Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part VI. Judea.
Monday morning, we woke up and had to be downstairs by 9:40. I think we made it out by 9:50, so, close enough.
We said goodbye to Hadar and met our guide, Shmaya. We had been set up with him through Scott Feltman at One Israel Fund because today we were spending the day in Judea and Samaria.
Our first stop was ancient Susya. Shmaya explained that archaeological evidence suggests that Jews, mostly kohanim, fled Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple and settled in Susya. Archaeologists found remains of a Jewish village there, including caves, homes, and a synagogue. It was really interesting to walk through. Inside the ancient synagogue, you can still see a mosaic floor and there’s an inscription dedicated to the person who paid for it. So basically, 1,500 years ago somebody said, “Sure, I’ll donate the money, but I want my name on it.” Apparently nothing has changed.
Before we even entered the archaeological site, Shmaya introduced us to his wife, who happened to be there helping with some Chol Hamoed activities for kids. There were bouncy houses, coloring, and all sorts of things set up near the entrance. Next to us was a sukkah covered with illustrations. Shmaya told us that the drawings had been made by his son, who was killed in Gaza along with a friend not long after October 7. They had been searching for hostages when an explosive device went off and both of them were killed. (The friend was Gal Eisenkot, the son of Gadi Eisenkot, who was IDF chief of staff and is now running for prime minister.) After his son died, the family found these drawings in his notebook, and the Israel Museum enlarged them and displayed them for a period of time. They were these very clever cartoon-style illustrations, many of them based on Jewish or Biblical ideas. One depicted a Kohen Gadol and connected to the Yom Kippur service. My favorite was a Sukkot one that showed four Minions—you know, the yellow characters from the Minions movies—and each one was holding one of the Arba Minim: a lulav, etrog, hadassim, and aravot. He called it the Arba Minyanim, which I thought was extremely clever. Obviously, it was very hard hearing the story behind the drawings, but it was also really special to see them.
From ancient Susya, we went to Drimia Winery, which is in modern Susya. We had a very nice lunch with wine in the sukkah. There were also approximately one billion flies. Hallie got to crush grapes to make grape juice, which she found fairly disgusting, but I was impressed that she actually did it. They also had coloring sheets, which kept the girls occupied while we were sitting there.
During lunch, two people from the Har Hevron Regional Council came to speak with us about a program they are trying to develop for children in the area. The idea is to create after-school music programming where kids can learn to play instruments. They said the government is helping fund the program itself, but they still need money to purchase the instruments. They told us they were looking to raise around $100,000. We’re not sure if they thought we were going to fund the whole thing, but Tzvi set them straight and said, “we don’t have $100,000.” If anyone reading this happens to be looking to fund a children’s music program in Har Hevron though, apparently we know some people.
After lunch, we drove to Kiryat Arba and visited Moked Arba, the security center that monitors Kiryat Arba, the Jewish community in Hebron, and the surrounding area. That was fascinating. We met the guys who run the operation and saw how they monitor everything. They even showed us some video of incidents that they’d dealt with. As we were leaving, they let Hallie try on a protective vest and helmet. It was unbelievably heavy. I think she was genuinely shocked when we explained that this is the kind of weight they are carrying when they go out on missions. It was just such a cool visit and such an unusual thing to get to see firsthand. And then, at the very end, my dad went to the bathroom and could not figure out how to flush the toilet, so he had to ask the man responsible for security across all of Har Hevron how to flush the toilet. At least he didn’t ask if anyone ever falls in.
From there, we drove to Me’arat HaMachpela. We were especially excited to take Hallie because she had learned about it in school. It also happened to be one of the handful of days during the year when Jews are permitted access to the entire complex. Normally, different sections are divided between Jewish and Muslim worshippers, but on certain Jewish holidays the full site is opened to Jewish visitors. Which, in theory, sounded great. In reality, it was absolute insanity.
First, as you approach, there is basically an entire Chol Hamoed carnival happening outside. There were rides, activities for kids, and crowds everywhere. Then we reached the entrance to Me’arat HaMachpela and they weren’t letting anyone in yet. So we were all packed together, basically corralled on top of one another, waiting. Eventually, the crowd started moving and we were herded forward like sheep. We finally got inside, and then suddenly someone told everyone to separate into men and women, which made absolutely no sense because nobody had been separating men and women anywhere else. But fine. So the men went one way and we went another. And the women’s side was terrifying. It was so crowded that you could barely move. We couldn’t even get close enough to see some of the graves, including Yitzchak and Rivka (which are the ones only opened on the ten special days), because there were simply too many people. It was incredibly claustrophobic, and at a certain point it honestly felt unsafe. I have no idea how they allowed that many people into such a small space at once. I never need to do that again.
