Playing Catch-Up...

I am so far behind it's a crime. Truth be told, I have such an abundance of things to write about and pics to post, I'm simply overwhelmed. Gillian and I have been very busy the past few weeks, travelling all over the place and taking an insane amount of photgraphs everywhere we go.

Here is a quick overview of just one trip we took a few weeks back:

We visited an old friend of my parents named Dan Ziv. He is a teacher and former principal of several ORT schools in Israel.

Dan lives in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The picture above is not of Holon or Tel Aviv. It is of Ashdod. Dan took us there our first day staying with him. It is south of Tel Aviv and has lovely beaches.

Ashdod was only the first stop on our whirlwind tour of the southern coast of Israel. Our next stop was Ashqelon. On the way we passed this sign...

Ashqelon is very ugly.

Good thing Gillian is very pretty. Life always seems to have a way of balancing itself out, doesn't it?

Gillian looking through a man-constructed cave-ish structure. Ancient dwellings are everywhere in Israel. This place is old.

I guess, when I look back on it, Ashqelon wasn't all that bad...

Dinner took place at Dan's home. We met all three of his children. From left to right (not including Gillian & me): Asaf, Etai & Maya.

The next day started off with a trip to Mini Israel. As one might assume from it's name, Mini Israel is in fact a compilation of replicas of major sites around Israel, only mini. The pic above is of the mini BaHai Gardens in Haifa.

This is Tel Aviv. A mini Tel Aviv. Notice the giant green human Godzilla and his "Zilla-kids". This should inform your perspective.

After wondering around Mini Israel and a great afternoon hike, of which I have no pictures worth showing here, we were treated to a walking tour of Tel Aviv, guided by Dan's daughter Maya. While there were many wonderful things seen during our very long and ultimately painful tour, the most important stop for me was in Rabin Square (above).

Just over ten years ago, on November 4th, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Israel, was assasinated after giving a speech in this square. It has since been named after him.
On November 5th, 1995, myself and 27 members of my family traveled to Israel to celebrate my bar mitzvah. Dan Ziv picked my mother and I up at our hotel the night we landed and brought us to this square to witness the outpouring of emotions during that difficult time. It was a night that will stay with me forever.
To return 10 years later with Dan's daughter as my guide was quite an experience for me. Where once thousands of people stood crying, now is empty, only a few photographs of graffiti memorializing Rabin's death remain to remind an entire nation of one it's saddest moments in history.

After our fantastic visit with Dan and his family, we headed home. But on our way we stopped in Caesearea. An ancient roman theater still stands there and is quite an impressive sight.

This is the Caesearean coast. The site is home to many ruins and was lots of fun to explore.
Gillian and I climbed down to the shoreline and went shell-shopping. Not only did we find some beautiful shells but pieces of ancient pottery embedded in the beach wall almost out-number the shells.

So that's the low-down on only one of our recent excursions. I have so many more pics of this trip and lots of other outings to relay, but it's 4:30am and I'm gonna crash. I'll try and catch up some more as soon as possible. I promise.