Lamb Chop, infrequent flier

We left on July 1 for Israel. By we, I mean Football Lamb Chop and me. I decided to take her along, since she had never been traveling before, and I thought the company would be nice.

We had to get up early for our 9 AM flight, so Lamb Chop took a nap.

Checking out the flight status at the terminal.

What? Delayed? Lamb Chop angry! Let me speak to the manager!
It's ok, Lamb Chop. We have a long layover in Newark, so we'll be just fine. Then we've got the long flight, about 11 hours. How does that sound, Lamb Chop?

...Lamb Chop? Lamb Chop, hello?

Aaah! Scoot back, Lamb Chop, we'll have plenty of time to be cramped on the plane!

That's better. (Lamb Chop still doesn't quite get the camera. She thinks she has to look into the lens like a telescope.)

Once we got on the plane, Lamb Chop told me to take a picture so she could show the rest of the Lamb Chop family what a good and positive traveler she was.

But pretty soon her resolve wore away.
So, she tried to spend the time hatching mischief.

Whaaa? Someone took my seat when I got up to use the bathroom! Oh, it's you, Lamb Chop! Very funny. We're all amused. (those people on the three-seat-wide plane were SO happy to have me on board)

Lamb Chop cheered up a bit once we got to the Newark airport, and she wanted me to take this picture of her so she would remember the spirit of our beautiful homeland while we're away.*

This is all that Lamb Chop did on the long flight to Tel Aviv. Let me out!

Once we got to Tel Aviv, I let Lamb Chop ride in the luggage trolley to bring some fun into her boring day of travel.

I was horribly tired, though, so I made Lamb Chop push the trolley a bit.

And somewhere in the second hour of our eight-hour-long wait in the Ben Gurion airport, Lamb Chop again got cranky from being stuck inside. She wanted me to take another picture of her when she had eaten something and was happy again, but we soon found out that security at the Ben Gurion airport don't like it you're 20 years old and walking around trying to pose and take pictures of a stuffed animal. They somehow find this suspicious. We found this out after two separate security personnel approached, thumbed through my passport, and asked questions such as, "How did you get here?" and "Why are you alone?" I thought the answers to these questions were obvious--that I came by, well, plane...and that I wasn't alone, I was with Lamb Chop, can't you see? But due to my astute observations, I could see that Lamb Chop was a clear threat to Israeli security, so we went and sat in a chair and stared into space for the next six hours, trying to be inconspicuous. The Ben Gurion airport is a place neither for free spirits nor for clueless camera-happy Americans!

Finally, after a 2.5 hour bus ride to the kibbutz, we unpacked and got to sleep! What an exciting couple of days for Lamb Chop!

*All this store needs is this flag