I’m halfway through my two-week trip to Israel and Jor­dan. This is my sec­ond time to Israel and it’ll be my first time to Jor­dan. As before, I’ve been based in Tel Aviv, tak­ing day trips to Jerusalem, Masa­da and the Dead Sea. The food, archi­tec­ture and his­to­ry here are all incred­i­ble. So many cul­tures have come togeth­er here and blend­ed into some­thing both new and ancient.

This after­noon I’ll be hop­ping onto a 40 minute flight and then tak­ing a ride through the desert to our next des­ti­na­tion, Petra. I can’t wait — this is the thing I’ve been look­ing for­ward to most on this trip.