Bike Demo: Trek Fuel EX 9.8

WOW, that was freakin' awesome.

Yesterday I went out with my buddy Ollie to Fairfax, CA to Sunshine Bikes to borrow a super-epic 2015 Trek Fuel EX 9.8 mountain bike. Sunshine Bikes was doing a FREE Trek Factory Demo and it was totally stellar. I got to try a fancier bike than I will be able to afford, but oh my was it sweet. What a sick bike: http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/trail/fuel_ex/fuel_ex_9_8_27/

Trek Fuel EX 9.8 27.5 (MSRP $5249.99)

We arrived in the morning, I got my bike sorted out (I borrowed a 17.5" frame), and after getting the shocks set for my weight, and seatpost set to the correct height... off we went to do the Tamarancho loop.

Trek Factory Demo truck

The first thing I noticed about the Fuel EX is that is was extremely comfortable. Also, apparently, 17.5" is EXACTLY the right frame size for me. Since I have a Gary Fisher bike now in the same size (and Gary is now a designer for Trek), this was such a natural feeling and everything just sortof "worked". I had a "feel" for the bike right off the get-go, it felt very comfortable and I felt like I sortof "knew" the bike already. I have ridden my Gary Fisher for 7 years now, so there must be something to riding a similarly-designed bike, I guess. It rocked.

Ollie posing with my sweet Trek for the day

We headed up the Tamarancho trail. The last time (and only other time) I did Tamarancho I was on a Specialized 29er, and found the cornering REALLY tough on that one. This time I found it much easier, though, MAN Tamarancho is still a tough trail. Ollie and I both ate it at one point, and I sortof hip-checked a tree a couple times and also toppled down a hill a bit (landing in a pile of leaves, thankfully), but just a couple scratches and nothing that a couple band-aids wouldn't fix. Tamarancho is definitely still a bit past my skill-level, but Ollie said I was attacking the trail very well -- both on the incline and the decline. He said it looked like I was "very comfortable" with the bike, and that it was a perfect fit, and also that I had clearly been practicing more on harder trails since we last went out. So that was great to have someone watch me and for it to look like my skills have improved.

Ollie, Me, and Mitch

We rode with our buddy Mitch too which was great fun and awesome to catch up with both of these fine fellows.

So, how did the bike fare?! Well, in a word: BEAUTIFULLY.

As the Sunshine Bikes guy said, "the Fuel EX is PERFECT for the trails around here (Northern California)." And it sure was. The "Climb, Trail, Descent" settings on both front and back shocks was very intuitive just like the Remedy 8 I rode in Scotland in May. The bike was just glued to the ground, bouncing and tracking the crazy roots and jagged rocks that were everywhere. The suspension I left on "Descend" even during some non-descents, and the back shock especially was very forgiving -- it didn't engage unless it really needed to, and I was very impressed when it did. Not bouncy or unwieldy, just exactly what I needed and when I needed it.

One thing I didn't think I'd expect to like but did, was the dropper seat post. This one came with a button to drop the seat down and I thought that was just for when you take huge jumps... apparently not. As the guys explained, it's actually for when you're cornering or when you're going downhill... you take the seat out of your way just a little, and you can then get lower on the bike. This gives you more stability, and you can also get back behind the seat as needed. Pretty great. Then, a simple press and the seat jumps back up to your regular height for the climbs. I actually found I used it a fair bit. It was a bit hard to get used to, since I usually use the seat bouncing around as another "indication" of the feel of the track itself -- it bouncing around gives me more information about the trail, and so with the seat not there at all, I was finding I was missing that. Also, man your legs get even more tired when you're off the seat for even longer than usual. That said, I thought a dropper seat was way out of my skill level and I'd never need one, but after trying this one I actually kindof liked the option. Especially for a crazy route like Tamarancho, this worked out super well.

As on the Remedy 8, the Shimano Deore XT shifters and brakes were a TOTAL slam-dunk. They were incredibly responsive, there when I needed them, and exceedingly accurate. This was super important for the tricky curves on this trail. This bike really performed, and I loved it.

