Israel 2014 Day 9: Shabbos on the Beach

6/21/2014
Israel 2014 Day 9: Shabbos on the Beach

It's Shabbos, so most stuff is closed today. A perfect time for going to the beach again! But first, we did one more event to celebrate Michal's cousin's Bar-Mitzvah. We headed to a Synagogue in a Moshav (which is somewhat like a Kibbutz -- more like a "small community"). We went to the Synagogue for the Torah-reading portion. It was also an opportunity for many "Alyiahs" -- for the parents, grandparents, and family members to have the opportunity to say some blessings and be honoured by being called up to the Torah. As well as the Bar-Mitzvah from our large group, another man was getting married (perhaps the next day), so he and all of his family also went up multiple times. A big celebration, that's for sure. We also got to throw candy "toffees" again to celebrate the joyous moment, and all the kids at the Shul went nuts (some of the adults too). :)

As we were finishing up the service, a cat walked right by the window!! I was SO psyched and planned to go find the cat immediately afterwards. There was also a lady doing Yoga outside! Funny.

There's a cat here!

Aww

We headed to a Kiddush (more food!) afterwards, and I found the cat, who was just hangin' out and whiskering everything and everyone in sight. That was awesome. Given this was a Jewish event (and presumably, a Jewish cat), no doubt he was hungry for a snack, so someone made him a plate of food!! haha. I found some of that "Safed cheese" that I had a few days ago that was so good, and I gave him a little piece. He loved it. :) Good cat.

Jerusalem cracker

The Synagoge at the Moshav

From here, we went back to Tel Aviv. As I mentioned, Shabbos is very quiet, but some stuff in Tel Aviv was still open. The Beach of course was totally open, and that was a good Shabbos-day activity... so good, in fact, that finding parking was a pretty impressive challenge! We found some eventually though and headed to the beach, ready to chill. It was very warm outside, and with such cool water, it was a really perfect thing. I also got an Iced Coffee (as you do!), and it was SO good. We also tried the Watermelon and Bulgarian cheese salad, something I was initially concerned would be a weird combo, but Michal had introduced me to it back at home. And, it was glorious.

Back in Tel-Aviv

Iced Coffee and a huge bowl of Hummus. What more do you need?!

Me, I think, in awe of the Watermelon Feta salad

Good times!

Someone loves their Ice Cream!!

A good choice of shirt for this Ice Cream-heavy day!

The waves were huge today, and I spent some good time riding the waves back to shore. It was a bit "toss and turn"-y, but super fun. What a great time. We went to town on the Watermelon and the Ice Cream, and then had to shower off (covered in Ice Cream). This is how you know you are doing "the summer" correctly.

After a fun few hours at the beach, we headed back to the cars, via an awesome drummer/street performer who was still going, several hours after we had seen him before. From Tel Aviv, we took the short drive to Hertzilyah to meet everyone at the White Hall Steak House for dinner. I had a super tasty steak, as well as the ever-present "salads" -- salad, chicken wings, tasty bread and bruschetta-like "salad" for the bread. Yes!!

Cool buildings

An ATM with Windows XP currently rebooting...

Haha, ATM fail

Along with the great meal, I tried an Apricot Soda, and we all shared desserts. A lovely dinner and great family time together again this evening, we headed down to a place called Arena (on the "Marina") with Michal's parents. We checked out some postcards and cards, and wandered a street mall for a bit where I found a present for my parents. There were some walkways along the beach with some cool necklaces, but what I really liked were brightly coloured Hebrew letters. These were bright and polka-dotted, and made from different base colours. Given the new knowledge of how to spell my last name in Hebrew (Yu-tahn), I wanted to get those multi-colour letters for my Mom. I tried first to match the background colours, looking for the blue or purple ones. They didn't seem to have all of them in the same colour, so the artist/clerk helped me out, finding a mix of different coloured letters to spell what I wanted. "Don't worry", he said, "Kids like different colours!" haha. I didn't tell him they were for my crazy parents, and my Mom would definitely like the crazy multi-colour polka-dots, for SURE.

Cool light tree in Hertzilyah

Wandering around the marina

Late night tea at the beach cafe

After a nice wander, we drove to the other end of the beach to go to a nice dessert cafe called Gazebbo. This of course was dessert #2, since we just had dessert at the restaurant! Michal was super into the idea of Pavlova that night, so we tried it and it was great.

The four of us had a great time, wrapping-up the trip. Her parents leave tomorrow, but we are staying another couple of days. We enjoyed our tea and pavlova, chatting about all the exciting parts of the trip and the good family times, while the waves crashed against the shore and the moody boardwalk lamps stood boldly in the warm night air.