Andrea's blog

Our 2013 has been a good mix of seeing new places, trying new things, reaching big goals, and keeping up with the day-to-day family routine.  In as quickly as I can wrap up an entire year, here's how we've been keeping busy:

AYLA:  Ayla is in 2nd grade, loves to read, has been practicing swimming this fall, and is giving cheerleading a try this winter.  She still enjoys activities with her Girl Scout Troop and this year, her Daisy Troop bridged over to Brownies.  Some highlights from her year were the Father/Daughter Sweetheart Dance, Girl Scout Day Camp, losing several teeth, and learning to ride a bicycle.

PAXTON:  Paxton is in 4K preschool and begrudgingly goes to school four mornings a week.  This year he's learning to write all the letters of the alphabet.  When he plays, he's really into costumes, trucks, and Lego "guys."  Some of his favorites this year included his first experience on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel, going to weekly story time at the Hoover Library, feeding the "exotic" animals in Texas, and playing with Ayla - his BFF.

ANDREA: I spend most of my time managing the family calendar and making sure everyone is where they should be at the right time, with the right tools.  That translates to a lot of driving around, constant texts & emails, piles of laundry, shopping, and a whole bunch of paper management.  I also continue to work from home, painting signs for customers across the US.  With all that going on, my regular exercise routine is more for sanity than vanity!

BEN:  Ben had a busy year of home improvement and physical labor--including new carpet, lots of painting throughout the house, and a ton of moving furniture to accomplish all of that.  Plus, he managed to run in a 5K, a 10K and a 1/2 Marathon this fall!  He continues to stay very busy managing several website endeavors -- and taking care of all of the household things Andrea doesn't even have on her radar--there are plenty! 

TRAVEL:  We had several memorable trips this year.  Ben went on a trip to Colombia with Compassion International in January.  We took a family trip to Texas over Spring Break.  The kids and I spent another fantastic fun-filled month in Chicago over the summer. All of the extended Steed family relaxed at the beach in August, and Ben and I had an amazing trip to Israel for a family wedding this fall.

We hope your family has had a wonderful year too!  Happy New Year!

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Merry Christmas!

Let the sign painting season commence!  My first round of holiday sign orders shipped out today and I'm in full-on painting mode for the next couple of weeks. I'm currently *actually* surrounded by wood signs in various stages of painting sitting here in my office. 

Even so, it's not too late to get your orders in to arrive by Christmas, and this weekend I'm offering 25% off all my painted wood signs (custom designs included!). 

...I think I heard your mom say she really wanted one for her entryway! ;)

At my painted wood sign shop, "SignsByAndrea", I'm selling a few styles of my scrap wood tree this year -- but they're only available until November 18th and there is a limited quantity of them that I can make.

They may go fast!

So...if you would like one, be sure to order it right away! It's a decoration you'll pull out year after year after year. 

I'll have them finished and shipped to you to arrive by Thanksgiving.

Each tree is 3ft tall by about 18in and is personalized with your family name on the bottom "trunk".

The boards are attached to the vertical back board with industrial-strength velcro, making them easy to disassemble and store flat.

And they look SUPER cute on your front porch during the holidays. :)

Hey family & friends!  If you've been keeping up with my Israel Trip posts and reading on the public portion of my site, don't forget to log back in on my home page to read about the rest of our daily life.  I've added several additional posts about the kids and stuff we've been up to over last couple of weeks.

If you are a family member or friend and don't have an account, and would like one, just request one, and I'll get you set up!

I'm not a food blogger, I'm no chef, I'm not even that great of a cook, and I probably won't do a very good job of describing the food we had on our trip (yummy, tasty, and good, are kind of weak descriptives, I know).  But I *do* like to eat, and I'm willing to try just about anything, so I was excited to see what the food was going to be like in Israel.

In a word: FRESH

Everything we had seemed to be fresh, whole, and made from real ingredients.  And if I do a terrible job of describing the food, maybe at least you can see it, and imagine what it might taste like.

I'm not going to be able to remember the names of everything we had, and I don't have photos of it all, so this post will be kind of a mash of photos, recipe links and reviews of anything food-related on our trip.  Don't mind the madness...just roll with me, wherever I go...

The first night at Cafe Hillel (and with many of our other meals) we had a typical Israeli Salad, mainly consisting of cucumber & tomatoes chopped diced into small pieces.  Israeli food is chopped very very small.  Time consuming, I'm sure...but it makes for a great texture. It looked something like this:

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I ordered a Laffa Sabich, which is a wrapped sandwich with fried eggplant, hard boiled eggs and tahini sauce.  This is not a photo of the one I had (it's shown in a pita, rather than a Laffa, which looks more like a tortilla), but it has similar ingredients. Tasty. And the Laffa bread was SO SO SO good.  Ben had a similar wrap called a Laffa Kebab, made with meat and vegetables.

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Coke Zero - The Arabic version.  *Loved* that Coke Zero was available most places we went.

Pickled olives, beets, carrots and cauliflower seemed to be pretty common additions to shawarma and falafel pita pockets.

We *very* much enjoyed our lamb shawarma pitas in the Christian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.

At Tmol Shilshom, in downtown Jerusalem, we tried traditional shakshouka, which is the namesake for my Aunt Rachel & Uncle Chuck's band "Shakshuka."  It seemed fitting to try it in Israel with Uncle Chuck. 

Basically, it's poached eggs in a tomato based sauce served in an iron skillet. 

I had the "green shakshuka" which is evidently very NON traditional, which was basically a poached egg and spinach, lightly seasoned with some slices of soft cheese of some kind.

Honestly, it tasted kind of bland, and it wasn't NEARLY filling enough for me -- at least not that day, which was the morning we had run the hills of Jerusalem and visited Yad Vashem.  Ben's traditional version was much better tasting. Though, if I'm being honest...still a little odd.  It seemed kind of like breakfast spaghetti without noodles.  I think I need to try another recipe of it sometime.  Aunt Rachel...maybe next summer we can try your favorite recipe?

And again...Coke Zero - in Hebrew this time.

