Cousin Trip - The Overview

My cousin, Robin, from San Francisco, came to visit us for a week. We had a splendid time together. We covered a lot of ground, but all of it at a pretty slow pace. We are known as the “le-at, le-at” (means “slow” in Hebrew) family because we spend twice as long at every location as the guide books suggest. Miriam and Rebekah were practically glued to Robin, often holding her hand or in her lap, talking a mile a minute, often both at once in Hebrish in their enthusiasm. The conversations veered wildly, from where we were going to what we’ve already seen, from geology and archaeology to what’s going on in the Middle East, and getting all the details from Robin about her new business of science walking tours, including what’s on each tour and editing her marketing materials. Listening to them all talk, I was amazed by how much the girls have learned and grown these few months.

Robin created a terrific blog, which I recommend to all of you. http://robinsdiscovery.blogspot.com/ She’s not only a great writer, but also is a professional multi-media person, and has worked wonders with the blog platform that are beyond me. Many of the pictures on her blog were taken by me and Jay, so you’ll see plenty of the girls. Robin also put together an excellent photo album: http://bit.ly/kqFzj3 Since she did such a great job, I’m putting just a few photos here. I plan to come back and write more detailed descriptions of what we did and thought with more photos later, but want to get something up now.

To start, Miriam and Rebekah and I picked Robin up in Beer Sheva and did a little exploring there. We’ve been there before, but only for shopping or visas. We know many of the malls there: the Big, the One, the Seven, where we stock up on natural foods, spices and halvah, as well as (incredibly expensive by US standards) clothes for the fast-growing girls. Now we know where to get falafel too.

The beginning of the falafal-a-day taste test

On the hike over, we find flint and chalk in the Zin

 The next day we hiked from our door, up to the local Bedouin tent for tea. We’d been there before. Majdelen not only remembered us, she ran up and hugged the girls. I always like doing something for a second time. The first time it’s all new and exciting and a bit strange. The second time, it’s comforting, and you can feel like a local showing your friends your favorite places.

The tent is just as remote, but we get there faster for having been there before

Majdalen made the pita from wheat she'd grown

This time we got to make our own

Miriam's turn

Our meal, including labane cheese Majdalen made from her own goats' milk

Majdalen

Fond farewells -- we'll be back

The third day we joined an archaeological dig at Beit Guvrin. We dug in a cave, separating pot shards and bits of bone from the dirt. Then we sifted the dirt, looking for anything we might have missed. Others in our group worked at clearing dirt from some stairs. When they finished, it was the first time the stairs had been exposed in over a thousand years. After the dig, we explore some of the caves, tunnels, and tombs in the area. 

Our digging site in the basement of a house

Miriam with pottery shards and bones

Sifting the dirt for anything we've missed

Burial tombs

I take a nap in the tombs

Then we headed up north, to Zichron Jaakov. I was very interested to see this town, as when we were considering coming to Israel, it was a place that was frequently suggested. I can see why. It sits up on a green hillside, a few minutes from the Mediterranean, surrounded by farms and vineyards. It is beautiful, filled with gracious old and stunning modern homes, many lovely and lush gardens and lots of Anglos. There is a main pedestrian street lined with shops and cafes.

We stayed with our new friends, Amy and David and son Eli and daughter Iris. Feels like we’ve known them forever, hard to believe we met for the first time the week before, when they come down to Sde Boker to meet their cousins and our friends, the LeBlancs from Boulder. They are incredible cooks, warm hosts, and we talked and laughed until late.

A side note about David. He is a bow maker. When he and Amy came to stay with us last week, we didn’t know them at all except that they were the LeBlanc’s cousins. At some point in the evening, we learned that he is a bow maker. A week before, Rebekah’s violin teacher had told us there was something wrong with her bow. She wasn’t sure what, but we needed to take it to be looked at. We couldn’t find anyone in Beer Sheva, but had the name of someone in Tel Aviv. Suddenly, the only bow maker is Israel is sitting in our house! Talk about the universe providing what you need! (Turns out there was a spot of grease on the bow, causing it to glide over the strings instead of catching them. He fixed it with soap and water.)

Ruins at Caesaria

The next morning, after a breakfast of matzoh brei with real maple syrup and David’s excellent coffee, we headed off the Caesaria, a lavish Roman port on the Mediterranean, founded by King Herod in 20 BCE. The water engineering was especially advanced. Two aquaducts brought water to the town. There is also a hippodrome and a large amphitheatre.

We had so much fun that we decided to stay another night. We went back to David and Amy’s. They had spent the day making strawberry jam. Yum! We had dinner out—Chinese food (our first time on this trip, definitely not the Jewish national cuisine in Israel) and Aldo’s (excellent gelato which we search out in Jerusalem and Eilat, though the original is here).

Modern charioteers

The amphitheatre is still used for concerts

Groupies Nomi and Miriam

Tourists at the beach

Amy, a bit punchy from making 40# of strawberry jam

Rebekah doing quality control

Miram, Rebekah and Eli at Aldo's

The next day we went to the Artists’ Colony where David has a studio. It is a magical place, a dozen studios in a ring around a garden. Dogs wander among the bright flowers and the artists all spend lots of time explaining their work to us. 

David explains to Bekka how the horsehair is attached to the bow

David planing a bow

Next door, a violin and cello maker

There's also a glassblower

The women in the paper mache studio are having a blast

They create very detailed characters

A sculptor carves gigantic, fanciful stone heads from Golan basalt

Then back home and the next morning Robin and I left for 3 days in Jerusalem. It was such a treat to get to spend uninterrupted cousin time together. Robin experience Jerusalem for the first time. Robin’s Hebrew, after many, many years of Jewish summer camp 30 years ago, is about as good as mine after 4 months here. We wandered around the Old City, took many photos, ate well and often, and marveled over all the contrasts.

It was a wonderful week, so full of history, water, sun, archaeology, hiking, food, friends, and laughter. It was a special delight to be able to share these experiences with my cousin.