President Bush leaves this evening for a weeklong trip to the Middle East, and all your Blogtini can say is: "Been there, done that."

Literally. Your Blogosaurus just did the exact trip the POTUS will take, traveling along with a couple dozen White House staffers who ran through their own weeklong tour on a trip called a "pre-advance," or site survey. The idea is simple: The White House team does a dry run of the president's trip. almost in real time, checking out event venues and hashing out all details with the host nation (and there are a lot of details, check back tomorrow for a slew).

A few members of the media tag along on the site survey to report back to the rest of the reporters about the president's schedule, the event sites, the press hotels and, yes, where to eat and even shop on the trip. So, without further ado, here is — The President's Mideast Trip Part II.

Bush did almost this exact trip in January, but this time, he has trimmed the stops back to just Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. POTUS flies overnight tonight (this is when it's sweet to have a big comfy bed aboard Air Force One) and lands tomorrow morning in Tel Aviv. (The press left just after midnight today and arrives in Jerusalem about 8 tonight.)

Bush will chopper to Jerusalem and be at the residence of Israeli President Shimon Peres by 2:30 p.m. local time. The president is visiting Jerusalem as part of a weeklong celebration of Israel's 60th birthday. After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Bush attends an evening celebration where he and Israeli leaders will deliver remarks. (First lady Laura Bush likely will make a stop at the Wailing Wall, top photo. Proof your blogger was there is at right.)

Thursday will be his most interesting day: The president and first lady will travel to Masada to tour the mountaintop stronghold of Jewish rebels (boy, you don't hear that phrase often), nearly 1,000 of whom killed each other (and one, himself) in the first century A.D. rather than become slaves of the Romans. (We'll post more on this stop tomorrow.)

On a lighter note, Bush then delivers a speech at the Knesset (likely the big speech of the trip) before he and Laura Bush host a U.S. reception in the evening. The site of this event, the Israel Museum, is very cool. About 300 people — world leaders, dignitaries, etc. — will attend the evening party at this museum complex, which houses the Dead Sea scrolls.

The main building, known as the Shrine of the Book, looks like a turnip poking up through a cement terrace (the dome, which is also a fountain, is actually shaped like the top of one of the jars that contained the scrolls, discovered in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds searching for a stray goat in the Judean Desert). Inside the very dark and cool shrine are eight of the Dead Sea scrolls, including the entire Book of Isiah, along with artifacts found at Masada.

The terrace will likely be the spot spot for the reception, although guests will be able to walk over to an area where there is a huge scale model of Jerusalem (photo above) from the Second Temple period (516 B.C - 74 A.D.). Workers were fixing it up during the White House tour. Guests can also stroll along the 20-acre grounds, including the Billy Rose sculpture garden, with works by some of the world's most famous artists (and strewn with sarcophogi and ossuaries from the 1st century B.C.).

The next day, he's off to Saudi Arabia (where it will be 107 degrees, and two degrees hotter — 109! — the next day). There, he'll have lunch AND dinner with King Abdullah (and perhaps beg His Highness to up his output of oil, which he's cut over the last year). The press has nearly no reason to be there: Bush will motorcade to the king's farm shortly after he arrives, and reporters won't see him again until he lands in Egypt, his last stop. (And they won't even stay in the hotel called "The Big Bottle Opener" — the Riyadh Four Seasons, right.)

In Sharm el Sheik, Bush will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora (on the site survey, there were fairly firm plans for what the White House called "quad talks" — Bush, Mubarak, Abdullah and Abbas. While in Sharm, Egyptians officials pressed for the inclusion of Olmert [Mubarak said later in Europe that talks without him would be "pointless"]. Privately, the White House team expressed fears that adding Olmert would make the talks more a "summit," which would bring much higher expectations for action [which they figured is not so likely]. The summit was axed, then the quad talks hacked, as well. Now it's just the series of bilateral meetings).

Bush ends his trip with a speech to the World Economic Forum, holding a four-day conference there. Oddly, he'll talk Middle East, not world economics (not that there's much going on in that realm lately).

We'll post some pictures from the site survey and details of the stops all along the way. Stay tuned!

— Joseph Curl,, senior White House correspondent, The Washington Times