one step forward, two back (oh, and a few hundred down)

Today was a real breakthrough day - we left Jerusalem and tried an entirely different mode of vacationing, and to some degree, it really worked. Now, the details.

We had arranged to have a gentleman with a car pick us up and drive us to a couple of sites in the Dead Sea area. He would pay for gas and get us oriented, but wouldn't be a proper guide so the cost was reduced (and we didn't have to rent a car or pay for gas). He showed up promptly at 9AM and so we started getting ready. Out to the car and after a couple of fits and starts, we were on our way, with light clothing, hats, and bottled water galore. We drove out into the desert past Bedouin villages, army checkpoints, "settlements" which were 50,000 residents strong and up and down many hills. Eventually, we made it out to the flat area around the Salt Sea. We saw the Jordanian mountains across the water and saw the palm trees tower above us in their straight lines. It was really nice -- we were sitting, not walking, there was AC on in the car and we were on time. After about an hour and a half we approached Masada, the fortress made by the Chashmonaim, improved by Herod and ultimately, a site of a last stand by Jewish rebels. There is an underground garage so we set up down there, took the elevator up and I realized that I had left the SD card out of my camera.

I went ionto the gift shop to buy another and bought a cup of coffee there also. The coffee you can buy in some rest area is fresh and freshly ground just for your cup. It is better than 95% of the cups of coffee in the US and relatively cheap. Darn fine cuppa, that! Kudos, European tinged culture.

I then bought tickets to the cable car up and down the mountain, plus admission to the museum (not because I had ANY hpe that the kids would appreciate it, but because with it came the electronic audio tours headsets so the girls might know what they were looking at). The fact is, I was hoping that between the utter size of the place and the history (as presented in another poorly dubbed movie...everything has a mini movie here) the girls would be affected in some way. Didn't really work out, sadly. The walk across the hall to the cable car was enough to inspire grumbling, and the sun up top really brought out the whining. It was too hot, too boring and most of all, too hot and boring. Julie and I tried to walk around, take in the unbelievable view, see the remnants of a 2000+ year old fortress. The kids worked hard at complaining. They were more successful than we were. We reduced the number of parts we would see so that we could achieve our more modest goals and then splashed ourselves with the last of our water and went to the line for the return cable car trip. The line was a few HUNDRED people long and the cable car had just left, without ANYONE on board. This was concerning. Word on line was that there was something wrong with the cable cars so no one was being allowed down on them. The lines was in the sun and we figured that if we had to wait in the sun with no clear end time in sight, we might end up killing the children. Society frowns on this, apparently, so we opted to force them to walk down the snake path. Remember, these are the kids who don't like to ride escalators because they are afraid. We feel like we have to slip tranquilizers in their food if they have to go on monkey bars. And here we are insisting that they walk down the side of a mountain on roughly hewn stone stairs with a precipitous drop on one side and wall of rock closely felt on the other.

Maddie and Julie went ahead because Maddie is squarely in the age where she feels invulnerable and Julie wanted to keep an eye on her. I stayed back with Talia who is afraid of heights, depths and most other dimensions. We walked VERY slowly and I gave an inspirational speech the whole way down. By the time we were half way down, the cable car started operating again. By the time we were two thirds of the way down, we saw that the line had disappeared and we would have been riding down, instead of turning beet red and damaging our knees. By the time I was almost down, I realized that I had left my driver's license at the top as collateral for the 2 audio tours hardware still safely stored in our bag. So when we finally got down, I got back on the line for the cable car, went up, retrieved my license, waited another 15 minutes and came back down. That extra time had allowed me to get a deeper shade of red and the girls to get ice cream.

We headed back into the car and out on to the road.

A serious sidebar. When we got back to the car, our driver told us of the terrorist attack today in Eilat. I stay out of politics and try to be understanding and see all sides of conflicts. But this in unacceptable. That anyone, anywhere isn't up and shouting about the depravity and inhumane behavior evidenced here is disgusting. There is no excuse for this and it cast a pall over the balance of the day for (I would hazard to guess) the entire country. And for certain families, sadly, that pall will extend for years. My heart goes out to them, and every time I see a soldier walking around here I have an incredibly deep sense of awe and respect. Even when people think they are safe here, there is a threat that some animal will do something animalistic, and it is the police and soldiers who protect all of us from terrorism, every day, all the time. So is it an inconvenience to walk through metal detectors and have my bag checked repeatedly? Yes. But I cherish every time as a chance to say thank you to a soldier who is out there protecting me.

We drove out towards Ein Gedi, found some parking there and went for a bit of a nature hike. Talia felt emboldened by her success on Masada and led the way, bounding up and down steps that had me pausing for sanity. We got drenched in the series of waterfalls along Nachal David (the route we took as we thought a 60 minute hike was better in the heat and with the kids than a 4 hour hike). The kids weren't enthused about any more walking, but with each waterfall, Ibex or Hyrax sighting, they got excited. A few shades of red later, we emerged. Tired, relaxed and mostly happy. Our driver then drove us back through the area and back into the hills while updating us on the news reports. When we got back we discovered 2 things -- one, that there is a giant concert going on in the Sacher Park just down the block (band on stage, giant screens, pyrotechnics...the only thing missing is 2 hours of music I know), and two, that Pizza Hut is kosher, and delivers.

My sister went online and placed an order for the girls. Seven minutes later, the motorcycle arrives and the delivery guy brings in the pie and the garlic bread. He was a bit confused as to why we all insisted on photographing the box, but whatever.Julie and I took the evening to walk up the block to Benny's Fish, a landmark institution. e had a choice of 2 close by fish restaurants, but I wanted to try the classic. Appetizers were mixed -- Julie got a "vegetable soup" which seemed very much like a Parve chicken noodle soup. I ordered a "techina salad" assuming thatthis was a green salad with techina on it. It was a bowl of techina. But really really good techina. I dipped the complimentary garlic pita in and was in heaven. She had a piece of grilled salmon as her main, and I ordered the filet of sole in cream sauce. What I got was a tempura battered and fried filet of sole in a cream sauce, topped with slivered almonds and served with lime wedges. Unbelievable. Julie said her might have been the best piece of fish she has ever had, and mine was out of this world. All in all, a great ending to a really tiring, but not so bad day. Chalk this one in the "draw" column. Maybe is isn't a total "win" but it is certainly not the "loss" that we have been running into.

The drunks are leaving the concert, and walking past the house singling their drunken songs. In Hebrew. My legs are sore (from right to left) and my sunburn is starting to come out and make itself known. But I'm burping up Benny's and that can't be bad.