Masa Kumtah II

Hope everyone had (is having) a wonderful Shavout (Shavous). MyShan and I had quite an experience this year. We were invited to the inlaws for Shavout. For those who dont remember, inlaws live in the furthest corner of Jerusalem from anything. We decided we wanted to do the whole stay up learn/walk to the Kotel thing. So first we ate dinner (meat), then we left and went to real Jerusalem. We passed by a shul in Rechavia and saw everyone going in so we followed. We heard a shiur for a long time on Yonah. It was very interesting, even intellectual. The Professor who gave it went thru the whole sefer analyzing it bit by bit. I dont know why he picked Yonah, but hey, its all Torah. Then we went to the Old City to a shiur that was being given in memory of someone Shany knew. It was more boring, but we still stayed up. Then we went to the Kotel and davend Vatikin. It was very cool. The mechitza was put up extending all the way to the back of the plaza, the whole place was so full. There was one minyan of men and women staying side by side davening, I though that was interesting, but we didnt join them. I was a bit disappointed about two things. Firstly, right at Vatikin, we started Shemone Esrei, along with the majority of people. But a few of the minyanim were a few minutes behind, so right when its supposed to get totlly quiet, you hear abunch of people screaming "Mi Chamocha", or "Tzur Yisrael". It kinda killed the moment. Secondly, all the Kohanim dont duchen at the same time. I still havent seen all the kohanim duchening together, and now I still havent. It was hard to tell what minyan we were in, but we did have time to look around. I pointed out to Mendy a a secret code written in the wall. It says "LIOC" or "LIDC" about halfway up to the left. We couldnt figure out what it meant. After we davened, I went and found Shany. I was amazed at how many of our friends were there. Nothing like a good scene at 7AM at the Wall. Then we left and started the walk, the long long walk, back to the inlaws. We had many invitations to stay in closer places, but then we would have missed my mother in laws milchig meal. So we walked. Up and down, and up and down. We brought a little water bottle, plus I had my tallit. I started walking with the tallit ( not a tallis, it has blue strings, and blue stringers are for sure tallit and not tallis) on, but it got too hot for that. MyShan did a wonderful job walking the length of Rechavia, until almost tzomet pat. Thats when the pain kicked in. But she trooped on. The inlaws dont just live at the end of Jerusalem, they live on the top of another mountain. We finally made it to their mountain. I knew slowly climbing it could take hours. So I took Shans hand and we started running. and stopping. and running. and in many short sprints, we conquered the mountain. We made it into the inlaws house as they were about to go to shul for the regular minyan. The Shans feet were hurting, so she took off her shoes-and they were blood soaked. Talk about mesirat nefesh. What an Eshet Chayelet. Then we slept and woke up for the milchig meal. The cheesecake, while it wasnt moms, was very good, as was the rest of the food. Then we slept til Chag ended.
Next year, either were not going to the Kotel, or not going to my in laws.