Old Camp Swig Friends

So as I was shopping with Kiva for party favors in the shuk for his B-Day party, I bumped into our friend Osnat from Camp Swig who we hadn't seen in 14 years. Still I recognized her immediately behind her small table of hand made Jewelry at Nachalat Bin Yamin. Delighted to see each other we made plans to get together. Here you see Freda who was also at Camp Swig with us.

Here is Osnat.






















Like so many thoughtful Israelis, they brought Bamba a peanut butter puff snack that our kids always appreciate. This by the way is Banana Beach just North of the Dophinarium.

Heading to Nazareth

We hit the road today in our little Subaru hatch back. Our car was kind of small and as you could see there wasn't much room for luggage. But sometimes a suitcase can make brothers closer. Driving in TLV was a little wild. In minutes I was honked at and Israeli drivers lived up to their reputation as some of the world craziest. In truth however this was just a warm up for the drivers in Nazareth where almost no rules seemed to apply. I had no choice but to drive over street median, down impossibly narrow and steep streets and finally up a stone staircase to our parking space.

Sarah promised photos of Fauzi L. Azar Inn. Here you see the kids playing after the long drive.

The walls are incredibly high.

This is the common room just outside our room. For more about this great guest house visit the link below http://www.fauziazarinn.com/

In Nazareth

We left Tel Aviv today with regret to leave our friends Kevin, Danielle, and Zev and Ruthie. Even though we spent time with them everyday for the last 3 weeks, it went by quickly and we drove away with sadness. We will miss having playmates and babysitters and drinking buddies. But wow and OMG, Nazareth is cool. We are staying at Fauzi Azar, a 200 year old stone courtyard house with skyhigh ceilings painted with wonderful cracked murals. Yes, I'll put up pictures soon. And we wandered through the mostly closed up souk to the Basillica of the Annunciation. Let me tell you, the Christians know how to throw together a worship space. The building is beautiful and fascinating and NOT OLD! I mean of course it's old; its built on centurys' old destroyed churches, but this one is from 1969 and there are amazing mosaics from all over the world. We had a great but expensive dinner of humus with goat meat. And tonight we will be drinking water with nana (mint).

On to 7 and other new things

Well, today is Akiva's actual 7th birthday and we are getting ready to move out of our delux Tel Aviv pad. Our native Israeli neighbor from West Orange came by yesterday and helped reinforce our sense of how lucky we were to find this place. We are very appreciative to our hosts. We are getting ready to go to Nazareth. Its not Palestine, but it is a primarily Arab city and I think it will be a very different experience. While we were in Jerusalem I was trying to train Kiva and Sam to notice the difference in the way Hebrew and Arabic sounds. We'll see if they pick up on it.

We are also starting to try to plan our few days layover in Switzerland. While it sounds great to go someplace that is not monsterously hot, I'm a bit concerned about money. Tacking a Swiss visit on seemed like a good idea before we left but that was before we arrived in the land of the $5 cake mix. Oh well at least the chocolate there should be a good deal.

Birthday Party the day before Kiva's 7th B-Day

This is the most important day of the trip as far as Kiva is concerned. The whole trip has been designed around when and how this event will happen. With much anxiety up until the very last moment, pizza at the beach turned out great. We finally got together with Yonatan and Asaf our West Orange neighbors.

Oh yeah, Akiva got so excited at the beach he ran into a wooden pole. Birthday shiner.

Sarah and I made a pretty darn good Pillsbury ice-cream cake. No photo. Kiva and I bought the party bags at the shuk ha-carmel. Also no photos. Oh one more thing - I finally got to go to the 20 NIS breakfast on Ben Yehuda. For about $5 it kicks the grand slams tush. 5 salatim, plus two eggs, cappuccino, Israeli salad all served after 9 AM by friendly Israeli staff. Also no photo.

Chilling at Mezizim with the kids and beverages

Ever since we arrived in Tel Aviv we have been saying that we must spend more time hanging out at the beach in the late evening at the Mezizim restaurant where we can eat a little, have a drink and let the kids play in the sand. The last couple of nights we have achieved a pretty awesome balance of draught beer, sand, child satisfaction and child safety. It is a pretty beautiful thing and Jewish too.

Kiva-Lev living the high life.

Zev, Sam and all the kids spent a lot of time adjusting their unbrella. Its an activity.

The view!

No Photos, Post Office, Seudah Shlishi

I went to the post office today to mail some things home. Mostly gifts and souvenirs but also a few things we could do without lugging around the rest of the trip. When I got to the do'ar (post office) I was told that my package had too much tape on it and that while I could still send it this time I would not be allowed to do this in the future. I thanked the clerk for her willingness to make an exception. She asked me air or sea. Since sea was only 90 shekels and air well over 200 I said, "sea". She told me it should get there in 2.5 months. Also, I had to walk home with my package because I needed my passport for some reason.

When I returned and filled out the proper paperwork another attendant told me I couldn't put a return address in the US as I had done. She crossed it out. I said, "But I have no address here I am a tourist. In 2.5 months I won't be in Israel." Another clerk said it was fine and I could put whatever return address I wished. When it was all done, I was told to put the package in the corner by an unmarked door. All this was in Hebrew and it seemed kind of like a strange place to put a package, so I put it there and asked again if it was safe. Was told "Betach" (of course). We all said polite words and I left to get a great 13 Shekel falafel.