The men, meanwhile, somehow had a completely different experience. Tzvi, my dad, and Shmaya walked around, saw the mosque that Jews can only see ten days a year, saw all the different graves, and apparently had a perfectly pleasant visit. It was crowded, but nothing remotely like what we experienced. I still do not understand how that happened.
I think the whole thing was also kind of anti-climactic because there’s just not that much to see. It’s basically monuments that are covered in carpets and inside a box that’s inside a little building that you can look into through some bars. Any by the way, none of these monuments are actually on top of the real graves.
After Me’arat HaMachpela, we said goodbye to Shmaya and headed back to Jerusalem.
We got to the hotel, quickly dropped off our stuff, and decided we wanted a very easy dinner. Tzvi had been wanting Burgers Bar and absolutely did not want another sit-down restaurant. According to Google, there was a Burgers Bar about four or five minutes from the hotel. We even confirmed with the concierge that it existed. So we started walking. And walking. And walking. It was not where Google said it was. At a certain point I said, “There is absolutely no way this place exists.” We tried calling. Nobody answered. So we gave up, turned around, and walked all the way back to the hotel.
We walked into the lobby and basically confronted the concierge.
“What are you talking about? There is no Burgers Bar there.”
And he said, “I was there two days ago.”
So we explained exactly where we had gone.
And he said, “Oh. You needed to go one more block.”
Apparently Google had the location wrong. Had we simply continued walking one more block, we would have found it. So we turned around, went back outside, and did the entire walk again. And eventually, we found Burgers Bar. We had a very nice dinner. We also ran into somebody from the neighborhood. Of course. Then we went back to the hotel.
Great day.
Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part V. Eating in Jerusalem: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Tzvi spent a lot of time before this trip researching restaurants and figuring out where he wanted to eat and using Chat GPT to make a neat little schedule of restaurants. And then we ate at almost none of them.
Part of the problem was that it was very difficult to find information in advance about which restaurants actually had sukkahs. The other part of the problem was that we really didn’t realize how the people who care most about eating in sukkahs are American tourists. The strangest thing was that all over the city we saw religious looking people eating indoors. I think it might just be another one of those things where Israelis have bigger things to worry about.
The Rose Garden, Part I: Maleo
After our Old City tour day we had dinner at Maleo, a meat restaurant in the Wohl Rose Garden, right next to the Knesset. First, we got there and discovered that they did not have our reservation for the sukkah, even though the hotel has specifically made the reservation for the sukkah. But they managed to fit us in anyway. Then my parents’ taxi dropped them off who-knows-where and it took them fifteen minutes to find the restaurant. Then Madeleine broke a plate.
Once we settled in, we actually had a very good meal. I had a really delicious steak. We ordered a bunch of different things—egg rolls, dumplings, skewers, Tzvi and a tuna roll. Madeleine and my dad had burgers. Tzvi and my mom shared a fish dish and a goose dish over soba noodles. I’ve noticed that even in the nicest restaurants in Israel they haven’t quite mastered the pacing of food. We had basically finished all of our food and the goose still had not come, which was fine because Tzvi and my mom were full, and then suddenly out it came. It was a really nice meal. We were also absolutely freezing by the end.
We knew it was my mom’s Hebrew birthday, so after the girls went to sleep, we ordered cakes to her room. They were yummy. And that was it.
Good day.
The Rose Garden, Part II: Rosie
We didn’t mean to have two different meals in the Rose Garden. On Tuesday after our Shuk tour day, we headed back to the Rose Garden, this time to a restaurant called Rosie.We had made the reservation a couple of weeks ago. We had not planned on eating at Maleo until we had to cancel whatever we had booked on Sunday (for lack of sukkah), which is how we ended up in the Rose Garden twice.
Rosie was basically a pizza-and-pasta place.
Once again, actually getting to the meal was an ordeal. As we were leaving, my mom realized that she had left her AirTag at the Delta store near Ben Yehuda. So me, Tzvi and the girls took a cab to Rosie, while my parents had to figure out how to get back to Delta, where there is basically no transportation because the entire area is under construction. They ended up arriving at dinner about 50 minutes late. But they found the AirTag. I am fairly certain they spent more money on taxis retrieving the AirTag than the AirTag and the bag were actually worth, but I think my mom was worried that someone would somehow steal all of her information through the AirTag. I don’t think that’s how AirTags actually work. [Tzvi: it’s not. Given that the things are intended to be lost, that would be a big flaw in the design.]