Walking through the open market was not only beautiful, it was a great place to get a look at lots of different foods, even if we couldn't try them all.  It was a good representation of the types of foods that are popular in the area.

These little snack-sized sandwiches and rolls looked REALLY good to me.  I don't know what was in them, but I would have really enjoyed a sampler platter.  We didn't get one though...we were just walking by.

Lots and lots of spices...

Fresh fish...

Nuts...

Dried fruits and seeds...

Cheese and wine...

And lots and lots of flavors of tahini...

At the wedding, the buffet was full of all different kinds of salads, grilled vegetables, meats and potatoes. 

I think this was probably my favorite meal, with the most variety and really good flavors.  It didn't hurt that had plenty of meat!  Since we ate in mostly kosher restaurants, we ended up eating a lot of vegetarian meals, which were very good, but not always as filling as I would have liked.  On the up-side, with all the activity and healthier meals, I lost several pounds over the week. :)

One of the restaurants we tried was called Focaccia Bar, and served all kinds of different foods on foccacia bread.  We ordered a kebab focaccia and a roast beef focaccia.  This is the roast beef version.  It had spinach, roast beef, horseradish sauce, and a poached egg in the center of it.  Sort of strange, but actually, it was pretty good.

On the kebab focaccia (which I'm holding in the photo below), there were a variety of vegetables and lamb meat that seemed kind of like little mini-burgers on top of a pizza. 

As I ate one bite of the kebab focaccia though, I noticed some heat coming from where my slice had touched this pepper.  I like spicy, and it was just the juices of the pepper on my piece, so I didn't think much of it.

But Ben, on the other hand, ate a quarter of the pepper in one swift bite--regretably.  he was expecting a green chile or a sweet pepper I think, which makes sense.  It was a giant pepper on top of the focaccia.  Nope.  It was some crazy-hot super-pepper.  He actually had tears running down his face and was stealing fries off of Grandma's plate and trying to drink anything he could to cool the fire in his mouth.  It took him about 30 minutes before he said he felt normal again. I've never seen him react to anything spicy quite like that -- and we make an annual date to go to the Chuy's Green Chile Festival every year, just for the heat of those peppers!

It doesn't matter what the name of the restaurant was.  We'll always remember it as the place that Ben nearly died from the "hot pepper" - which was the only translation our waiter could give us for the type of pepper it was.  As Papa Tom would say "Ay chiwowa!".

At the Lebanese restaurant near Ginosar, by the Sea of Galillee, we had hummus (YUM) and pita bread as an appetizer.  That's pretty common, kind of like a basket of bread at an Italian restaurant or chips & salsa at a Mexican restaurant.

Also common as appetizers are these little pickled green olives.  They were very sour.  Not my thing. I prefer black olives.

Ben and I like to order two dishes and split them, so we get to try more things.  One of the plates we ordered was this lamb meat stuffed zucchini with a yogurt sauce. It was kind of so-so.  Needed more salt and seasonings I think.

Grandma ordered a chicken wrap of some sort -- she always seemed to have the biggest portion on her plate of food.  Evidently she orders big! :)

And Grandpa's lunch looked super tasty.  Wish I could remember what it was...

The other plate Ben and I ordered was "Saint Peter's Fish", you know, since we were at the Sea of Galilee and all.  I didn't realize that meant the entire fish would be served on my plate--head, skin and all. 

Oh well!  I dug in anyway!  And it tasted good, even if it was a little bony.  I believe it was tilapia.

For dinner that night, we drove all the way to Tel Aviv/Jaffa and ate at a cafe called Puah.  Ben ordered a *really* tasty chicken curry dish that looked something like the one in the photo below.  I found myself stealing bites of his food the whole meal.  I'm so gonna figure out how to make this at home.  I think it may actually be thai food though, not necessarily Israeli.

{source} <-- go to this page, lots of great Israeli food pics!

At Yad Mordechai, when we visited Yasmin, we had lunch at her house, which consisted of two types of baked fish - salmon and some other white fish, Israeli salad, and rice.  Plus several dessert cookies.  Evidently, I was too hungry to take photos of any of that.

Plus, we came home with Yad Mordechai olive oil and honey.  The honey is fabulous! Haven't tried the olive oil yet.

At Shabbat dinner at Aunt Judi's house, she had an unbelievable spread of food for us.  This was just the salad buffet.

There was also a whole meat buffet of food on the other side of the table, plus several cakes and fancy moroccan cookies for dessert.  These weren't the actual cookies at the party, but they look similar.  You'd think they'd be super sweet, but actually, they seemed to be flavored with honey, nuts, and mild flavors, so they weren't overwhelmingly sweet.  The teeny sizes, wide variety and the "prettiness" of each of them sure did make it hard not to eat 5 at once though.

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And finally, on our way to the airport, we got to have some falafel.  It was fresh, the first batch of the night (they were just opening up after Shabbat), and it was VERY tasty - the perfect "fast food" satisfication. 

I added tahini sauce, eggplant, zucchini, pickles and cabbage to mine, but skipped the carrots.  They were spicy, which I learned from one of the carrot salads at Shabbat.  Tasty, but too much for right before a 10 hour flight. :) 

But the falafel itself was the best part.  Makes me want to go eat one now. 

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It was interesting how even though there was often a lot of food available, it was almost all very low in fats, sugars, and carbohydrates (with the exception of the pita & breads).  Mostly, we ate vegetables, fruits and nuts for a week, and it was great!

Now we just have to find some good mediteranean food restaurants and grocery stores around Birmingham.  If we can just get our hands on some GOOD pita and laffa, I think we can recreate a few of our favorites.  I've already had several places recommended from some local Palestinian and Armenian friends.

Writing this post has made me hungry. I've been writing it for 2 days, and I don't think I've stopped eating since I started.  How do food bloggers not eat CONSTANTLY?

And there it is folks.  Our trip to Israel. Documented.  Now I can relive it anytime I want. Until maybe we go again....

