On Our Way Home

9/3/10 11:45 pm

on board, taxiing to the runway waiting for takeoff. 3 weeks with Micah in Israel...wow... the last few days have been a glimpse into the Mark of old -

staying at Lisa's, moved to Israel in 1995

seeing Marc with a C, moved to Israel in 2004

having yet another meal with David, moved to Israel in 1984

junior high/high school/college

close your eyes, snap your fingers, give a whistle and it's 30 some odd years later

and our kids are us

they are the ages we were when we met...

Well, the plane will be taking off any second leaving the land if Israel... until who knows if and when we, I, or Micah will return...

a trip to think about

to digest

to remember

to write about

and to jump off from - a renewed interest

(or for Micah, a new interest)

in what happens

is happening

in Israel, in Palestine

in the middle east,

in the world

in the air...

say goodbye to Israel, "l'hitra'ot, shalom"

"l'shana tova"

Our Last Day in Israel

Micah and Adam working on a crossword...

9.3.10 4 pm

David visited me at 8:30 am, everyone in the house still asleep or resting, Adam and Amitan off to school on their own. I tried meeting him on the main road and got lost right away, asked a guy getting into his car who offered to drive me to Ahouva. David called looking for me, we found each other and had a great breakfast, just talking about my trip, his life, my life. Then we came back to Lisa and Aaron's and we all visited for awhile. I think David left around 11:30. Then Micah and I walked to Ahouva street together this time with directions we got there without any problems and we did some final shopping. Bought myself some books for the plane, some last minute gifts, a bottle of wine for our shabbat dinner tonight. I was supposed to have lunch with my friend Marc, but something came up, he had to take one of his kids somewhere, it didn't work out, which was fine. Micah and I found a very busy falafel stand and had one more falafel for lunch, we laughed as we walked around, not believing this is our last day in Israel. I told Micah, I'm going to miss you, we're not going to be together all the time like we've been. "Yeah," he smiled, we hugged.

And so Micah and I have been hanging out with Lisa, Aaron, Amitan, and now Adam just got home from hanging out after school. Lisa found all these odd earrings that i used to make and insisted on me taking them back with me to show my kids so they can wear them on Halloween, she also gave me my old silver pinky rings, one with my hebrew name (moshe) and one with my english name written in hebrew... then we were looking at some old cassette tapes and vinyl records that we must have made or bought together - some really great old Roberta Flack records, I went on I-Tunes to see if I could buy some of the albums or songs, but they didn't exist on I-Tunes.

So now we are just hanging out, t.v. on in the living room, our last hours will be spent, taking showers, packing our bags, and having a final shabbat dinner with the Leitner family, so far haven't taken any pictures today, maybe I should take one right now... so that's it for now, I have this urge to go somewhere, see something else, but I'm not, I'm going to take a shower and just soak in the final hours and be with an old dear friend and her beautiful family on a typical friday night, the last friday night before Rosh Hashana. In fact as we did some shopping on Rahov Ahouva earlier everyone was saying Shabbat Shalom, L' Shana Tova....

Second to Last Day

9.2.10

Best comment from Micah on the car ride back to R'anana from the Nature Reserve. "We should have done more spontaneous traveling where we didn't know where we were staying. Yesterday and today were so much fun.."

2 days ago there was a terrorist attack on the road to Hebron near Kiryat Arba.

4 people were shot in cold blood. It was a terrorist attack to try to forestall the peace talks in the U.S. which were starting up that day. Interesting enough that is exactly where Micah and I went on our last day in Jerusalem. We probably drove on the exact spot this terrible thing happened which was a political terrorist act aimed at the religious jews who live in Kiryat Arba, which is a jewish settlement inside the West Bank city of Hebron, that's where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is located and where Micah and I walked through the old city and arab market and met some palestinian arabs and the city where we drove around feeling a little out of place - go back and look at my blog from that day. I think I titled it Hebron...

It's hard to believe in 24 hours we will be at the airport checking in.

Today was a very easy going day of visiting. Lisa got her kids off to school and did her grocery shopping for the upcoming holiday. Micah slept in and I tried to catch up on e-mails and blogging. Around 10:30 am we went to return the car. I followed Lisa to the gas station and the Elton car return. It all went super smoothly, they didn't charge me any extra for the extra night, plus Lisa told me I should ask them about my Jerusalem parking ticket. All I needed to do was go to the post office which was just around the corner and pay for it there. So 100 shekels later I no longer had to worry about the wrath of the Jerusalem Parking Authority somehow coming to wreak havoc on my life in Montana... and I have the receipt to prove it.