As Ollie mentioned, the fork angle on the Fuel EX has been getting "slacker" over the years, and it actually felt quite a lot like the Trek Remedy 8 I rented in Scotland. I loved that bike so much that I asked the folks at the bike shop about the differences. They do seem pretty close, though the Remedy is a bit more "downhill" than the Fuel EX. They said the Fuel would do great in Tahoe and other spots too, but the Remedy would give me a bit more comfort and feel like I could roll over more rocks and trail features potentially in a more downhill situation. "For around here though, nothing beats the Fuel EX", the guy said. The Remedy would be a bit more work to climb up hills in this area, he suggested, and since I tend to have more trouble with climbing than descending, it may be wiser to aim for the Fuel instead of the Remedy. Probably, I should just go to Tahoe in the summer and rent a Remedy and then decide after that (and maybe borrow a Remedy for around here just to be safe). The weight on this Fuel was awesome, as I could easily get up some hills I thought were much harder on Tamarancho before with the 29er I borrowed last year.

I am definitely leaning closer and closer to Trek for my full-suspension bike. I have now tried a Specialized, a Santa Cruz, and 2 Treks. Ollie suggested I also try an Ibis Mojo to get a feel for a different suspension type. So far, Trek feels the most comfortable and the best "fit" for me. Perhaps it's because of my experience on the Gary Fisher, or maybe just the combo of components and geometry feels right to me. Anyway, I love it. Now I gotta start trying to find a Demo/Last-Year's-Model situation, and see if I can get a really awesome one at a great price.

After a great run at Tamarancho, we headed out for beer and burgers (mmm) and I got a Chocolate Stout Float. So, what I mean to say is, Sunday morning and afternoon was a complete win. :)

Celebrating a glorious ride with a glorious Chocolate Stout Beer Float

Bike Test: Road Bike -- Raleigh Revenio 3.0

A buddy let me borrow his Raleigh Revenio 3.0 road bike today so I could get a feel for how it fared on a common regular ride I do. The results were pretty good:

12 min 39 sec Home->Work
13 min 14 sec Work->Home

Super excellent.

General thoughts:

• These were 700cc wheels (like people recommended I try). Rims 23mm wide. Tires 700x25c. (Cannondale Quick is 700x32c, Cannondale Quick Speed is 700x28c)
• It was fast. It took me about 1/2 the time of the regular (on my hardtail mountain bike) to do it.
• San Francisco's hills are still hard -- the road bike does not make the hills a ton "easier", but it does make them quicker (take less time, though the effort is still similar).
• A road bike really has an advantage in a "straighaway" -- a flat road without a lot of stop signs... you just zoom then.
• Drop bars were fun to try and very weird at first. In the end I think I actually don't generally like them for what I will be using this bike for. It is awesome to get into drop mode and totally zoom, but in general with commuting there's a lot of looking up, stopping when a car does something stupid or doesn't see you, alerting traffic and waving to people to say thank you... etc. I need my arms up often to signal, etc. So I didn't like having them tucked away when I needed them out all the time :)
• Bumpy roads were generally fine, I didn't really miss the shocks for this minimal commute
• Surprisingly, I DID like the foot "loops" quite a lot -- the power on the up-pedal was nice and I felt I was getting a lot out of them. These "loops" on this bike were much better I think than clip pedals for my purposes -- again I need to get on and off a lot at stop signs etc, so better to be able to pull my foot out quickly, which was possible with these.
• Another thing that was weird and I definitely did not like was the hand position and the access to the brakes. I am a guy who wants access to the breaks to be readily available, and I felt I could only get the access I wanted if I was in "drop mode". Riding with my hands on top of the straight bar (eg when climbing a hill), I had no access to breaks at all (generally OK). Riding with my hands on-top of the breaks, but forwards was meant to be the "standard" way of sortof-upward riding. Most road bikers I saw today biking along were riding that way. I was definitely not into the lack of break control from that angle -- I need to be able to slam them on at any given time, and I did not have the access I needed. So that was a fail. I found actually there were several times I wanted to have the breaks close, and had to drop into "drop mode" to get them, even though I didn't want to be in "drop mode" at the time. So the break access was not great. Generally, the 2nd "forwards and over the brakes" hand position also to me was quite uncomfortable. I found I needed to move often between all the different hand positions too, which was somewhat akin to driving a manual car. A bit distracting overall. I can see why Cyclocross bikes have a 2nd set of brakes right on the main handlebar.
• All in all: I liked it and it was a fun trial. But, I suspect a thin/slick-tire flat handlebar hybrid might end up winning for my purposes.