In the meantime, we sat down and ordered a few appetizers. I think we may have been too difficult for our first waitress. At some point, she just stopped coming back. We had ordered a Caesar salad for Hallie with basically everything on the side, and to their credit, they brought it exactly that way. It actually looked very nice. But I think that may have been the waitress’s breaking point. Eventually, we got another waitress who spoke perfect English and was lovely. My parents finally arrived, and we ordered pizzas and pastas. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the food, but it was fine. We skipped dessert.
Ezra: As in, please send help
Thursday night after we got back from Raanana, my mom wanted to go to a place called Ezra. It is one of those restaurants where you sit down and they immediately bring you approximately 20 salatim, and then eventually you order skewers or meat or whatever else you want.
I feel like every restaurant in Jerusalem is completely overwhelmed during Sukkot. Which, you would think, they would be prepared for. But apparently not.
The food was pretty good. All of the salatim were very good. I had steak skewers. Tzvi had steak and goose skewers. We’re not sure what my mom ordered – I don’t think she was sure what she ordered – but it was basically raw. It was either liver or sweetbreads. No one knows. It also took me approximately 20 minutes to get a fork. So overall, a decent meal.
Like a few other things on this trip, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as in, we never need to go back there again.
Sauce on the Side
I have to mention Caffit, on Emek Refaim, where we ate twice on this trip. It’s actually a great restaurant and both meals were good, even if the service is very slow (although where is it not slow in Israel)? Three specific things worth mentioning:
I love the fact that every café in Israel serves an Israeli breakfast where they give you a dozen different little dishes along with eggs and toast and coffee. It’s like getting your own personal breakfast buffet.
I also love that every café serves a sweet potato salad that’s basically covered in sweet potato fries. So good. Why cant any cafes make that back home?
Lastly, Madeleine has started to branch out from plain noodles and to eat noodles with sauce, although she’s often still hesitant when we order it, so a few times we ordered her tomato sauce or cream sauce on the side. The size of the bowls of sauce that she received in restaurants was comical, like way more than they actually would have put on then pasta had it been ordered with sauce.
Roladin
I don’t have anything specific to mention, but just want to put pictures here of these delicious pastries.
Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part IV. Touring in Jerusalem.
I think we did more organized touring on this trip than our usual trips. Maybe it was because we had missed our Pesach trip so we were trying to make up for it. Or maybe it was because the kids are finally both at an age where they can appreciate the tours. Either way, I think we did really well at planning this one.
On Sunday in Jerusalem we did an Old City tour and on Tuesday we did a tour of the Machane Yehuda shuk,
The Old City Tour
Sunday we got up for our Old City day.
We had to be at Jaffa Gate by 10:00 a.m., so we got up early, ate breakfast in the sukkah, and took a cab over to Jaffa Gate, where we met our guide, Avidov who we had got from Hindel and Mendy who used him last month. Right outside the gate, they were giving out free water bottles from the Jerusalem municipality with a holiday message on them, which was nice.
Today’s tour was of the Old City, but it really wasn’t focused on the Jewish sites. Instead, we spent most of the day exploring the Christian and Muslim parts, which was very interesting. We walked through the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter and talked a lot about the history and geopolitics of the Old City—how it had been under British rule, then under Jordanian control from 1948 until 1967, and then came under Israeli control during the Six-Day War. It was interesting to see how things have really changed over the last several years in the Old City. It wasn’t that long ago that walking through the Arab shuk was considered risky, and now it’s safe to go basically anywhere. Avidov kept saying it’s safer there than Manhattan. I guess that’s true, except the risk of an uprising in Manhattan is probably lower. Or maybe not.
We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is traditionally believed to be the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. That was interesting.
After the church, there is this little doorway off to the side, and we went through it and somehow ended up walking through two Ethiopian churches. Then you come out the other side and suddenly you are in this tiny Ethiopian village. Who knew there are Ethiopian Christian monks living hidden away in the middle of the Old City. There’s only one bathroom for the seventeen of them, but they all have their own satellite dishes. It was just one of those things where you realize you could walk through the Old City over and over again and still have no idea what is hidden behind some random doorway.
As we kept walking, we stopped at different stations along the Via Dolorosa, which is traditionally believed to be the route Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. At one point, we saw a large Christian pilgrimage group coming through. They were walking the different stations, carrying this enormous cross, and singing Christian songs as they went. It was just very interesting to watch.
We also stopped at a famous tahini shop run by an Arab man named Itzik. He showed us how he actually grinds the sesame, and we tried several different tahinis, including one that he mixed with some sort of sweet grape syrup or honey. Somehow, it tasted almost exactly like peanut butter and jelly. So that was probably as close as Tzvi is going to get. It was just really interesting walking through those areas and seeing parts of the Old City that we normally don’t spend much time in.