Then onto the Yitzhak Rabin Center, a great history of Israel wrapped around the life of a great Israeli man, Yitzhak Rabin, colored with world history as well. It summarized and expounded upon a lot of the history and issues Micah and I have learned about in the last few weeks. Rabin was a man who was on the verge of making a great peace after years of service in the army, after years as ambassador to the U.S., after years as prime minister, years of meeting other great leaders of the world, who was then shot down and assasinated by an extremist jewish militant who was afraid that Rabin would succeed at making peace...

Then lunch on the beach of Tel Aviv, feet in the sand, the waves rolling in.

Then Lisa gave us a driving tour of R'anana, showing us how much it has grown since she moved here in 1995.

And then my visit with my best friend from junior high, Marc with a C. Moved to Israel about 6 years ago, living half the time in Cinncinatti, half the time in R'anana, 3 girls and a boy, a modern orthodox, his wife Joy, a very very busy hectic house, they just got back 2 days ago from a summer in the states. While we drank iced coffee and reminisced his young son, about 7yrs old had three friends over, and their parents kept coming by to pick them up, then two Russian guys delivered and put together a set of 8 new dining room chairs, a discussion ensued about them fixing their old chairs, as this was happening an insurance man came by who sat down for over an hour trying to sell them an insurance policy on all their appliances. Marc kept negotiating with him on and off, getting his wife or his 18 year old daughter to translate for him.

It was very hectic, but it was really fun, like a carnival atmosphere, they gave me a bunch of magazines for the plane ride home and we hope to have a sushi lunch tomorrow to visit one more time. He kept telling his kids this is my friend, Mark, we were best friends from the time we were 12 years old! And we sat and talked and remembered some of our old youthful times together.

Then back to Lisa and Aaron's, where we hung out and talked and had a homecooked meal with the family, Adam and Amitan, Amitan falling asleep at the dinner table. We reminisced, talked about whatever... a walk through the past, the present, the future... this is your life...

Look at me on the couch blogging along on my little pc...

Yehudiya Nature Reserve & R'anana

9.1.10

After watching the sunrise from outside our teepees, we went back to sleep for a few hours and then packed up our stuff, had some stale bread and laughing cow cheese for breakfast and rolled out of Nimrod and headed to the Bental Mountain, an israeli bunker and viewpoint of Syria, Mt. Hermon, and the Golan. We wandered around and looked at the views and hiked down into the bunker and imagined what it would have been like to be a soldier during the yom kippur war.

Then it was off to find the Yehudiya Nature Reserve which after a bit of a drive we arrived there at about noon. The reserve guide sent us out on a 3 hour hike to these amazing deep pools of cool water and a waterfall with yet another deep pool. We weren't prepared for a 3 hour hike, but we went for it. We bought a 6 pack of cold water, drove to the trailhead, texted Lisa that we would be much later than I thought and embarked on yet another Mark and Micah adventure.

It was very hot, but we drank water, the hike took you through some super slow swampy water rock hiking, jumping from rock to rock, a good 30 -40 minutes of hiking and drinking water. The trail was full of rocks, not a hard hike, but not an easy hike either. Finally we arrived at the first big deep pool, we stripped down to our bathing suits and got in the water immediately, there were some guys there jumping in from the top of the cliffs so Micah and I climbed out and jumped and yes I jumped too, Micah is just not as good at taking sports photos as I am...

So we jumped and we swam, we checked out the fish and wished we had a fishing rod, then went to the next pool and found even higher jumps. It was awesome. We swam around for at least a half an hour if not more, it was just fun. "Ezeh Kef" (What Fun!)

And then we continued on to the waterfall and swam in the pool beneath that jumping and diving in and just having a good time. And then we hiked out... getting out around 3:15 or so, it was just as long as the guide told us it would be. My phone was going dead so I found a place to plug it in, we got some ice creams - the worker recognized us from when we bought our water - "ahh you made it back - you look tired. how was it?" "It was great, i'm not as young as I used to be, but it was great!" "Ahhh you're not so old." and we sat down on some steps and relaxed. The worker who sold us the ice creams was walking by and I asked him how long a drive it would be to Herzelia, he told me 2 and a half hours, and then he sat down to talk to us. He was a super nice guy, talked to us about living in Israel, his family lived in a town nearby, 200 members of his extended family leaved there. He talked to us about what happened in Hebron - 4 people were killed by terrorists because of the peace talks, and he didn't believe there would be peace in our generation, he felt that there needed to be new education on both sides, the kids need to learn that we need to make peace, not that arabs or jews are evil. He was really interesting to talk to. When we said goodbye, he said to drive safe and Micah said wow that was really cool talking with him...

