From the South to the North

Day 37: Another quiet day for the Shapiro family. Rebeka spent the day playing with her friend Ziv at Ziv’s hotel, while Avi and Esti hung around our hotel. Avi spent the day in and out of the kids club and Esti spent a lot of time swimming. Scott and Monica managed to have some down time too. Ultimately, we met up with the Karwans for a late dinner, said our goodbyes for a few weeks, and headed back to the hotel for the kids to sleep and Scott and Monica to start packing.

Day 38: From the South to the North. Having perfecting our packing skills (six times in five weeks), we loaded up the car, ate a delightful breakfast in the hotel, and said goodbye to Eilat. We were sad to leave our hotel but excited to head to Jerusalem. We made some stops in the desert (which Monica considers dry and not so pretty; whereas Scott likes the desert and sees stark beauty in the dryness) before arriving in Jerusalem. We first stopped at Makhtesh Ramon, a very large crater and Israel’s version of the Grand Canyon. The kids collected different colored sands located in the crater, with the hopes of making a bottle with layers of multi-colored sand. After the crater we ate a quick lunch in the car and continued our journey on to the Israel Air Force Museum in Beersheva. We walked around the hot tarmac learning about different planes that have been instrumental in Israel’s defense. We boarded an old Boeing 707, used in Project Exodus, and watched a brief movie on the Air Force. The kids were also able to sit in some of the smaller airplanes for the great picture opportunity. We then continued our drive to Jerusalem, arriving at the apartment with minor navigational difficulties and obtained the key to our next home. It was somewhat remarkable that after five weeks in Israel we were only now coming to Jerusalem. We were pleasantly surprised to get upgraded from a one to a two bedroom apartment. The apartment turned out to be in a great location. The kids unpacked and we headed out in search of dinner. Four kebobs and three hotdogs later (not to mention the many salads Monica and Scott ate), dinner was over and so was the day. We walked back to our apartment passing many people including some dancing Chabadniks, showered, and put everyone to bed.

Day 39: Rise and shine for our first full day in Jerusalem. After some delays caused by Eldan (our car rental company) we found some long term parking, parked the car, and set out on foot to explore Jerusalem and the Machaneh Yehuda Market. The kids did great walking the many, many blocks to the market. When we arrived we stared at the many vendors selling produce, fish, cheese, olives, and everything else, all in awe. Scott’s true love is no longer the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. After a quick lunch, some wandering, and some purchases, we set out to locate flavored frozen yogurt (it is somewhat of a rarity in Israel to find the flavored kind). Success! The yogurt was delicious. With tired children, we spent the remainder of the day in the apartment relaxing. The kids decided to alphabetize the nearly 200 books located in the apartment, a good lesson for all. We had a quick dinner, played some cards, continued the laundry and at ten tucked everyone in to bed. After dinner Scott went to a nearby lecture offered by the Fuschberg Center on Conservative Jewry. While it was nice to get some mental stimulation (other than, of course, the alphabetizing), the lecture was on the trend of kosher cookbook publishing. But with a trip such as this, even this lecture topic was a pleasure.