Israel 2008

David Made it to Jerusalem this Year. We took a family trip to Israel in July 2008. The journey was long but well worth-while.

Tel Aviv University arranged a flat for us overlooking the beach. (David Senior gave a talk there and in Jerusalem during the week.) It was modern and beautiful (and big). We used it as our base station.

































From there we went to: the beach across the street,


Casearea (the beach and the ruins),

Jerusalem (including the Kotel or wailing wall),


and points south. (The picture on the top left corner of this blog page is of David Junior and Senior at the Kotel - the wailing wall. The picture right above is of our family in Israel: David, David (little one), Summer, Bubbie, Ben, Bethami, and Eden. The picture below is of Eden not far from Jaffa Gate.)

Speaking of points south we rented a car and drove all the way down to Masada - where the Jews held the Roman army off. We walked on the mountain top and it was hot.

We went to the Dead Sea from there - where we could not sink - we just floated even with our hands and feet in the air. (That is because the salt content is so high you can not sink.) It was pretty cool.


Cool might not be the right word exactly. It was hot. I mean really hot. When we tried to leave the Dead Sea to go home the security system on our rental car would not work. That was not too good because the spa we used to shower was closing in 15 minutes. That would leave my mom of 81 years and the little man (now 1 year and 8 months) in some pretty serious heat for 2 hours while waiting for the car rental folks.

So I used my best (broken Hebrew) to explain the situation to the only folks in town with air conditioning (the spa), but they were not persuaded - until I explained in Hebrew how I had lived in Israel for a year on Kibbutz Ein Harod, Ichud. She said "you lived on a kibbutz, I live on a kibbutz." The Kibbutz Ein Gedi owned the spa we were showering up in (after floating in the Dead Sea). She said come with me and took the whole family up to the Kibbutz's "hotel". Who knew? It was like an oasis. It was beautiful and artistic and there was some serious food. So we had an extraordinary dinner while waiting for the car rental folks to come and save us in the desert. At that point who needed saving right. It was like a mini Shangri-la.



Well - no worries - they came, we made it home that night and the sight seeing continued with a visit to Bethami, Ben, and Eden (our relatives) who live between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The entire trip was one we shall remember for the rest of our lives, even though it only planted a seed in little David's memory banks. This year David made the trip to Jerusalem - not too bad for a little man.