Israel Trip Wrap-Up:

1. Israel Trip: Getting Ready to Go
2. Israel Trip: Layover in Chicago
3. Israel Trip: Traveling Across the World
4. Israel Trip: Jerusalem - The Old City
5. Israel Trip: Bethlehem & West Bank
6. Israel Trip: Yad Vashem & Ben Yehuda Street
7. Israel Trip: An Israeli Wedding
8. Israel Trip: Mount of Olives
9. Israel Trip: City of David
10. Israel Trip: Sea of Galillee
11. Israel Trip: Kibbutz, Gaza & Shabbat
12. Israel Trip: Dead Sea & Ein Gedi
13. Israel Trip: The Food

On Saturday morning, our last day in Israel, we met for breakfast at Judi and Moti's house.  She had a huge spread of fruit, yogurt, granola, breads, cheeses, juices and coffee.  We needed plenty of fuel for the day!

After breakfast, we loaded into a few cars to make the drive to the Dead Sea.  Rosenbergs are leaders.  All of them.  Too many leaders makes for some chaos before finally making a decision everyone will follow.  Ben found this hilarious...especially since the Steed clan is just the opposite.  The Steeds are all willing to yield to someone else's plan, resulting in a similar chaos. 

Ben and I rode with Judi and Moti so that we could have some extra visiting time with them.  We drove through the mountains and desert and saw all kinds of free roaming camels, sheep and goats.  There was something awesome about seeing this herd of goats with a kid running behind them, guiding them, in the Israeli desert.  Talk about bringing the bible to life!

And here's a sign you don't come across everyday:

We reached a lookout point just above the Dead Sea and stopped to check out the view.  The white you see (that looks like waves) are actually salt deposits.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't expect the Dead Sea to be so blue!  I think I was expecting a dark green or dirty lake-like water.  Not so...look at that beautiful shade of turquoise!

We got back in the cars and headed on to Ein Bokek, a resort and beach area at the Dead Sea, for a swim! 

Ben was first in the water!

If you aren't familiar with the Dead Sea, it's at the lowest point in the world, and the salt level in the water is so high that no animals can live in the water.

Even cooler, because of the high salt content, your body floats as if you're on a raft! 

It's actually easier to float horizontally in the water than it is to try and stay upright.  So we had all kind of fun rolling in the water, doing tricks, and trying to keep it from going into our mouths.  Yuck!

I totally salt scrubbed my body--I wasn't about to miss out on a free spa treatment!

Minerals from the Dead Sea are harvested and used for all kinds of skin treatments and cosmetics.  The water has an almost oily feeling while you're in it that makes your skin feel really soft.  I bought some hand and foot lotion with Dead Sea minerals, and not only does it smell great, it definitely has a softening cocoa butter-like feel to it.  Very cool stuff!

This lady was trying out some mud mask minerals on her day at the Dead Sea. I looked for some Dead Sea mud, but that you have to (and can) buy.  Might have to give that a try at home!

Some people with psoriasis are even prescribed to sunbathe at the Dead Sea for a few weeks every year as part of their treatment because of the low elevation, making the UV rays from the sun less harsh.

I could have stayed there all day, but we had more to see, so we loaded back in the cars and drove up to Ein Gedi, a national park, to do a little hiking and see some natural spring waterfalls in the middle of a desert mountain.

But first...a picnic lunch, packed by Aunt Judi.  Talk about a fancy picnic!  Most of the salads and rolls were leftover from Shabbat dinner the night before, but it was a definite upgrade from the PB&J sandwiches we usually pack for our picnics!

After lunch we said goodbye to Yasmin, Harel & Ofek, who headed back home for the day, and then the rest of us headed into the park to hike up the mountain.  A little bit of water and her cane, and Grandma was ready to go. :)

By this time in the trip, I was getting pretty tired of holding my camera and taking photos.  Thankfully, Uncle Moti has his camera snapping as much as I do, so many of the photos from this day came from his camera. 

Plus, Chuck and Ben took over my camera for much of the day too.  That's why I tend to be IN more of the pictures this time around...why did it have to be on the day I look like I've been rolling around in dirt?

We started on the trail that started out flat, then had bridges and steps, and eventually became a rocky, uneven, and sometimes slippery climb up the mountain.

We had a little bit of concern about whether it was a good idea for Grandma and Grandpa to keep on climbing, but by the time we considered a turn-around, we were nearly to the top, and the trail was a loop, so going back down the way we came wasn't really a good option either.

Onward and upward.

We assigned Ben and Chuck to keeping near Grandpa and Nadiv and I stayed on either side of Grandma, chasing her up the mountain.

It was a long way up, but the view from the top was pretty spectacular.

They made it...still smiling. :) Not every 89 and 86 year old can accomplish these kinds of feats.  I'm pretty sure my grandparents are superhuman and that with their genes, I may live actively and healthfully for a long long long time.  Guess I better make the most of it, like they do!

We finally reached the waterfall, called David's Spring. 

Ein Gedi is referenced in 1 Samuel 23:29 when David ran and hid from King Saul:

And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

We savored some time at the waterfall, in our last few hours of adventure in Israel with all of my family.

I had such a great day visiting with everyone, a great week enjoying Grandma, Grandpa and Chuck's company and wisdom, and an unbelievable time learning more than you could ever absorb from a book or a movie or a class.

As we headed back down the mountain, we noticed an Ibex (a type of mountain goat) up on the mountain above us.  He was almost completely camoflauged.

As we hiked back to the cars, I was overwhelmed with how well our once-in-a-lifetime (maybe?) trip to Israel turned out - even if it didn't always go as planned.

We made the drive back to the condo, showered, packed our suitcases up and then went out for one last adventure before heading to the airport for our long trip home.

I don't have any photos of this next crazy event, but it's defintely a story worth telling.  You'll have to visualize.

We had a little bit of time before we needed to be at the airport in Tel Aviv, and we hadn't yet had a falafel pita sandwich.  We could have gotten one at the airport, but since we had time, and the stores would be starting to open again (Shabbat had just ended at about 7:30pm on Saturday evening) we decided to try and fit that one last thing into our trip. 

