field trip day, she wanted to do Hezekiah's Tunnel. The tunnel walk is only about 20 minutes long, and she had to endure 2 1/2 hours of other stuff before she could get in the tunnel--boring stuff like archaeological explanations, a 3D explanatory movie, and walking two kilometers. But I think she enjoyed the day nonetheless. I know she was at least happy to get a free day off of school!

I wanted to take a picture of her in this niche.

That meant she demanded the right to take a picture of me sitting on this rock.

She was bored during one of the explanations, so she took pictures of flowers to pass the time.

Here's Dad, sitting and waiting for everyone to finish in the tunnel.
He's actually sitting on an old sarcophagus (an ancient coffin).

After Mary made it out of the tunnel, she wanted to play around near the water. (The water in the tunnel is a spring--much cleaner than the muddy stuff at the end.) You can't see it in this photo, but she is wet all the way to her waist. 

The end of Hezekiah's Tunnel is also the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus told the blind man to go and wash his eyes to receive his sight (John 9). Here's Ed teaching the story.

Mary wasn't all that interested in listening to her Dad talk, so she sat on the sarcophagus and cleaned her feet. 

A very old and cool-looking olive tree.

On the old City of David ridge, to the South of the Temple Mount and just below Hezekiah's Tunnel is an old rock quarry. Here you see Mary lying on a stone that was partly cut for use in building. It is roughly the size of the stones used in the retaining wall around the Temple Mount, so perhaps that is where it was originally intended to be used.

Mary with Lizzy Van de Graff, the student who was her buddy through the tunnel. Lizzy has the brightest smile, and is one of the finest violinists I've ever had the privilege to know. Apparently she can also whistle a concerto!