Cyclocross or Commuter Hybrid?

I'm considering selling my awesome Gary Fisher Tassjara hardtail mountain bike for a REALLY fancy and epic Full-Suspension Bike. This has been a thought for a long while, and every time I go to an epic location to mountain bike in another city or country, I always rent some crazy new Full-Suspension bike with the thought that I might one day decide on one for myself. I've tried a Santa Cruz, a Specialized, and most recently a Trek Remedy in Scotland on the 7Stanes.

While I am MOST excited about something of this kind of gloriousness, it's actually kinda more practical to be thinking more about a commuter hybrid bike first. The XC/downhill bike is akin to a Lamborghini or convertible sports car -- you only take it out once or twice a month at most, but when you do, you drive like hell and are grinning like a friggin' cheshire cat. Also, it looks so sexy it may as well be an Italian sports car. Looking at one like this: http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/trail/remedy/remedy_7_27/

Trek Remedy

So obviously that is the most awesome thing ever. And I am way excited at the possibility of a MAJOR upgrade from my current bike to one of these beautiful beasts.

But, my bike-commute to work is going to be even more uphill-feeling with this bike, I suspect. I currently have 27 gears on my Gary Fisher, which is great for the crazy San Francisco hills. This Trek is not exactly made for commuting, has only 12 gears or so, and I am gonna have to ride a bunch of the commute with the shocks "locked off". Also, since there is mostly road (with some rocks and bumpy sidewalk) on my commute, it doesn't make sense to really have any off-road ability on the commute. Ergo: maybe I ought to think about trading in my current bike for 2 bikes. Crazy, I know, but I think this makes some sense. I may be able to get the commuter one on Craiglist for next-to-nothing, which would be nice.

So... the hybrid bike.

First off, I don't want something like this, because it's not really going to be for "touring". This is your classic "hybrid" as I think of it. Nice bike, but not the style I'm going for. Also, I don't really need any shock absorption, since if I am gonna need any of that for a ride, I'll take my (current, or eventually future) mountain bike instead. It's going to be for hauling my butt to work quickly, or for booting it around the city on weekends to get some exercise. I don't want the casual upwards-facing handlebars because of the commuting goal.

Cannondale Adventure 1

http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/2015/bikes/fitness-urban/fitness/adventure/adventure-1

Moving on, I also do not want a Road Bike. San Francisco can have rainy days and slick roads, and tons of potholes and other annoying cracks in the sidewalk and so on. A road bike has super thin tires and I have little-to-no interest in the racing or long-distance biking (100 miles+) vibe. I have been on a few 30 miles+ rides in a day, but it's more casual or just for fun. I don't think I'll be getting into super long rides any time soon, and speed is important, but racing is definitely not. I have also never ridden a road bike, so it would be brand new for me.

So, what else is there? Well, my buddy Nick from work pointed me towards something called a "Cyclocross" bike. This is very interesting. It's sortof like a "durable road bike" -- it's got (or can have) slightly more knobbly and thicker tires than a road, and also comes with disc brakes, which is pretty sweet. You get the "drop bars" at the front for when you want to book it, but you can also hold it up top normally and there are extra brakes up there so you can ride more upright.

Cannondale Caadx Sora Disc

http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/2015/bikes/road/cyclocross/caadx/caadx-sora-disc


So that's quite enticing. I like the idea of the speed, but the durability and more flexibility that a normal hybrid offers.

What I think I might actually end up with is something like the Cannondale Quick. Given it's name, it's so obviously made with the commuter in mind :)

Cannondale Quick

http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/2015/bikes/fitness-urban/fitness/quick-sl-quick/quick-4

They are marketing this one in the "Urban/Fitness" section, which I suppose is what I am going for. So, something like this or the Cyclocross one would probably do the trick. They are pretty similar, and I bet would give me a lot more speed than I have at the moment with bike-commuting up San Francisco hills with my hardtail mountain bike and big tires.

