Post #3

Day 8: Climbing on tanks and Kabbalat Shabbat. Friday morning we decided to get in the car and get out of Tel Aviv. We decided to go to Latrun, the home of the Israeli Tank Museum. Everyone

said that it was so far to drive from Tel Aviv, but it actually only took us about 30 minutes (besides the 30 minutes it took us to drive the two miles to the highway through Tel Aviv). When we arrived and indeed the whole time we were there, the museum was empty, perhaps in large part because the museum is only open a half day because of Shabbat. The Museum (technically the Latrun Armoured Corps Museum) is incredible, with tanks displayed from every Israeli conflict, including information on the history of the development of each tank. To stand in the center of the display and see the evolution of the tank is quite interesting. Even more interesting are the tanks captured from the enemies in Israeli conflicts and all of the specialized tanks (such as floating tanks, those with rocket launchers, and those that turn into bridges).

After the Museum we drove back to Tel Aviv and then walked to the Nahalat Binyamin Street Fair, a collection of street performers and crafters who set up twice a week. We started with a quick lunch then walked around, saw the jugglers and magicians, and watched a glass blower.

Then, a quick walk back to the apartment for some dinner, and off we went to our first Kabbalat Shabbat service in Israel. We met up with a havarah (informal synagogue) that meets in a school. The prayers and tunes were the same as in the US, and everyone there seemed to have been born in the US as well. We ended the night blessing the kids and putting them to sleep.

Day 9: Shabbat in Israel. After breakfast Scott took Avi and Esti on a walking architectural tour of Tel Aviv while Monica and Rebeka worked on long division. As you would expect, Avi's and Esti's interest started fading around the time that the Bauhaus began influencing Tel Aviv architecture. To keep peace in the family, we veered off to watch a street performer and Avi even got into the act. In the afternoon, the whole family walked more of the city looking for a park. We instead found a section of the north beach with built-in exercise equipment (Monica is determined to bring this to the American River Parkway) and guys who play volleyball like soccer (no hands allowed). We ended the night with an ice cream run.

Day 10: Natanya and north. We awoke and decided to get out of the city again. We headed toward Natanya (about 30 minutes north) but veered off toward IKEA for a bathroom run for the kids (they sell the same creamed tuna in a tube here). We then went to downtown Natanya,

where the clerk at the local tourist office, in response to our question of what to do in Natanya, gave us a list of things not located in Natanya! We opted instead to go to a park in the city, walk along the beach, and try out some more of the exercise equipment. For lunch we followed the

advice in the Fodor's tour book and went to a local dive. The kids feasted on schnitzel and chicken and beef kabob while Monica and Scott enjoyed 20 different salads with pita and hummus. Following we visited with our friends Josh and Sharon, and their kids Itai, Noam, and Guy, who moved back to Israel from Sacramento last year. We went to a school-sponsored bonfire to celebrate Lag B'Omer, and the kids got to make fresh pita and throw wood onto the fire. It was a long day, and we finally got back to Tel Aviv around 10:00 with three kids asleep in the car.