We ended up at the Jerusalem Mall, which is a modern shopping mall near Chuck's condo.  As we pulled into the parking garage, both Grandma and Grandpa starting talking about how they had tried to get in there once, but they couldn't ever find a parking space, and how awful the people parked, even in the aisles, and eventually they had just given up and gotten out of there because it was so awful.

Chuck said, "Nah, you just didn't know where to park." I'm paraphrasing...but something along those lines.  To support his statement, he turned up onto a mezzanine level of the parking garage, which was nearly empty, pulled into a spot and we were on our way to get a falafel.  No big thing.  Right? 

Well...about 45 minutes later, we left the mall, went back to our car to find that the entire parking garage had been completely filled, and in fact the cars WERE parked in the aisles, cars were driving every which direction, people were yelling, blowing horns, etc. 

As we walked to our car, we literally had 4 cars pointed at our spot from all directions, waiting for us to leave, a woman who actually got out of her car and stood in our spot to try and save it for someone, and we could NOT get our car out of the spot.  It was CRAZY.  Yelling, honking, and absolutely no order of any kind that we could see.

Grandpa got so irritated that he jumped out of the car and started yelling and giving huge arm motions to tell the cars around us to move out of the way so we could get out.  It was a bold move...but they listened to the crazy shouting old man, and it's the only thing that allowed us to leave the parking spot!  One of the men waiting to take our spot shouted at Grandpa "What? Do you want to be my driving teacher??" and Grandpa yelled back "You need one!" I thought we were about to have a showdown in the mall parking garage.  Well, I guess we kinda did.

Still, as we tried to actually LEAVE the parking garage, we kept running into more of these no-rules-apply stand-offs, and couldn't. get. out.  Finally, Chuck (who was driving) took a ramp heading down a level (against the shouting advice from Grandma and Grandpa in the backseat, warning him that we'd be stuck in there for hours), which thankfully was just clear enough that we could get out alive and back on the road toward Tel Aviv without being stuck in the garage for what could have been hours.

I have a new phrase for someone who parks like they're the only car on the planet - "Parking like an Israeli".  I googled it...and found these photos that TOTALLY support my observations!

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What a way to end our trip!  But hey, it's a good story, and we got that falafel (it was good!). 

The rest of the trip was spent mostly in airports, just traveling home.

As we arrived to check in at the Tel Aviv airport, Ben was pretty heavily questioned, and even had to show a second photo ID (we were glad he had decided to bring his Driver's License in addition to his Passport).  I'm telling you...we're pretty sure that he looked Israeli or Arab or something with that beard, and it got him stopped and questioned everywhere we went!  Thankfully, we did make it through - with all our luggage, although our honey and olive oil from Yad Mordechai evidentally warranted a suitcase search.  Security is intense...but I guess I'm glad it is--because we had a safe and uneventful trip home. 

In our last few moments at the airport, Grandma and I both jotted down notes in our journals about the trip.  It's no mystery where my writing and "historian" qualities come from.

We flew from Tel Aviv to Newark, breezed through Passport Control in the US, and then flew to Chicago to spend a night at Chief's house to recouperate, and then finally on Monday morning headed back to Birmingham to relieve Noni from her week and a half of duty with the kids!

What a week.  What a trip!  Thanks for reading along as I re-lived it and recorded it!

I have one more Israel Trip post coming soon to finish out the trip--a mediterannean food wrap up!

Israel Trip Wrap Up:

1. Israel Trip: Getting Ready to Go
2. Israel Trip: Layover in Chicago
3. Israel Trip: Traveling Across the World
4. Israel Trip: Jerusalem - The Old City
5. Israel Trip: Bethlehem & West Bank
6. Israel Trip: Yad Vashem & Ben Yehuda Street
7. Israel Trip: An Israeli Wedding
8. Israel Trip: Mount of Olives
9. Israel Trip: City of David
10. Israel Trip: Sea of Galillee
11. Israel Trip: Kibbutz, Gaza & Shabbat
12. Israel Trip: Dead Sea & Ein Gedi
13. Israel Trip: The Food

On Friday of our trip, we headed south to the Ashkelon area of Israel (right next to the Gaza Strip) to visit my Aunt Judi & Uncle Moti, and to see my cousin Yasmin and spend some time learning about the kibbutz where she and Harel and Ofek live.

Instead of ancient history, we tried to wrap our minds around some of Israel's more modern history and territory struggles.

We started the day at Aunt Judi's house, where we visited for a few minutes and got the grand tour of their house - via Grandma.  She took over.  Judi added comments though to compliment Grandma's tour. :)

I made sure to make a visit to the matching secretary desk to the one that's in our entryway at home.  Their desk is being used as a changing table for Ofek in Israel and has been refinished as well with a dark stain.  These desks were originally a part of a bedroom suit that my grandparents bought for my mom and Aunt Susan when they were in high school, I think. 

We didn't stay long at Aunt Judi's house, because they had a big Shabbat dinner to prepare for all day, and Yasmin was expecting us at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai.

As we drove out of Judi's neighborhood, we saw this playground along the road.  Every playground, the bus stops, and most other public places in Israel have a safe room (called a Mamad), which is used for quick protection in case of missile attacks. 

Unfortunately, as close as this area is to Gaza, that's a fairly common occurance.  They had safe rooms in Jerusalem as well, but it was certainly more prominent here, and mentioned by my family much more often as a room we should be aware of how to use -- just in case.

We met Yasmin at the main parking lot at Yad Mordechai to begin our kibbutz experience. 

If you aren't familiar with what a kibbutz is, here's a very basic definition, but I highly recommend reading more about the history and evolution of kibbutzim if it interests you, or if you have questions: 

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. 

A collective community is a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. The members of an intentional community typically share responsibilities and resources.

Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism. In recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle.

Yasmin's husband Harel and his family grew up at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, so it was especially interesting for us to learn more about its history. 

We started at the Yad Mordechai Museum, where we learned more about the Holocaust, the creation of this kibbutz - made up of mostly immigrants from Poland - and the famous attack by the Egyptians in 1948, where the farmers and members of the kibbutz (called kibbutzniks) were able to hold the Egyptians off for several days, giving Israel time to get supplies and defenses in Jerusalem.