The Quick has a geometry a bit more like what I am used to, I think, but looks like it probably doesn't come with Disc Brakes (mostly due to the low cost, I suspect). This is pretty sweet though and probably the perfect commuting companion.

A variant of the Quick is one called the Quick Speed, which I should really check out. It seems pretty interesting and has slightly larger tires which means it would prob bit a bit of a quicker ride to work. Cool idea.

Cannondale Quick Speed

http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/2015/bikes/fitness-urban/fitness/quick-speed/quick-sl-3

This research is all super fun and I am having a great time checking out what is available. I am gonna try out a few of these types on a weekend soon, and it's fun to know that there is a difference between a Cyclocross and a Commuter Hybrid, and what those differences are. I think I'd like to try a few out and get an idea of how they feel on the road. What I should really do is borrow one and then borrow the other, and actually try my actual commute with it. :)

Anyhow, not sure when I will go for it, but it's exciting to start thinking about this.

adidas Originals x SPEZIAL | Sole Searching in South America

Beautiful video of a "treasure trove" of vintage Adidas shoes in Buenos Aires, Argentina... and the really interesting story of the owner of this shop. A team from Adidas in the UK heard about the "legend" of this shop, and traveled to meet the owner. Awesome footage of the meeting, and the guys from Adidas UK are just SO excited about it all. Great video.



More here:
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/nov/02/adidas-hidden-hoard-in-argentina-ian-brown

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.

Israel 2014 Day 8: Hertzilyah

6/20/2014
Israel 2014 Day 8: Hertzilyah

Today was a pretty chill day. We started with a trip to the beach. Given that it's a Friday and the large majority of things close down before Shabbos (Fri night to Sat night), it was a day to start our Shabbos-ing early and just chill at the beach. Our destination today was Hertzilyah Pituach, a fancy beach area just north of Tel-Aviv.

Herzliya Beach!

Chill times

Lunch!

Hmm... the Mediterranean sure is salty! I'd forgotten how salty it was, I suppose I must have swam in it before (perhaps from Greece? I think that may have been the Aegean Sea). You gotta remember not to open your eyes too much underwater or dunk your head in the water too much because the salt is kinda intense. Nothing like the Dead Sea a few days ago, though, that was insane!

We got some chairs with umbrella shades and got some food at the beach, a nice setup. I also got an Iced Coffee... very good for this crazy warm weather! We also got some dips, pita, 2 eggs and salad. Tasty lunch while chillin' on those chairs. After soakin' in the sun for a while, we headed to the mall to wander!

Haha, awesome

Monopoly

We got a "Burekas", kind of like the "Borek" that I like so much back home. We had a good wander for a while, and I found some balloons with Hebrew writing on them... exciting! They were a bit expensive for balloons, like a couple dollars each. It seemed a little much for normal balloons, but when do you have the opportunity to get a "Happy Birthday" balloon written in Hebrew! So I went for it. Turns out... oh... the price contained the cost of filling them up with Helium. Didn't notice that on the sign written only in Hebrew :) So, I kept most of them for later as planned, but got them to still fill up one or two for Michal's niece.

The mall was like most malls, with mostly stores that I knew from home: Vans, Gap, etc. I was trying to find a store with local clothing, maybe something with some Hebrew on it. Of course, all the shirts had stuff like "San Francisco", "USA", "California" on them, not a shirt with Hebrew to be found. Haha, I certainly don't need any more "California" shirts!

New Surfer-y Magen David I got

I continued wandering and found an Idan Raichel CD for Michal, her favourite Israeli artist. I also found a cool Men's clothing/hip Menswear store, and there was a pretty modern-looking stainless steel Magen David necklace, in a bit of an unusual surfer-y style. Definitely not the kind of thing I'd ever be able to find at home, so I was super psyched and got it. Awesome. :) After this bout of shopping and finding my sister a present... it was time for an Ice Aroma again... as you do.

Chillin in the stroller

Then we bounced around this jungle gym and I got foam shot at me from this launcher thing. Hilarity ensued!

Michal's bro getting some sweet air

We met back up with Michal's brother and sister-in-law, and headed to go bounce on this Gymboree thing which was hilarious. We played in there for a while, while I got chased, got foam/rubber balls shot at me from a cannon, and tried to balance on a balance beam. All in all, good times.