Eventually, we ended up at the Kotel Tunnels, where we did an hour-long tour. That was great. The tour takes you underneath the Old City along the length of the Kotel, and at one point the guide brought us to the spot he said was the closest accessible point to the Kodesh HaKodashim. We also walked through old aqueducts and underground passageways. The whole thing really drives home how long Jews have been here—thousands of years—and how much history is literally buried underneath the city.
After the tunnel tour, we went to find lunch, which is always slightly chaotic in the Old City and even more so on a chag. We ended up getting bagels. Then we walked around the Jewish Quarter a little more before saying goodbye to Avidov. We went down to the Cardo to see Udi, the artist we always visit, but he wasn’t there. So instead, we went next door to Yossi Sagi, the jewelry guy, where the girls and I spent approximately an hour picking out jewelry, Tzvi and my father spent an hour sitting around and pouting, and my mother just spent.
Then we got ice cream. It really was a great day. We learned a lot about the different quarters and saw parts of the Old City that we had never really explored before.
It was a really great tour.
Mahane Yehuda Tour
Tuesday morning we headed over to Machane Yehuda to meet our tour guide at 11:30. Today we had a shuk tour with a woman named Debbie, whom Tzvi has been following on Instagram for a while because she posts news about Israel restaurants and he usually uses her site to figure out where to eat on every trip. We’ve been to the shuk a million times, but we’ve never actually done a tour, so we weren’t sure what exactly to expect. It ended up being a cross between a tour of the history of the shuk and a food crawl.
First, she came prepared because we had told her that we at least wanted to make a bracha and eat in a sukkah. So she brought water for us to wash with, along with some special bread whose name I have completely forgotten. We washed, ate the bread in the sukkah, and then started the tour.
She began by telling us a little bit about the history of Machane Yehuda and how the market developed. Basically, the market is built on the spot where the carriages would arrive in Jerusalem, and as more people started living outside the Old City, they didn’t want to have to walk all the way there every time they needed food. So merchants began setting up in the area, eventually got permits, and the market grew from there. Apparently, there are actually several different smaller markets within Machane Yehuda itself. That was pretty interesting.
Our first stop was a tahini place, where we saw the same kind of sesame grinder we had seen in the Old City on Sunday. We tasted a bunch of different tahinis, which was fun. Then she took us around to a few bakeries. At one place, we went inside to watch a guy making challah. Apparently, this man basically works nonstop and comes in Saturday night to start preparing. We took some slow-motion videos of him making the challah. I think we should probably post those and let everyone extrapolate for themselves. There was a lot of laughing involved while watching them.
We stopped at a juice place called Etrog Man and got some kind of juice that had an ingredient in it called “Gat” that apparently we aren’t allowed to have in America. I have no idea what it was. Something vaguely caffeine-adjacent. Then we got one of those viral spiral fried potatoes—a whole potato cut into a spiral, fried, and covered in spices. Which, to be fair, I’m pretty sure I have had at some random fair in Bethpage. But it was still delicious. We went to a mufletta place, which was almost like a burrito situation. Then we had some kind of crepe-and-ice-cream dessert. And we finished at a schnitzel place with a schnitzel-in-challah sandwich. So we definitely ate enough. The tour itself was really interesting, and Debbie was very good. She was also extremely aggressive, in a good way. There were so many places we never would have found or managed to get into ourselves, especially because the shuk was absolutely insane with Chol Hamoed crowds. She would just push her way through, get what we needed, and make it happen. Her aggressiveness was very useful. We usually come to the shuk and hit the same places, so it was nice to get to try new things.
After the tour ended, we did some shopping on our own. We went to the spice guy and bought some more spices. Then we went to a dried-fruit-and-tea store, where there was another family shopping who it turned out lives around the corner from us at home. We bought a bunch of things there—tea, dried fruit, and whatever else looked good. Then we ended up in one of those variety-type stores where I bought some gold bowls and a few gold serving dishes that are apparently oven-safe. Apparently. I’m now just hoping they don’t melt the first time I actually put them in my oven. I’m also not entirely sure how we are getting them home. But it was fun.
Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part III. Sukkot in Yerushalayim.