The museum was small, but very well-done, and included this replica (above) of one of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, to show how the Jews were forced to live during the holocaust.

After we finished at the museum, we walked over to the "baby house" - or day care center - where we picked up Yasmin's little boy, Ofek. 

Yad Mordechai was one of the last kibbutzim to switch from their communal child rearing practices, which means that as recently as Harel's childhood, the children on the kibbutz were raised communally.  Children would spend most of their time in houses divided by age group; learning, playing and sleeping. Parents spent 3 to 4 hours a day in the afternoon with their children after work and before dinner. 

Imagine having a baby, and after a couple of weeks, turning over most of the minute-to-minute care (day and night) to a day care facility in your neighborhood.  It might be fun as a kid, to grow up with lots and lots of friends around you all the time.  It would sure be nice as a parent to get some sleep every night.  But, it also has the potential to be traumatic for the kids not to have their parents in close proximity, especially at night.  According to Yasmin and Harel, kids who were raised in those communities can have very different responses and feelings (both good and bad) from their experiences.  Harel, for instance, had a very positive childhood experience.

In any case, kibbutzim have phased out this style of child-rearing.  Ofek attends just as we'd send our kids to preschool or day care and it's a service that they pay to participate in. 

With Ofek in tow, we headed to the hill in the center of the kibbutz to see the statue of Mordechai Anielewicz, a leader during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, for whom the kibbutz is named, and get a great view of the kibbutz.  Yasmin and Harel's wedding ceremony was held at the top of this hill.

I spent a little bit of time bonding with Ofek, while we rested and visited and asked questions about the kibbutz.  Someday, when Ofek is a teenager, he'll come to visit us in the States and I'll tell him about when I came to see him in Israel when he was a baby. :)  He is seriously the happiest baby on the planet.  So cute.

Continuing our tour of the kibbutz, Harel's father Yoel joined us to show us more about kibbutz life.  They had just celebrated Yad Mordechai's 70th anniversary with a big party the night before, so we took a peek at one of the galleries that was still on display, showing off the current and past generations of kibbutz members.  In the photo below, you can see Harel holding a photo of his grandmother.

Yoel took us into the "Yesteryear" museum, where Yasmin translated and we were able to see materials and tools used in the kibbutz throughout the years and learn more about some of the old ways they used to run the kibbutz, and how it's changed over the years.

Below is a photo of the kids in one of the children's houses.

I got a chuckle out of the staged bath house (mainly the cardboard artwork), demonstrating how before the homes each had individual bathrooms, several families would share a bath house and use the showers on a schedule.

Yad Mordechai's major source of agricultural income is from their honey, jams, balsalmic vinegar and olive oil production and sales.  We took a quick look at the honey-bee museum and were thrilled to come home with a couple of bottles of honey and olive oil.  (Thank you Medina family!)

I was also thrilled to come home with this silly picture of Chuck and Ben, who became quite good  buddies during our week together:

As we walked through the kibbutz, we stopped to check out the laundry house.  It's a paid service now, but that used to be how the laundry on the entire kibbutz was done. Just drop it off and pick it up clean and folded.  The same with meals. There's a cafeteria where lunch and dinner are offered if you don't feel like cooking.  I dream of having a neighborhood cafeteria with a meal plan!  I'm telling you what...I think there's something to this community living -- everyone has a specialty, a job that contributes to the community and you don't have to do it ALL!  American women especially could learn something from this...

After our tour of the kibbutz life, we headed over to Yasmin's home for some lunch.

We ate on the front porch and relaxed for a little while (well, except for Yasmin, who was warming up food, setting the table, feeding Ofek, and cleaning up).  I helped.  As much as I could.  I promise.

Right across the road, we had a view of the mamads (safe rooms, which usually double as bedrooms) in the homes across the path.  It was a glaring reminder of how touchy the politics and safety in Israel can be, and was a strange contrast to the gorgeous day and community efforts we were learning about and witnessing.

After lunch, Yasmin walked Ofek over to Harel's parents house for a nap.  We got a kick out of the crib/stroller that is very common on the kibbutz.  Every day the kids at the Baby House get loaded into these strollers and go for a walk around the kibbutz.  Ofek seemed quite happy in it!

Just down the street from the kibbutz is a neighborhood that borders with Gaza, which is where the missiles originate.  We went to take a look.

When we asked Yasmin how often they heard the "Red Alert" messages and had to use their safe rooms, she shrugged and said, "Sometimes just once or twice a month.  Sometimes 20 times in one day. It makes it very hard to get ready for work when you are always running to the mamad."

I asked how recently the last "Red Alert" warning was, and she said "Last week." Wow.  I don't think I had *any* idea of the daily dangers there are in Israel. 

But, suddenly, as we stood looking into Gaza, where the rockets fly from, and as we considered that we were spending the night on the kibbutz, less than a couple of kilometers away, things got a little more serious.  While we didn't really think there would be any trouble while we were there, we certainly raised our level of respect for the situation.

Speaking of spending the night on the kibbutz...Here's a look at our room, which is a guest room for visitors to use, since the homes on the kibbutz are fairly small and you wouldn't have room to stay in a family's home.  Everyone who lives on the kibbutz gets equal space, based on the number of people in your family, so guest rooms and extra space simply don't exist.  Our bedroom is the mamad of our little guest house.  See the reinforced window?  Yasmin gave us instructions for what to do in our 10 second window of getting to safety, should we hear the Red Alert message in the middle of the night.

Actually, it was a nice little place, and a very unique experience.  Especially since as we looked around, we realized the closet was full of someone's clothes.  Hmm...  We were a little concerned someone else may have expected to stay there that night.  While Yasmin tried to reach the woman in charge of scheduling the room use, we wondered how crazy that would be to have a strange man come into the room and find us there!

