Full of Nazareth

It's really late but I am still up digesting a great dinner we had at Tishreen in Nazareth's Old City. Gadi, the manager of Fauzi Azar arranged for his sweet littlest sister to babysit for us. Even though she had already been through a crazy morning shift with them, Alda agreed to come back and reported that they were "angels". In all other ways she appeared perfectly sane and truthful. This morning she watched them while we took a walking tour with Annika. We really enjoyed the coffee roasting shop where we tasted "wedding coffee", which if I understood correctly, is brewed for 3 days. It was really strong and I would need a word beyond bitter to describe the flavor. It may be why I am still awake. I also spent a lot of time and actually went back to a spice shop where we purchased freeke (yes, pronounced "freaky") which is roasted green wheat. I also bought freeke spice so when we are in our house in Tsfat we will try to make something similar to the real thing we had at Tishreen. I'll report back on that.

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!