Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Caesaria and Tel Aviv

Cassie here, The next morning we had a late checkout, which meant  that for the first time in nine days, we could take our sweet time to get ready for our day. Then we schlepped ourselves out of the room just before breakfast ended. We had excellent Turkish coffee, bread and jam, a salad, and an omelet. I don't eat tomatoes or eggs, so the salad and omelet were out of the picture for me. So I pretty much just ate bread and drank the turkish coffee. 
After breakfast we got our luggage together and drove to the Bahai Gardens a few minutes away from where we were staying. The Bahai Gardens were so exquisite! As we were walking up the marble staircase, we noticed every charming detail of the beautiful landscape in the middle of Haifa.

Inside the Bahai Gardens 




 



Then we headed off to Ceasaria, which is a beautiful ancient seaport that was rebuilt in the 1930's as a tourist attraction. We spent a fair amount of driving time from Haifa to Ceasaria right along the Mediterranean Sea. On our way, we made a quick off road stop to the beach. The sand felt like hot plates even with shoes, so we spent the next 400-ish yards doing a weird dance of trying to step on the ground as little and as fast as possible, and yelling HOT every second until we got to the water. I thought it was kind of hilarious.
The sand was a beautiful caramel color, and even though the water was warm, it was a relief on our burning feet. The sea was had a clear aquamarine, turquoise ombre look to it. No picture could do it's beauty justice... But we took pictures anyway. 


After about 20 minutes on the beach, We drove a little more, then we found Ceasaria. The ruins on and off land dated back about 2,000 years.





We watched a film about the history of Ceasaria, then we walked around the ruins, then we ate some passion fruit ice cream and pizza before we hit the road for Tel-Aviv. After of course getting lost, we arrived in Tel-Aviv, a large city along the Mediterranean sea. It reminded us of LA with the board walks, the interesting performers, and the 20,000 people on the boardwalk and beach!

It was getting late so, after getting lost for an unusually short amount of time, we headed back to Jerusalem and made a side stop to the town of 
Abu Gosh ten minutes outside of Jerusalem for some felafel's with hummus that Martha Stewart was talking about. It was definitely the best hummus we have ever had! 

Since it was still Shabbat, the streets in Jerusalem were completely empty. We saw no cars and very few people, so we had a blast zooming through the empty streets going to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Leslie's house. We were kind of exhausted, so we told them about our adventures, then went to sleep.


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Yad Vashem and the Dead Sea

Greetings, All! This blog covers the 23rd and 24th of June in Israel! 

On Sunday the 23rd, we had a nice, slow day getting up. Marc was to leave later that evening to go home, and we wanted to fit in a few things before he left. First, we went for lunch with amazing, beautiful, magnificent, awesome cousin Andrea, Uncle Chuck, and Aunt Leslie. Here are some pictures from that:


Lunch!

After lunch, Andrea went back to work. The rest of us went to Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to victims of the Holocaust. It was a powerful and emotional exhibit.

Yad Vashem

After touring the museum, we went to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Leslie's apartment so that Dad could finish packing up, and adjust everyone! Cassie and Aunt Leslie sat down to watch some TV, and Spongebob Squarepants in Hebrew came on. The hilarious part is that in Hebrew, his name is roughly translated into BofSpog, so hearing his name over the TV was just fantastically funny. Andrea came over for her adjustment, and then we said goodbye to Dad for the next few weeks.

Cassie and Aunt Leslie watching BofSpog!

All in the family!

Marc and Andrea

Marc and Chuck - Getting Adjusted!


And that was our June 23rd!


The next day, we went on a Journey to the Dead Sea! Some background information: The dead sea is the lowest place on earth, around 1300ft below sea level. It is made up of about 33% salt, which means don't let it get in your eyes! The high salt content also means that, wait for it, you FLOAT when you lay back in the water! That makes it one of the must-do activities in the country.

Here are our pictures of the Dead Sea with Aunt Leslie, Susan, Tessa, Cassie, and cousin Elisha!


Keep in mind, everyone, that this is about 3 feet of water we're floating on! Cassie, Elisha, and Tessa in the Dead Sea

-300 meters below sea level!



We went in the Dead Sea through the EinGedi spa

The Beach of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea "Ten Commandments". Take special notice of number 8.

Susan floating on the Dead Sea

Belly floating is also possible, though not recommended. Tessa found that out shortly thereafter, when some of the water got in her eye. Ouch!

The Traveling Ladies floating around!

The best "chill" float we've seen.

This is the surface of the sea. It is entirely made of salt, and can be sharp to step on. We had to wear our shoes in the water.

The Israeli Flag and desert behind it at Ein Gedi spa

The Lowest Place on Earth!

We swam for about an hour in the hot, hot sun. Then Susan went up to the pool with Aunt Leslie, and Cassie, Tessa, and Elisha went and caked themselves with some Dead Sea mud at a mud station. After a few mud-fights, they washed off and went back to Susan and Aunt Leslie! It was a blast.


After the Dead Sea, we all went back to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Leslie's. It was a good day!













Monday, July 29, 2013

Last day in Jerusalem!

Hello everyone! TravelingLadies here. Sorry we haven't posted a blog in so long, we're having so many adventures it's hard to keep up! We're trying to post as much as we can, and even if it's just pictures with captions we'll get it to you somehow! And now, our last day in Jerusalem.


We started the day off by playing piano for our wonderful Aunt and Uncle at the apartment upstairs.


Tessa

Cassie
 We then sat down for a quick picture, then Uncle Chuck and Aunt Leslie took us shopping in an AMAZING indoor/outdoor market, as well as touring us around downtown Jerusalem. This market had to have at least 2,000 vendors in it, and continued for quite a long time. We loved the sights, smells, and sounds! (Not to mention tastes)
Family picture!

Picture showing just a FRACTION of this indoor/outdoor market.

A vendor selling Turkish Delight. Check out that rainbow beauty! We tried it, and it tasted wonderful!


We then sat down for a beautiful dinner at a Kosher meat restaurant. 



Our wonderful dinner! 

Tessa with the Jerusalem sunset

A final group picture before we said goodbye
Elisha took this wonderful picture of Tessa, Cassie, Akiva, and Susan!

We loved our stay in Israel. We loved seeing the ancient sights, the modern changes to an ancient civilization, and most of all, seeing our amazing family. Israel, we'll see you again!

On the ride out from the Dead Sea. In case you can't see it clearly, it says "See you again!" in 3 languages.