We decided to head back to Yasmin's house to get ready for Shabbat dinner there instead (just in case), while we waited on confirmation that no one else was expecting to stay there that night.  I think it was a stressful afternoon for Yasmin.  She really wanted us to be able to rest and get ready for the evening on our own, and was frustrated that she hadn't been able to check out the room ahead of time for us. 

Other than an interesting story to tell, it didn't bother us though.  We are easy to please, and at the end of a trip like this, where things NEVER went as planned (but always worked out), it was just par for the course and it rolled right off our backs.  By the time we headed over to Aunt Judi's house for Shabbat dinner, we had heard back from the lady in charge of scheduling, and found out that some man who comes to the kibbutz a couple of times a year leaves his clothes in the closet.  There was supposed to have been a note.  There was no such note that we found, but the message from the lady in charge was enough to settle our nerves.

Next up -- Shabbat dinner with lots of family!  We got to tell Harel how much we enjoyed seeing his childhood home and learning about the kibbutz.  Unfortunately, he had been away at a wedding all day and wasn't able to join us for our tour.

Judi and Moti had set up long tables in their backyard to serve Shabbat dinner for about 25 family members and friends.  I believe this was Ben's first experience with Shabbat.  What a cool way to be introduced to a Jewish tradition -- in Israel, with family. :)

We spent the evening visiting with Chuck, Nitzan & Racheli, and Nadiv and really enjoyed getting to know them a little better.  We also ate some amazing food -- in several courses!  What a fun night!

After dinner, we headed back to the kibbutz with Yasmin, and settled into our mamad bedroom for the night.  Yasmin's parting words for the night were "Remember, if you hear a woman's voice on the loud speaker, you have 10 seconds to pull the metal shield on the window and lock it, and close the bedroom door." 

We practiced.  No joke.

But thankfully, our own little drill was the closest we got to actual danger and we slept great our night on the kibbutz.

Thank you to Judi, Moti, and especially Yasmin & Harel for sharing a little bit of your daily life with us! 

Israel Trip Wrap-Up:

1. Israel Trip: Getting Ready to Go
2. Israel Trip: Layover in Chicago
3. Israel Trip: Traveling Across the World
4. Israel Trip: Jerusalem - The Old City
5. Israel Trip: Bethlehem & West Bank
6. Israel Trip: Yad Vashem & Ben Yehuda Street
7. Israel Trip: An Israeli Wedding
8. Israel Trip: Mount of Olives
9. Israel Trip: City of David
10. Israel Trip: Sea of Galillee
11. Israel Trip: Kibbutz, Gaza & Shabbat
12. Israel Trip: Dead Sea & Ein Gedi
13. Israel Trip: The Food

On Thursday, the five of us squeezed into the rental car and started heading north to spend the day exploring several Christian sites around the Sea of Galilee area.  After the long and exhausting day before of hiking and walking, a day consisting of more driving seemed like welcome relief to us all (except maybe Chuck, who did all the driving).

Driving North Around the West Bank

In Israel, you can't always drive direct to your destination.  Since a large portion of the center of the state is West Bank territory, you have to choose whether to drive around the eastern or western sides of it. 

Since we were planning to start at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, Uncle Chuck wanted to drive us up on the eastern side of the West Bank, along the Jordan border.  Israel controls the borders, so we were allowed to drive around that direction, though most of the area and towns surrounding the roads were part of the West Bank.

We were amazed at the scenery.  Having flown into Tel Aviv (a large city), and then spent most of the week in Jerusalem, the contrast of the desert was staggering.

It was literally like being dropped down into the Bible - wandering camels and all!

Traveling around the eastern side of the West Bank brings you close to the Dead Sea, so you do a lot of traveling DOWN mountains.  We made the obligatory stop at Sea Level. 

While we were there, a man offered to let Ben ride the camel for 5 shekels.  As soon as Ben sat down, the man changed his price to 5 shekels for a picture, 10 shekels for the camel to stand up, and 20 shekels for a ride.  The photo sufficed for us...and it's a gem! ;)

As we continued our drive, we passed numerous agricultural farms.  Israel produces all kinds of fruits and vegetables and has developed an amazing drip irrigation technology that allows them to successfully grow crops in the desert.

The drive up to the Sea of Galillee was about 2 hours, and we never tired of the changing scenery.  We saw shepherds and sheep traveling across the mountains, Arab towns in the distance, camels wandering unattended, and tons and tons of mountains and desert.

Yardenit

When we arrived at the Sea of Galilee area, our first stop was the Yardenit Baptismal Site on the Jordan River.

Yardenit was established as a replacement baptism site for Christian pilgrims when the actual location of Jesus's baptism in Qasr el Yahud became a part of frontier territory between the Israeli and Jordan border after the Six Day War. 

While we were visiting, several tour buses full of visitors from South American countries were there having a group baptism ceremony in Spanish.  Since we couldn't understand a lot of it (my Spanish isn't *that* good), we had to guess at exactly what they were reading from and saying.

They immersed themselves several times throughout the ceremony.

This group appeared to be from Venezuela and at the end of the ceremony gathered around their flag in the water during a prayer.

Yardenit is a beautiful spot at the base of the Jordan River, where it meets the Sea of Galillee.  It was a good place for us to start our day following around the area of Israel where Jesus spent most of his ministry.

Ginosar

After Yardenit, we drove north through Tiberias, a port city popular for fishing and tourism.  We managed to get lost and made several "U-ies" because of some poor signage and crowded traffic...but we DID finally make it through the little coastal city.

Our next stop was Kibbutz Ginosar and the Yigal Allon Museum, to see the "Jesus Boat", a 1st Century fishing boat that was discovered by local fishermen and amateur archaelogists during a severe drought in the late 1980s. 

We watched a short video about how the boat was found, dug up (in 12 furiously busy and highly guarded days), and then carefully preserved and transported.  It had to be submerged in a chemical bath for 7 years before it could be displayed to preserve the wood and prevent it from disintegrating.

Of course, it's a mystery who *actually* owned and sailed in this boat.  A couple visiting while we were there asked me "How do they know this was Jesus's boat?"  We set them straight.  It's from the time of Jesus -- but isn't necessarily Jesus' boat. :)

The area around the museum was gorgeous, and on that day, the weather was unbelievable (high 70s) and the sky and water were just beautiful.  The top of the museum had an outdoor lookout where we could really soak in the beauty of the area.