Saturday afternoon we had a great Seudah Shlishi (light 3rd meal served on Shabbat afternoon) at the apartment of my friend Ruth Calderon. Ruth who is the director of a Bet Midrash that hopes to make traditional texts more a part of the national Jewish culture rather than just the religious culture was a great host. The conversation was engaging. The other company was lovely and our kids had a great time. Not only was her 10 yr. old son friendly and attentive to our boys, but Ruth treated them like a grandmother. They each had: 1 chocolate and 1 lemon ice cream cone, 2 pieces of chocolate cake, a bag of chocolate and peanut butter bamba, and a bag of like 12 chocolate chip cookies to share. They were happy. We got to visit.

Like so many great Israeli homes her apartment was modest by US standards but really beautiful. It was the apartment she grew up in and was built along with 22 other buildings as a community mostly for army officers by Ben Gurion. He wanted them close together so they could be gathered easily in case of emergency. After dinner she showed us how these buildings surrounded a beautiful enclosed park, play ground and community garden. She explained that this place attracted Israelies who cared more about quality of life than having a big home. It was really a great feeling of community and you could imagine how pleasant it would be to let your kids play in this safe space or even if you were watching with them to be able to visit your neighbors.

Tomorrow we celebrate Akiva's 7th birthday. It will be a small party, probably at the beach. He still plans on having a celebration back in NJ. This will be one of the more celebrated birthdays in in his life.

Tel Aviv has been amazing and though we couldn't probably spend too much more time here without childcare and a project to justify it, I leave it hesitantly. This is my first time spending a long time in this city and I have decided that I am more a Tel Avivi than a Yerushalmi. I know where I want to land on my next long trip to Israel.

Puppet's in Holon

This photo was taken on the bus ride back from Holon after we spent the afternoon (last Wed.) at the Internation Puppet festival there. The festival was really terrific.

This was the beggining of a great play about a Kibbutznic who ultimately after many years has to retire his beloved tractor for the kids to play on in the Kindergarten playground. It was very dramatic and despite the fact that it was in Hebrew Sam was nearly in tears. It had a happy ending.

At Dayada

One day last week while Elliott rolled around moaning with a stomach virus, I took the kids to Dayada at the Namal (port). Dayada is a very cool Gymboree kind of place with baby yoga classes and no horrible primary colored plastic structures. It's full of beautiful young Israeli mothers with expensive strollers who sit around during and after their childrens' classes chatting in Hebrew. This makes it perfect to sit and read a book in as I have the pleasure of company but without distraction since I really don't understand anything.

Akiva and Sam were basically the only children in the playspace for most of the time we were there. The whole experience is kind of trance-y and serene (except for the music which happened to be from one of the Hebrew kids music videos we have at home.) Come and go all day for 40 shekles a kid. (None of this silliness of charging adults.) A pretty good deal for the air conditioning alone.

More great times at the Namal (port).

These photos are from last Friday when we visited Yaffo. They have a really great antiques and arts shuk but mostly we strolled through the very hot but charming streets. The kids were exhausted from the beginning. Above Akiva asked me to find out how much this kids sofa cost. It was more than he could afford and to big for our duffel bag anyhow. We went to lunch at the famous Dr. Shakshuka which specializes in Morrocan and North African food. Sarah and I had Shakshuka which is a spicy tomato soup with eggs. Th kids had the usual chicken shnitzel with ketchup.

More Sam Blog

This is our friend Ruthie. Ruthie is silly. She is cuckoo. She is taking cigerette butts and putting them in a pile in this big sandbox.

This is my friend's Jonah, Noam and Adira. We know them from the synagogue. They are checking the place out.

A Sam Post

I had a fun time and this all about it. This is right after we went to the beach. It is fun. It is pretty high. It is fun.

Kiva's comments on Kiva's photos

These are glass windows that are part of a synagogue called the Great Synagogue. I took these pictures because they are pretty. See the top one - it is supposed to be a snake.

This one has all of the pictures.

Can you see the white curve at the top of this building? It is the moon. This structure is getting made.

This is a model of part of Tel Aviv.

Beer and Fish

I think I already mentioned that you can drink where ever you like in Israel. Being able to bring your own beer to the beach is pretty swank. Sarah took this photo and I think it could be the Israeli version of the Carona add campaign.

We decided it was time for a divide an conquer day. Sarah took Akiva to the shuk where she bought some great fish but had to haggle with the fish monger about cleaning it. Sam and I took the skate board to the beautiful board walk at the renovated port. I pushed him down these great sloping bubbles that are built into the board walk. Truly the coolest and most fun boardwalk I have ever seen. They have a really amazing Friday night service in this thoroughly secular public environment led by "secular" Israelis. We spent Shabbat there and it was truly wonderful. Afterwards we had a picnic Shabbat dinner by this large sand box which is also part of the boardwalk.

Sam and I also watched rowers getting ready for the Maccabiah games crew competition on the Hayarkon River.