This just so happened to be beside a McDonald's, so we finally went for it and tried the insane sized burger. Michal's brother bought me the "Mega Big America", the crazy burger we'd seen advertised a few times. It was hilarious and awesome and we shared it like 5-ways (or, at least, that's the story I'm sticking with).

We finally gave in and had to try this insane "Mega Big America" burger, just because it existed

This thing was insane

Arrgghhmmm!

That burger was enormous and insane and awesome.

After a fun time at the mall, we headed to Michal's cousin's home for Shabbos dinner. Everyone came, as always, and it was an awesome family event again. Great food and even greater company!

And now time for more silly faces.

The movie "Chef" in Hebrew!

Shabbos Dinner!

As always, Israel does salads right :)

And then, an amazing Oreo Cake in an even more amazing Hebrew dish from a local artist!

It was fun to be there with everyone, and I got a chance to chat with the boys for longer, too. I busted out the Google Translate app a bit to help with our conversation. Everyone had fun with it getting some of the translated words wrong.

We finished the great eventing of food and good times with an Oreo Cake, made in this AWESOME dish (I will have to get one like it!) It was a dish by a local artist with Hebrew writing on it, which contained the recipe for the cake. Another great day!

Israel 2014 Day 7: Climbing Masada at Sunrise

6/19/2014
Israel 2014 Day 7: Climbing Masada at Sunrise

Oof! This day started off insanely early... at the glorious time of 4:15am!! We packed our stuff for the hike and drove 15 min to the Masada east gate. Masada in an ancient fortress, which the Romans took in the Siege of Masada. It is also a very steep and beautiful rock formation, and a very popular spot for tourists to visit when in Israel.

Wow, it's early. 5:06am. Let's do this.

Ok, now it's 5:09am, we're awake

Let's start walking up the Snake Path

Up and up

We started when the sun was still down, at dusk, and soon after the sun started to come up. Amazingly hot in this part of Israel, it was already 29 Celcius when we started walking!!!! Insane. But, there was a pleasant cool breeze which really took the edge off. The hike up was great.

Cool formations

Yep.

Getting closer

My climbing girl

Watching the sunrise

Here it comes

Glorious

Nice one

Almost up now...

On the trail

The moon

A little sideways

Crazy landscape

Looking out

Up at the top, we walked around a lot and saw some cool stuff like water cisterns. One of my favourite parts was a stone map of how water flowed through to difference places of the site, which came complete with a little water jug you could full up with a tap right next to it, and you poured the water onto the replica map to see it pour along all the different water routes. Fun. :)

Water was necessary for survival for the people living here, but King Herod also said it should be used for other purposes too: hygiene, and even recreation (swimming!) There were some cool sites to see up there like the old synagogue. There was actual a Bar-Mitzvah happening in that ancient Synagogue when we were up there. History!

Rock formations

Epic times

Top of Snake Path

Tired

That's a better one :)

Fun water bucket exhibit where you can see how the drainage system worked

The view

On top of Masada

Enjoying the view

There were lots of Birthright trips happening up there, as we wandered around and checked out the sites. We also saw the stage where the artist Idan Raichel had played recently. The Opera has also done an event here, that would rock.

Time to walk back down

At the bottom again

After a good couple of hours up there, we walked back down the same path. You can walk the other way (the way the Romans sieged the site), but you end up on the other side of the entire mountain, and it's like an hour DRIVE back to your car... certainly not walkable, especially in this heat! So we walked back down the snake path, ready to crush some breakfast. And crush it, we did!

We headed back to the hotel and changed and then went straight to the buffet breakfast!! Oh MAN that was awesome and perfect after our big morning schlep. They had 5% "white cheese", labane with tasty spices, egg salad, Safed 5% cheese, I got a tasty cappuccino, and there was AWESOME cheesecake.

Breakfast time! Lots of fish choices

Epic cheese

"Safed Cheese"... yeeeeppppp

Yoghurt and Fruit

Crazy awesome cheesecake

Huge tasty plate and a nice cappucino after a good hike

Better try some of that cheesecake...