Mount of Beatitudes

From our lookout, we could see some of our next stops - several churches that mark important moments in Jesus' ministry. 

1. The Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount
2. The Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter, where Jesus is said to have laid out a breakfast of bread and fish for the Apostles, and told Peter to "Feed my sheep" after the miraculous catch, the third time he appeared to them after his resurrection.
3. Church of the Multiplication, marking the location where the miracle of the loaves and fishes took place. (John 6:2)

Since the churches are all closed during the middle portion of the day, we took the opportunity to eat some lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called Katzeh Hanachal in Ginosar before heading up to see the churches.

The church at the Mount of Beatitudes was incredibly crowded with tour buses and tourist groups.  What I had kind of expected to be a quiet and calm spot, was VERY loud and conjested. 

But what WAS very cool about this spot, was the dirt trail that headed from the top of the Mount of Beatitudes down toward Tabgha.  Ben and I decided to make the walk down, while Grandma, Grandpa and Chuck drove the car to the Church of the Multiplication to meet us at the bottom. 

The walk was quiet, dusty, and undeveloped, which made it a really special moment on our trip as we descended the hill toward the water.

Remarkably, we had a brief (and sunny) rainshower while we were walking.  No rainbows that I spotted, but that would have been unbelievable. :)

When we reached the end of the trail, we ended up at the Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter, where you could walk right up to the rocky shoreline of the Sea of Galilee.

I think Ben may have picked up a pebble for Ayla. ;)

When we realized where we were, and that we were NOT at the Church of the Multiplication, where we were supposed to meet Chuck, Grandma and Grandpa, we spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to get where we were headed.  We stopped some Australian tourists (amazing how quickly you recognize overheard English!) and asked a couple of other tour guides to try and get our bearings and figure out where to head next.  If we'd have had about 2 minutes of patience, we could have figured it out ourselves - we found a sign & arrow almost immediately. 

We met up with them at the Chuch of the Multiplication, saw the famous mosaic tile floor, and admired the church architecture. 

Then we had to head out and hit our last stop of the day, before it closed - Capernaum.

Capernaum

Capernaum is the town where many of Jesus' apostles lived and where he spent much of his time.  The ruins found there are very cool to see the walls and rooms of the homes of people from that time. 

We had a short visit there, but appreciated seeing some of the ruins of the town and the synagogue that was from the 4th or 5th Century and is one of the oldest synagogues in the world.

When we finished up there though, we were all pretty tired and ready to start heading back to Jerusalem -- around the western side of the West Bank this time, via Tel Aviv for dinner. 

Having spent a good portion of the day driving and getting lost a few times, I confess, I was a little crabby by the end of the day.  When you're traveling with the Rosenbergs, everyone is a "leader" and a "navigator", which makes for some noisy and argumentative rides.  Since I was in the center of the car, I heard it from all angles.  I tried to just keep my mouth shut. There were enough GPSs, maps, opinions and plans in that car without my input.  :)

As a result, we had some stressful tired, hungry and "lost" moments getting from the Sea of Galillee to Tel Aviv - Jaffa for dinner.  Most of us kept our cool.  I might have snapped at one moment and told everyone to just let the GPS tell us where to go instead of commenting on every. single. turn. :)

Tel Aviv / Jaffa

We had hoped to make it to Jaffa by sunset, so that we could see the Mediterranean Sea during daylight.  We didn't quite make it there in time, but we did get to watch the sunset as we drove down along the coast.

We got to see a little bit of Tel Aviv at night as we drove through some heavy traffic. 

After finally reaching the Jaffa area, and finally finding a parking spot, we went in search of a restaurant through the artsy port area of Jaffa.  Jaffa would definitely be a neat place to spend the day shopping and wandering -- but we just didn't have it in us that night.  We (I) needed food.

Food makes me much less crabby. :)

Though it was a long and very full and crowded day, the views and the sites we got to see were definitely worth it! Even if we did get lost several times...

Israel Trip Wrap-Up:

1. Israel Trip: Getting Ready to Go
2. Israel Trip: Layover in Chicago
3. Israel Trip: Traveling Across the World
4. Israel Trip: Jerusalem - The Old City
5. Israel Trip: Bethlehem & West Bank
6. Israel Trip: Yad Vashem & Ben Yehuda Street
7. Israel Trip: An Israeli Wedding
8. Israel Trip: Mount of Olives
9. Israel Trip: City of David
10. Israel Trip: Sea of Galillee
11. Israel Trip: Kibbutz, Gaza & Shabbat
12. Israel Trip: Dead Sea & Ein Gedi
13. Israel Trip: The Food

Originally, we had considered driving to Cesarea and Tel Aviv on Wednesday, but with the wedding the night before and us getting such a late start, we decided that there was plenty more we could (and wanted to) see in Jerusalem, rather than spending so much of the day driving. 

So, after our Mount of Olives adventure, we headed down into the Old City to check out the City of David archaelogical ruins.

We don't see much of anything TRULY ancient in the US, so it was especially exciting to see how cities and homes and streets from thousands and thousands of years ago have been uncovered.

The City of David tour is about a 2 hour walking tour through the archeological park, with the option of a longer hike through Hezekiah's tunnel in knee-deep water. 

The City of David is where Jerusalem was born - the place where it all began.

Seeing sights like this ancient restroom is just pretty amazing.  That sounds sarcastic, but really, it's not!  I was truly enthralled with how we could stand and see mostly in-tact remains of a world that existed SO long ago.

We walked past portions of palaces and uncovered rooms made of stone, past Warren's Shaft (where the water system was created) and then arrived at a fork in the road. 

Should we take Hezekiah's tunnel to Siloam's Pool? 

Ben crept down and listened to the rushing water inside...

Eh...maybe we'll stick with the dry Canaanite tunnel instead. 