The Orient
At some point on Tuesday as we were driving up North Tzvi found out that we didn’t have connecting rooms at the Orient. Now, I’m not really sure when I found this out, but I think I knew before Tuesday. Basically, what had happened was that we were supposed to come to Israel for Pesach, except there was a war with Iran so that didn’t happen. So we moved our reservation from Pesach to Sukkot. Apparently, according to our travel agent, five months is basically last minute for Sukkot, so he wasn’t able to get guaranteed connecting rooms. Now, I always remember hearing that nothing is guaranteed but that we expected something to open up. Tzvi didn’t remember hearing anything, so it was a particular surprise to him when he found out on Tuesday that we would definitely not have connecting rooms. That led to a minor tantrum.
Once we got back to Jerusalem on Thursday, Tzvi and I went over to the Orient to check in and, once again, confirmed that we did not have connecting rooms. Great.
We then went for dinner at Waffle Bar before coming back to the hotel with the kids. We unpacked, got settled, and I think the kids went to sleep at around midnight. Then Tzvi had yet another whole meltdown about the fact that our rooms were separated. Apparently, I was not upset enough about the fact that the rooms were separated. In the end, I slept in the room with the girls, Tzvi slept in his own room, and that was our day.
Friday in Jerusalem
I woke up this morning at around 8:00. Hallie was already awake, and Madeleine was still sleeping, although she got up shortly afterward. I went into the other room—Tzvi’s room—and told the girls, “I’ll be back soon.” And, of course, I told Tzvi to go check on them. He said, “Okay, I’m going to go check on them.” He did not actually go check on them. About three minutes later, Hallie came into the room to tell me that Madeleine had fallen off the bed and slammed her back onto the stone floor. So that was great. She was in a lot of pain, but she seems to be okay. First injury of the trip. So, you know. Good start to the day.
Eventually, we all slowly got up, got dressed, and headed down to breakfast. Breakfast at the Orient is great. It is also a complete who’s who of the Jewish community. But the breakfast itself was very good too. Definitely less selection than the hotel up north, but I would say the quality is better. Hallie found a friend from her class, and we kept seeing random people we knew everywhere. So that was nice. It was just really nice to be back at the Orient.
Then we got ourselves ready and headed out to Machane Yehuda. We took a cab, which should have been simple, except the entire city seems to be under construction. Roads are closed everywhere, traffic is insane, and it is basically impossible to get anywhere. So it took us quite a while to actually get to the shuk.
We did the traditional Friday pre-shabbos route. We began at the shuk, obviously starting at the candy store, then bought onion soup mix because every time I come here I wait until the end of the trip, and then they’re always sold out. Then we walked down the Ben Yehuda where we bought kippas and got McDonalds, except the entire operation seemed to be run by two college students, so it took approximately one hour to get and eat two happy meals. Fast food it was not. On Ben Yehuda we kept running into people. Of course we saw Avi Buchman – if we are ever in the same city as Avi Buchman, we run into him, I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but it never fails. We also ran into a partner from Tzvi’s firm and they shared stories of staying up until 3 am every night working. Isn’t it wonderful to be a partner at a law firm so you can come to Israel for vacation and spend the entire trip working?
After that we kept walking because we still thought we might find some actual food, except we had spent so long in McDonalds that every other restaurant in Jerusalem had closed in the interim. We walked all the way down to Mamilla where we managed to scrounge up a cheese sandwich for Tzvi and an ice coffee for me from Aroma.
I had picked off all of my nail polish two days ago and had become increasingly desperate for a manicure. I had already spoken to the concierge at the hotel, and he told me that because it was Erev Chag, it was going to be extremely difficult and I probably wasn’t going to find anyone. Then, around 2, while we were at Mamilla, I got a call from the concierge. He had found a woman down the street from the hotel who could do my nails but I needed to get there immediately. So we jumped into a cab and raced back to the hotel. I ran down the street looking for her salon, which was apparently somewhere down an alley off Emek Refaim. Because of all the construction, it was impossible to find. I was on the phone with the concierge trying to figure out where I was supposed to go when suddenly I heard a woman yelling: “Over here! Over here!” So I found her. And I got my manicure. It turns out she only took cash, so I ended up owing her 100 shekels. But thank God I found her. Anyway, after that I went back to the hotel and we got ready for Shabbos.
Shabbos
For anyone familiar with the Orient hotel, the dining room is on the second lower level (which they call Floor -2). The hotel has two sukkahs – one in the lovely patio outside the -2 dining room and one in the plaza outside the lobby. When we got there on Thursday we immediately assessed and determined that the lower level sukkah was more desirable, so we went to the meal reservation desk and made sure we were seated downstairs. Just another benefit of getting to the hotel a day early. I even went back the next day to reconfirm the meals and there was a woman at the desk in front of me who started telling this whole story about how they had missed their flight because her husband couldn’t find his passport. Apparently, he had not thought to look for it until they were supposed to leave for the airport, so they missed their flight and their opportunity to be in the downstairs sukkah. She was furious. Mostly at her husband.