And then we drove and drove to Herzelia stopping in Hadera for a schwarma. And then found ourselves in Herzelia around 6:15 pm looking for the car return. I called Lisa who had looked it up on the map and she told me she didn't think it would be open, but directed us there via the cell phone while I drove and she was right, It had closed at 6 pm. So she talked me to a spot where I met her and we followed her home.

And then after settling in and saying hello we went out into the streets of R'anana (rhymes with banana) and had some local falafel.

Another great day.

a praying mantis... is he jewish?

Some rock climbing before his jump by the waterfall...


Micah's big jump and his backflip...

Another Epic Day

8.31.10

Another Epic Day... the outline:

Tel Dan, the Dan River, the first truly cold (mountain) water at the wading pool

Bannias Waterfall, "The Fish Frenzy at..."

Har Harmon, the view of Israel's only chair lift

Tee Pee at Nimrod

Dinner at the Witch's Cauldron and the Milkman

Tee Pee, campfire, teaching Micah how to whistle, sitting inside the fast moving mountain clouds, passing cars providing us with a light show...

The first cold night in the mountains, practically the highest point in Israel - getting acclamated for a brief moment to the weather back home

sitting at the campfire, thinking about the journey home, remembering the paradox of choice, a trip never to be forgotten...

The details:

We woke up and had breakfast at the Safed Hostel, hopped in the car and drove out of Tsfat. When we got to the main road we pulled over to check the map and the phone rang, my best friend from junior high, "Marc with a C" calling to see where I was. We will see each other in a day or two for the first time in at least 25 years.

Onward we drove to Tel Dan Nature Reserve where the Dan River roars. It was a great forested trail to some ancient ruins and along some beautiful clear streams next to the fast moving water of the Dan River. There was an ankle deep wading pool along the trail where we experienced the first naturally cold water in Israel! Just before leaving the trail we bumped into three young boys, Micah's age, who were fishing! They had these metal tubes with a line and a hool and some sort of bait made from bread. We watched them for a little while and tried talking to them. Micah saw a fish swim right by their baited hook.

We continued onward to the Bannias Waterfall, a short hike along another stream of water, super clear, rocky forested, this trail was built suspended over the river and then down to a path to the clear pools and the beautiful long rushing waterfall. On the way we stopped by this clear pool of slower water and we spotted like 6 trout just swimming around...

That's when we really wished we had a fishing rod, my 2 weight would have been perfect. I had asked Dori about fly fishing and he said it wasn't allowed, but he knew the guy who was in charge and they never checked or really cared so we probably could have fished. That's when I remembered the potato chips and got a big devilish smile on my face. I looked at Micah, "we could throw down a potato chip .." and the fish went crazy, there must have been 100 fish jumping and splashing, trying to eat the chip. At one point I tried to catch a fish with my hat, but that didn't work, but it was fun. We sat there in the shade and enjoyed the fish frenzy (see video) and then moved onto the waterfall.

And then to our next stop, the Bannias springs, which was the home of more ancient ruins, a palace built by Agrippa, one of Herod's sons. and we saw more fish, big fish swimming in the calm pools created by the springs.

And then we drove to Mt. Hermon, the Israeli ski area, we got there too late to ride the chair lift to the top, but we enjoyed taking pictures and seeing Israel's only ski mountain, which is more or less the Explorer Chair of Big Sky, not even, you can see the top from the bottom.

And then we drove onto Nimrod where we found Avi and his 3 tee pees, no one else there, so we picked out the best tee pee, set some stuff inside and since we hadn't really eaten since breakfast walked down the street to this turns out to be super high end fancy restaurant in the middle of the nowhere called the Witch's Cauldron and the Milkman.

The food was exquisite, delicious soups, Micah had truffle raviolis in a cream sauce, he loves truffles and I had their special local lamb stew, unbelievable and then would you believe Micah's favorite... a chocolate molten cake for dessert! What a celebration meal!

Back at the tee pee we read our books. Avi came by and we made a camp fire and Micah and I sat outside watching the flames of the fire, just hanging out. It was actually a bit chilly out, up so high in the mountains, it was the first time we were almost cold. I taught Micah how to whistle, didn't know he didn't know how and he got it. When cars drove up the road you could see how foggy it was, we were sitting in the middle of fast moving clouds. The cars created a light show for us as they drove by. As the fire died out we headed to bed. What a great day!

In the morning I woke Micah up at around 6 am and we watched the sunrise up over Nimrod Castle, up over Mt. Hermon. It was somewhat similar to watching the sunrise over porcupine and Ramshorn from our house in Big Sky... then we went back to sleep...

this sign is the marker of the most successful advertising campaign in Israel according to Dori and Drori, it was something drummed into kids from an early age and no one in Israel ever picks wildflowers...hmmmm...

the fish frenzy...