Ah, science (as Aaron once said)

Finally, the reason we're here: ground stone. Susan brought up some material the other day and Lilah and I got to work on it this morning in front of Safta's house.

Lilah learns from a master (ha!) and gets to work measuring all by herself. No, this didn't slow me down at all.

Look how seriously she (and I) take this. It is science, after all.

Despite the great contributions we are making to the field, it gets boring quickly.

Haifa and Binyamina

While in Haifa we went to the Maritime Museum and saw all kinds of boats, things related to boats, pirates, and artifacts from Shiqmona. Here we are with the ram found at Athlit:

The mosaics from Shiqmona were lovely too.

We spent the night in Binyamina, and visited friends Lior and Adi and their 4 kids, which include 2-year-old twins:

The good old Agalul was perfect for a stroll to the library. Lilah is still wary of dogs.

Baha'i Gardens

Yesterday we went to the Baha'i Shrine and Gardens in Haifa, which were amazing. I had never actually been on the grounds before, and the last time M was there was when he was a kid and it was very different. Of course it was extremely hot and it was high noon when our English tour started (such as it was) so we were soaked within minutes. Lilah was appeased with the promise of a lollipop at the bottom. We descended something like 500 steps and today we're feeling it (truly pathetic). Seeing the gardens up close was great, and the sun was so bright and the Mediterranean Sea beyond so clear that it was impossible to take a bad picture, although pictures don't do it justice at all.

What you see on this tray cost $8

Seriously - it's regular fries, a sundae and a cappucino from a machine. Although McDonald's here was always expensive, now that the dollar is so weak everything is exorbitant. We were in a traffic jam on the way back from Haifa last night and we thought to sit it out rather than have Lilah scream in the car for an hour for no reason. This was the only "food" open at this junction.

Restaurants with playgrounds

You have got to love restaurants with playgrounds (and I don't mean McDonald's). We went out to eat at Tsel Tamar - a beautiful restaurant not far from here that is all jungle-like with grape vines and fish ponds - and Lilah was really only interested in playing and eating ice cream.

One from the archives - we ate here two years ago too.

Yesterday we went to Afiqim - another nearby kibbutz - and ate falafel for dinner (yummy) and got coffee and cookies at the coffee shop next to it (coffee not so exciting and way too expensive, as is everything here I guess). More things to play on outside the restaurant:

Sometimes there are even cows nearby to entertain you. We tried to go to a new "chocolate farm" at the kibbutz next door - Degania B - the other day but it was full of people so we left (we'll have to go back). While trying to wait out the crowds we visited cows. There is still some hesitancy concerning cows, large dogs, etc., but I think it's already getting better.

It's not quite as hot here, well at least in the evening. We spend our days thusly: Lilah and Abba go to "school" for awhile in the morning while I attempt to work, we eat and buy stuff in the kibbutz store around noon, we stay indoors and play or whatever in the afternoon while everyone else naps, then we go to the pool, then we go out and about among the kibbutzim in the area and find things to do, we eat, then take a walk around the kibbutz once it gets dark, try to avoid watching Lady and the Tramp, and attempt to get Lilah to bed before midnight.

First, weird days

Weird because we're really jetlagged and so basically nocturnal. Actually, we've been getting up in the afternoon and staying up through the wee hours, every day getting up a little bit earlier.
On our first day (Thursday) we got up at 3 pm, got our luggage at 5, and went to Tiberias at 6 in a failed attempt to open a bank account. Arriving so close to closing (more than 1/2 hour?) made it impossible to complete the loads of paperwork apparently required. We did get our inaugural falafel in Tiberias, though.


Note the sweatiness. It is SO HOT here. Tiberias was horrible, even in the evening. We attempted to entertain Lilah in the shuk (market) and on the waterfront, but she just wanted to eat these disgusting, brightly-colored snowball-like slushy drinks that come out of giant vats.
Friday was better, as we woke up in time to get some food for lunch and then get to the pool. Lilah tried to fight the sun with her umbrella.


The kiddie pool here is amazing - shallow, covered, and teeming with kids and their grandparents. It is the only respite in this heat. Talia found us there and befriended Lilah pretty quickly.

Then we went back to Safta's house in preparation for exciting shabbat dinner in the dining room.

we're here but our luggage is not

The trip was fairly brutal, but we arrived. One of us (not me) slept the entire first leg from DC to London, and was awake for nearly all of our 10-hour layover in Heathrow. We managed to span time taking the free shuttle buses from terminal to terminal, checking out good spots to see planes take off, eating of course and shopping. We were all awake for the second flight from London to Tel Aviv, but it was less than 5 hours so it wasn't too bad. If we had carried our camera on, we would have taken pictures of Lilah sitting on two El Al pillows on her seat so she would be high enough to view Peter Pan 2 times on the screen in the seatback in front of her. The headphones were too small so we attempted to make them fit by stuffing the complimentary bag of Nishnushim (little crackers) between her head and the headphones, which worked pretty well.

The flights were actually ok, but the arrival sucked as our bags didn't arrive (somehow the car seat did, though) and the car rental place was an ordeal as usual. By the time we hit the road it was 7:30 am and we were stuck in stop-and-go traffic between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for what seemed like forever. And then we got here and had to confront the reality of the Jordan Valley weather - it's night here now and it's still registering 90 degrees outside. We crashed this afternoon and ran around outside this evening when it was a bit 'cooler.' Lilah is really excited to be here. She and Safta are watching Lady and the Tramp right now. Hopefully El Al will find our bags tomorrow or soon after so we have clean clothes, presents, camera, all of my handwritten Hazor ground stone notes from years past (yikes), etc.