Had we been a little more prepared, I think Ben and I would have been willing to do it.  I've heard it's a REALLY cool experience.  I couldn't help but think about our friends, the Justice's and how much they would have LOVED this hiking adventure.

But, to be fair...the shorter Canaanite tunnel was a perfect adventure for our group!

Getting down the dark steep stairs and through the narrow passageways was challenging enough for all of us. Grandma was thankful to have her cane with her while Ben, Chuck and I stepped carefully and called out warnings of steep stairs, wet floors, and uneven walkways while ready to catch any of Grandma or Grandpa's mis-steps! 

But they did fine -- and I think they had fun. :)  That's the biggest smile Grandma has given me for the camera yet this trip!

When we reached the end, we stopped for a break and a look at the map. Chuck, Ben and I were hoping to take the tunnel from Siloam's Pool under the streets and into the Old City, but we knew that would be a tough walk.  We were all already pretty tired from all the hills, steps and climbing we'd already done.

Grandma's motto is usually "I can do it!" so it took some convincing for her to concede to letting us "kids" do the tunnel and meeting her and Grandpa on the other side of the city walls.  But she agreed.

First though...we had to get to Siloam's Pool, which was no simple feat!

We walked along a ridge on the side of the mountain, and took in a beautiful view of some Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Over rocky terrain where we saw some possible large royal tombs in the mountain.

Then we walked down a slippery, steep hill of a street, until finally, we arrived at Siloam's Pool.

There was no water in sight, but we could see half of the stepped pool in front of us and rest a while before the next tunnel hike.

When we'd had a little break, we sent Grandma and Grandpa off in a taxi and the three of us headed into "The Stepped Road" and the Herodian Road.

These drawings were especially helpful to me, to visualize where we were and what we were seeing (and standing on).  In fact, I just bought a cool book we saw in Israel called Israel Then & Now on Amazon that uses photographs and transparent overlays to show what the current view might have looked like in it's original glory.

We started the long hike through the dark and often short and narrow Herodian Road tunnel...

We didn't see another person the entire time we walked, which made the whole hike an even cooler memory -- kind of a special, private, tour that no one else knew about.

We continued until we ended up at the base of the Western Wall below the Temple Mount.  WOW!  To be at the Western Wall in what almost seemed like a "secret and secluded spot" was a very cool experience!

I think this video does a great job of describing the Herodian Road, telling where it is,

and you can kind of walk through it yourself too!

When we emerged from the tunnel, we ended up behind the Western Wall at this plaza, near the entrance of the Davidson Center - an archaeological museum.

Inside, we saw ancient artifacts from many different eras, as well as a model of the second temple.  When we saw this coffin from the 1st century with a Hebrew inscription about it belonging to the son of a high priest, Uncle Chuck remarked that it was so amazing that the Hebrew letters on the coffin were the same alphabet and Hebrew language that they use now in Israel.  No need for a translation when you can read modern Hebrew--it's the same!

After our long and exhausting walk through ancient Jerusalem and learning as much we could about the many eras of civilizations, we met back up with Grandma and Grandpa and headed back above-ground to current-day. 

We decided to take one last "quick" walk through the Old City, since we wouldn't likely return again another day that week.  We entered via the Western Wall:

On a Wednesday, the Western Wall is much less crowded than it was when we had been there on Monday during all the bar mitzvahs.

Ben was a few steps ahead of us, while Grandma and I were marveling at the velvety hat and coat this man was wearing.  While I fussed with my camera bag to get a good long-zoom photo of him, I saw something funny...

The man and woman were talking to Ben and asking him (in Yiddish or Hebrew -- Ben wasn't sure) to take their photo in front of the Western Wall.  Considering the formal dress and attire and customs these two must adhere to, we found it highly odd that they asked Ben (an obvious tourist, wearing shorts and a ball cap) to take their photo.

Regardless of the oddity of it, they seemed happy to commemorate their moment, and I'm certainly not one to keep anyone from documenting a memory!

While we were there, Uncle Chuck took Ben on a quick look around the corner of the men's side of the Wall. 

Evidently there's a prayer room to the far left side of the wall where men gather to pray, facing the wall.  Ben said he definitely felt like the only non-Jew in the room.

We left the Western Wall and walked through the Jewish Quarter, past the new synagogue, and back out of the main city walls through Zion Gate.

During the War of Independence in 1948, the Zion Gate was a major battleground in a fight between the Jewish and Arab forces. As a reminder of those events the Zion Gate is covered with bullet holes providing the visitors with a glimpse into how fierce the fight was for the ownership of Holy City.

^{source}

Right near the Zion Gate, we walked around the corner to King David's Tomb -- a site I found to be a nearly empty and uninteresting prayer room on the women's side.  However on the men's side, Ben, Grandpa and Chuck found a large and boisterous celebration dilled with songs, dancing, and welcoming Jews, encouaging Ben and Chuck to join them.  Grandma and I came out confused and unaffected, while Ben found this spot to be one of the most intriguing places we visited. 

While we were in the neighborhood (and even though we were all EXHAUSTED and ready to go find some dinner), we stopped at one more site -- the Upper Room inside the Cenacle, where the Last Supper was said to have taken place on Mount Zion. 

The city of Jerusalem, Jews and Christians all over the world owe a lot of their history to King David.  I guess a bronze statue IS in order. :)

We finally made it back to our car, and went in search of a relaxing dinner (bet you can't wait for that food-related post, huh?)

Israel Trip Wrap-Up:

1. Israel Trip: Getting Ready to Go
2. Israel Trip: Layover in Chicago
3. Israel Trip: Traveling Across the World
4. Israel Trip: Jerusalem - The Old City
5. Israel Trip: Bethlehem & West Bank
6. Israel Trip: Yad Vashem & Ben Yehuda Street
7. Israel Trip: An Israeli Wedding
8. Israel Trip: Mount of Olives
9. Israel Trip: City of David
10. Israel Trip: Sea of Galillee
11. Israel Trip: Kibbutz, Gaza & Shabbat
12. Israel Trip: Dead Sea & Ein Gedi
13. Israel Trip: The Food