The holy land; part one

One day it was Halloween and then a week later we boarded one of three planes that took us to Israel.

Leeor and I felt empowered after taking the kids across so many time zones. Especially on the way back, when we were stuck on the runway in London for 2 hours before we began the 12 hour flight to SFO, we were like, "Ok, we can do anything now."

Traveling is so good for all of us. The kids rose to the occasion as they always seem to--the sleep we missed along the way hardly seemed to matter when we lolled about in our pjs until 11 am each morning, drinking Nescafe and eating food lovingly prepared by family before eventually sauntering out into the day.

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We spent 2 days in Jerusalem; Avi opted to come to the womens' side of the Western wall with me, Safta and Lilit. Then he peed a little on the stones outside the wall.

I love Tel Aviv and could absolutely live there. We had several good meals and hours of wandering around.

Zikron Ya'qov, just south of Haifa, was like a pretty, more suburban younger sister of Tel Aviv. We stayed at Leeor's aunt Hedva's home there and Avi got to watch some good Hebrew kids' shows each morning. More Nescafe, borekas, chocolate rugelach.

We went to Caesaria on one of our last days. We walked around the ancient Roman city and marveled at the columns still standing as the sea crashed roughly after several days of rain. Avi was bemused by the Roman latrines, "This is where they poooooped!" Ah, little boys.

There was a ton of good food, even more amounts of family that we hardly know ("Imagine what birthday parties would be like if we lived here!" mused Safta at one especially large Neta gathering). I think we counted 30-something cousins of Avi and Lilit's. It was sweet to see him running around with the kids; they spoke Hebrew and he spoke English and anything that didn't get clearly communicated found them running to the nearest grown-up for translation.

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There is much to say and even more photos from our trip. I am still mentally unpacking it all. I feel changed from the experience and after a little over a week back home, I still miss our vacation; I miss the uninterrupted days together. The kids miss it too though they seem to have rolled seamlessly back into our busy Bay Area lives. More about this.

Leeor and the kids are asleep after we had Friday "happy hour" at our neighbors' house. We learned there have been 4 break-ins in as many days. Still, life feels pretty good right now. It was 70 degrees this afternoon when I swapped out my work clothes for my new "Enjoy Tel Aviv" t-shirt. Life is full and big and there is much more to say on another night like this.