Haifa and Tel Aviv Beaches

So, I'm splitting our last big trip into two posts.  We have a lot of things to talk about, so let's get going!  Firstly, most of our trips have lasted about one week each.  Ex:  Passover vacation.  All the things I did in that week, our Passover seder, reading Harry Potter with a girl that only speaks Hebrew, going to the cat litter-smelling house, and so and so all took one week!  So this trip, that I'm splitting in two, begins like this:  We're in a new rental car, and driving to Haifa, a city that is almost at the top of Israel.  Our friends from Boston just happen to be on Sabbatical also.  We stayed at their house a night and the next day had an amazing adventure!  We drove to a beach.  Boy, did that water feel good on my feet!  Sea water!  That water was the Mediteranean sea water!  I hadn't had that happen to me since I don't know when.

  Well, we started to build a sand castle.  It turned out to become a giant sand city!  By the way, our friends names are: Andy, Martha, Raizi, and Halleli.  Raizi and Halleli are the two kids.  Raizi is the oldest.  Let me show you our sand city!

We made walls around the city so the water wouldn't come and destroy our city.  Unfortunately, each time we had finished the walls, a huge wave came and filled our moat with water and nearly drowned our whole city!  We had to make the walls and Andy's special stairs all over again!  It was a lot of work, but when it was time to leave, we had rebuilt the wall over five times, just like some of the ancient cities in Israel.  It looked good and was all right for a while, but I wonder now, as I write this for your pleasure, are there any more small pieces of the city that still remain?  Anywho, it's time to move on through our trip.  We go back to our friends' house and sleep over another night.  The next morning, we set off for another city.  A real city, not a sand one!  That place is called Hertzelia.  In Hertzelia, we stay over at my mom's cousin's cousin's wife's parents' house.  The next day, we travel to another place called Tel Aviv.  Tel Aviv is like the NYC of Israel, if you catch my drift!  So, we walk and walk and walk and find ourselves at a beach.  This beach also has the water of the Mediteranean.  There are a lot of shops and play structures there.  We get ice cream and go to Rabin Square.  Yitzchak Rabin was his full name.  Rabin Square was the place where Rabin was murdered.  That's why its called Rabin Square.  So we walk up there and we meet Micha, my super cousin.  He is with Matar, my super, super cousin.  She's the one I mentioned in Holding Rain.  We look at a monument, mere inches from where Rabin was murdered.  It is of rocks that are shaken as though in an earthquake.  Rabin was one of the best Prime Ministers Israel has ever seen.  He was working hard on peace between the countries that surrounded Israel.  We walked in a mall and Jonah and I got a picture with a statue of Rabin.  After, we walked to Micha's house, where we met Naama, his wife.  Here are some pictures.

Then, that very day, we drove home.  Home to Jerusalem.  Next up, our trip down.