I didn’t mention that on Friday I had gone back to the apartment to shlep some more clothes over and I grabbed snacks as well and shoved it all in an Ikea bag. A friend of the woman who was dealing with her debacle in front of me looks at my bag, seeing the snacks on the top, and says “have you not eaten in a week?” I’m not sure if she was trying to be funny, but it just came out weird and offensive. I’m pretty sure they were from LA, so Rachel, these are your people.
Dinner in the sukkah was lovely. The food was delicious. There were all sorts of meats—osso buco, lamb shoulder, and approximately 4,000 other things that I cannot remember. But everything was very good, the sukkah was beautiful, and it was just a really nice meal. After dinner, Hallie wanted tea so we ended up going to the lobby restaurant and ordering tea there. A lot of other people seemed to be doing the same thing—ordering drinks or food. We sat there for a while as the girls played one of the new card games we had bought earlier in the trip.
Meanwhile, Tzvi was asleep. I think my dad may also have fallen asleep in one of the chairs. You know the saying ‘from strength to strength,’ they go from sleep to sleep.
The next morning, I think my parents went to shul at the hotel for a little while. We got breakfast, hung around, and Tzvi and I went for a little walk. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Lunch was also delicious. There were ribs, deli meats, and another enormous selection of things that I cannot possibly remember.
After lunch the kids wanted to go swimming at the indoor pool. We were sitting there peacefully when suddenly this family came in—parents and four kids, two boys and two girls—and they were complete chaos. I don’t really know how else to describe it. I had actually been sleeping, but I woke up because one of the kids was yelling and started splashing us. The parents kept saying, “Stop. Stop it.” But nothing actually stopped. Eventually, Tzvi had enough and said we were leaving. It was one of those situations where you think: Maybe you shouldn’t have had a fourth?
We left the indoor pool and went upstairs to the outdoor pool instead. The kids swam for a while, although it had gotten surprisingly cold outside. It was nice when you were sitting directly in the sun, but otherwise it was really chilly. They still had a good time.
Afterward, we went back upstairs, changed, and walked over to Abby and Mordy’s. Abby and my mother are childhood friends and they live in Baka, They have four kids, and it is very rare that all four of them are actually home at the same time, so this was a particularly nice opportunity to see everybody. We had a really nice visit.
One funny conversation that came up was when we were talking about my previous work with FIDF and some of the things that happened after October 7. There had been so many private efforts to collect supplies for soldiers—boots, pants, helmets, and whatever else people thought the army needed. And there was also a lot of criticism when organizations (like FIDF) weren’t immediately sending every particular item people thought the army needed. Well, one of the boys told us about being in Lebanon and receiving a huge shipment of raincoats that people had donated in these one off situations. They opened the bags and discovered that the raincoats all had reflective strips on them. Which is obviously exactly what you want when you are trying not to be seen at night.
After shabbos, Hadar arrived at the hotel. We had asked her if she wanted to come stay with us for two nights because, once again, we do not have connecting rooms and we do not particularly enjoy sleeping separately. So Hadar came to stay with the girls for two nights. Which was great.
I went to the gym for a little while, and then we got dressed and headed out for dinner at Zuta, which is sort of a cocktail-sushi-bar connected to the restaurant 1868. We started out sitting in the sukkah, but halfway through dinner we were freezing, so we moved inside. I did not pack appropriately for this trip. Somehow it suddenly became freezing in Jerusalem, and we were completely unprepared. Anyway, the food was very good. We got grilled bread, some sort of salmon sushi thing, plum meat dumplings, yellowtail, and a salmon skewer. We also had really good cocktails. For dessert, we had an apple-cherry crumble that was very, very good. So that was nice.
Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
Good day.
Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part II. Tzafon.
Tuesday: Sometimes You Just End Up on the Wrong Side of the River
Tuesday morning we got up early—8:15—and got ready to head north. We were all ready to meet our guide at 10:00. And when I say all of us, I mean all of us except my mother, who, at 9:57, still had not showered for the morning. So I will say it was extremely impressive when she came downstairs and got into the car at 10:17.
Our guide’s name is Muriel, and she has a van that somehow fit all of us and our luggage. We loaded up and started heading north. The drive was a little over two hours, and the kids did pretty well. Madeleine started getting nauseous toward the end and then fell asleep for the last 20 minutes. Please take note that for this drive and almost every subsequent drive of this north trip I was in the middle seat of the third row between two children and Tzvi was up in the front seat alone.