So that was absolutely epic. I loved the breakfast and we totally owned it. I got like 2 or 3 plates and was just over the moon with excitement of all the awesome choices and crazy kinds of weird awesome cheese, and especially that cheesecake. YES!! That rocked.

From there we hit the pool area, and chilled out for a bit. We had a nice swim and some good chill time in these fancy Cabana things they had up at the pool. Pretty sweet. The Cabanas had funny "wedge" pillows so you could sit up and read in them very easily! Fancy times. It was only 10:30am... and was already 32C!!! So warm. I sat in a Cabana and wrote my journal notes -- perhaps the best place ever for writing my journal!

Cabines at the pool

Zzz...

Chillin'

We really enjoyed the sun and the chillin' there, and after a nice amount of time relaxing, we started the drive back. The water on the way out of Ein Bokek looked bright green. What a crazy colour!

The water was green today!

On the way back we stopped to get some water at a McDonald's and there was a Soldier in there carrying a big gun, I think this is perhaps standard issue. But, wow. Definitely not something you see every day back home.

Wow, it's not every day you see a soldier in a McDonald's (at home, anyway)

Back we went after this to Ra'anana. We dropped off our stuff and took a trip to the mall to go check it out, pick up stamps so I could send a few postcards, and check out a few fun things like a local grocery store. We got an "Ice Aroma", as usual. :) We saw some pretty interesting stores, where I found a Wall-E and a Monsters University kids book in Hebrew!! Obv. had to get those, cause that rocked.

That's my cup of tea

Beautiful silverwares

A Torah container

Haha, awesome

Well, this rocks

Hebrew written in a "Chinese style"

Nice Mezuzzah shop

All the hummus

We saw a crazy epic silverware store, where one might buy a Seder plate or fancy Shabbos candlesticks. That was pretty wicked. Also, we found a Judaica store!! Yes!! I really want to find some cool Mezuzzahs to take home, and they had a lot. It was fun to check them out and I've never seen so many before or so many different kinds, that was really exciting and I could have spent 2 hrs there just looking at each one. There were piles and piles of Yarmulkes, little artistic house prayers, candlesticks, etc. So Jewish. :)

And of course, the Kosher McDonald's! (If you're starting to feel a trend here of me constantly talking about McDonald's, don't worry, I'm not obsessed with the place. It's just super awesome to see it in foreign countries and I always love how they localize the food to -- sometimes -- match the customs of the country. When I was in the middle of the Australian Outback in a town called Alice Springs, I went into a McDonalds there. It was a hot day, maybe 40C, and their schtick was "Tastes of the World." I still remember, for some reason they had "Indian Curry Puffs" there... in the middle of the Australian Outback. How odd. And the "McOz" burger comes with an EGG on it, cause Australians are crazy). Anyway, in Israel, the obvious difference for McDonald's is that generally, it should be Kosher to meet the customs of the local country. I took a photo there, and it reminded me of my time back in Buenos Aires a couple years ago -- Argentina being the only country in the world outside of Israel to house a Kosher McDonalds. So yes, that was fun. The difference here between this one and the one in Argentina was that it had a separate area for Milk products (as Kosher rules state you need to separate Milk and Meat products). There was a little side-window area for Ice Cream only, while the rest of the restaurant and counter sold meat burgers. And, of course, no cheeseburgers. :)

We found a Celio store, my favourite French shop that I found with Andrew Lam back in 2007 when we were traveling in France. It's sortof like a French Gap. It was fun and I got some boxers there. We also went to a grocery store, and they had a WICKED collection of Hummus and Tahini. Like an extremely amazing amount. I got two types of (Kosher!) Salami to take back for snacking on with everyone in the evening later.

After the mall, we drove home in good time to change nicely, and then head to Tomer's Bar-Mitzvah Party!! The fun continues! We headed to an event place where they were throwing the party and it was just fantastic. A beautiful, expertly planned setup with twinkly lights and games for the kids to play, awesome appetizers, tasty food, and very heartfelt speeches and slideshow. What a sweet, warm, loving family environment. Totally awesome. And, as always, everyone was there! It was all so much fun and I felt incredibly welcome. Great times!

At the Bar-Mitzvah Party

Popsicle time

After this... time for Dessert, of course!!! We crushed some popsicles and finished up the evening with big smiles on our faces. What an epic day.