Our first stop was Naharayim at Gesher, at the site of the old Kibbutz Gesher. We learned about the kibbutz and what happened there during the War of Independence in 1948, when it came under attack by Jordanian and Iraqi forces. The area had three different bridges—a Roman bridge, a railway bridge, and a road bridge—and we heard about the attempts to destroy them during the fighting. “Gesher,” appropriately, means “bridge.” We also learned about Pinchas Rutenberg, who came up with an idea to build a hydroelectric power station there using water from the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers. The plant operated for 16 years, from 1932 until 1948. Unfortunately, he built it on the side of the river that would become Jordan so it was abandoned in 1948. Another part of the story that really stuck with us was what happened to the children living on the kibbutz. There were young children there when the fighting started, and they were evacuated to Haifa, where they stayed for almost two years before eventually being able to return after the community was rebuilt. Muriel pointed out how similar that feels to what has happened recently with families from northern Israel who had to evacuate their homes and then wait until they were able to return. History repeats itself. The visit was actually pretty interesting, and a lot of it was indoors, so the girls didn’t complain very much. So that was nice.
Afterward, we drove about 20 minutes to a shopping center for lunch and ate at Humus Eliyahu, a chain of humus places. The food was delicious but we ordered way too much humus and the manager seemed to be offended that we didn’t finish it. After lunch, we got coffees from Aroma and then drove to the hotel.
We’re staying at the Gomeh Hotel, and nobody can really agree on how we found this hotel. I think Tzvi sent it to me in one of the approximately 8,000 Instagram reels he has sent me, but he says no. My mom says that I told her about it, which I don’t believe. And Tzvi says the travel agent suggested it. [Tzvi: I am correct.] So nobody really knows who found it, but we’re here. [Tzvi: I know.]
We went to check in and, of course, nothing was 100% smooth. But at least we have connecting rooms, so we headed upstairs. The rooms are very small, which I feel like is just characteristic of Israeli hotels—or maybe specifically hotels in the north. But they’re very nice. [Tzvi: they’re fine. They’re sparse. We basically have patio furniture.]. The best part about the room is the view, it’s a stunning view of the Kineret, palm trees and Tiveria in the distance.
We got settled, changed, and headed down to the pool. The pool is really nice and pretty big, and we wanted to swim for a little while before we had to get ready for dinner. While I was putting lotion on Madeleine, a woman came over to me and said that she had met me before. I had no idea where, but it turned out she’s from the Five Towns and lives in Lawrence, so I guess she must have seen me around before. Devorah Rosner I think. Anyway, we spent about an hour at the pool and then went back upstairs to change for dinner.
Dinner was in Tiveria at a dairy Italian restaurant called HaSenor. It was completely empty when we first got there, but it started filling up as we ate. The food was pretty good. I got sweet potato ravioli; one thing I really like about Israel is that you can get sweet potato ravioli without cheese in it. Other people got various pastas. Afterward, we decided to get dessert at Golda a few doors down, because Golda ice cream is always good. Then we headed back to the hotel.
My dad decided to go down to the lobby to do some work where he encountered some live music and kids running around. Always a party in Israel.
And then Tzvi did a lot of work until 2:00 in the morning, in our room. Always a pleasure.
Good day.
Wednesday: Everyone Dies of Malaria
This morning we woke up bright and early at 8:00 and headed down to breakfast. Breakfast was crazy. There was a yogurt station with tart yogurt and all sorts of sweet toppings and fruit toppings, and then literally right next to it was a pizza station. Then you walked into the other room and there was an entire buffet. There were pastries, plain tuna, tuna with vegetables, cheeses, bourekas—I can’t even describe everything they had because there was just so much food. The unfortunate part is that I don’t actually like the majority of it, but I can appreciate it for everyone else. Also, they had no decaf coffee, which was disappointing. But otherwise, I was extremely impressed with this breakfast.
We were out to meet Muriel by around 9:30. Today was our big touring day, so we headed off to Tzfat. The drive was almost an hour, and the girls kept saying they were nauseous, which was very annoying. When we got there, we found a parking spot and walked over to the candle store, which was closed. Luckily, it opened about five minutes later. And while we were at the candle store, Hadar and Robin showed up. Previous readers may remember that Hadar and Robin are two of our former au pairs. We had Robin first, when Madeleine was around two. After Robin came Inbar (who is in London), then we had Hadar, and now we have Shir, who is not here. Anyway, Hadar and Robin came to spend the day with us, which was really exciting.
In Tzfat, we visited two of the famous synagogues and walked around for a while. Hallie was especially excited to be there because she had learned about Tzfat in school last year, and one of the shuls we visited was apparently the shul she had made a model of for school. So that was really nice for her, and I’m glad she got to actually see it. We also visited a store where they weave talaisim and other Judaica by hand and Tzvi bought a new tallis bag.
We spent about an hour and a half in Tzfat and then got back in the car and drove to Dubrovin Farm in Yesod HaMa’ala. The history there was actually very interesting. Yesod HaMa’ala was founded in the 1880s by Jewish families from Poland who came to work the land near the Hula Valley. They arrived to find a very difficult environment, including swamps and pretty brutal living conditions. For a while they were living in extremely primitive housing, and eventually Baron Rothschild helped them build more permanent homes. Not an easy life. Basically everyone died of malaria. After learning about all of that, we got to make hummus. They set up a table with chickpeas that had already been soaked and cooked, along with tahini, lemon, garlic, salt, and everything else we needed. There were eight of us, so we split into two groups of four. It was actually really fun. Madeleine was initially very hesitant because somebody made the mistake of saying it was going to be a competition. We assured her it was not a real competition, which made her feel better. My parents’ team won, based on the way they decorated their plate.
From there, we drove to Galil Mountain Winery. The winery is basically right on the Lebanese border. We were literally looking into Lebanon while we were standing there. After October 7 they had to build a wall around some of the winery so Hezbollah couldn’t shoot at them and they could continue making wine. They pointed out a building just over the border and told us there is now an Israeli flag on top of it because it is in Israeli control. They showed us around the winery—the barrels, the giant tanks, and all the usual winery things that I feel like you see on every winery tour.
While standing looking at the giant vats, my father had a very serious question that he wanted answered. “What happens if someone falls in?”
We all thought this was the craziest question and couldn’t stop laughing, but then we actually Googled it and it turns out people actually have fallen into these tanks and died because the carbon dioxide concentration can become very high. People can get dizzy or lose consciousness and fall in. We would therefore like to formally apologize to my father for laughing at his very legitimate wine-tank safety concern.
After that we sat down for a tasting on the patio outside with a nice view of Lebanon. They brought out cheese, grapes, jam, olive oil, bread, and some other snacks, and it was just really pleasant. We sat there for a while, tasted the wines, and then bought a few bottles and some honey.
After the winery, we said goodbye to Robin, who had to head home, and the rest of us drove to Kiryat Ata, right near Haifa, to visit Hadar’s family. We had never met Hadar’s family, so this was really fun. The neighborhood where she lives has these really beautiful modern houses—very square and contemporary, with palm trees everywhere—and because it’s also up on a hill, the whole thing somehow reminded me of Los Angeles. We went into Hadar’s house, saw her room, and met her parents and her sister. Her parents had prepared an entire spread of food for us. Hadar had warned me this was going to happen, and I had told her that it was ridiculous because we were literally leaving their house and going directly to dinner. But she said, of course, her mother was going to go all out anyway. And she did. It was so nice. We sat there and ate even though none of us were particularly hungry, and then her parents gave us gifts. They gave Tzvi and me a Birkat HaBayit, and they gave the girls a whole bunch of gifts too. It was just really nice to finally meet them after knowing Hadar for so long.
At around 6:15 we all left and headed to dinner in Haifa at BP Kosher Bistro. The menu was enormous. They had all sorts of different things—Asian food, skewers, steaks, hamburgers, pasta, chicken, salads, schnitzel. Basically everything. We got some skewers, and I got Asian bao buns. Everything was pretty good, and the food came out very quickly, which was nice. Hadar’s boyfriend also joined us for dinner. When Hadar was living with us as our au pair and planning her month of travel after finishing her year, she somehow found a random Israeli guy on Facebook who was also in the United States and wanted to travel. So they decided they were going to travel together. We were convinced that either he was going to murder her or they were going to get married. There was no middle option. They ended up traveling together, stayed friends afterward, and eventually started dating. Glad he didn’t murder her. He met us at the restaurant, and he’s great. I really liked him.
We had a really nice dinner with everyone, eventually said goodbye to Hadar and her family, and then drove about an hour back to the hotel.
Also, from roughly 4:30pm until the end of the night, Tzvi was on the phone almost continuously, other than approximately 6:45 to 8:00 when he was eating dinner. And when we got back to the hotel he went to the lobby to work until 2 in the morning. So there was that.
Thursday: Who Knew There Were Jews in Wales
We got up Thursday morning a little later than the day before and headed down for breakfast.
It was basically the same breakfast, except they had different stations. Instead of the pizza station, there was a bagel station, and they also had a waffle station with this enormous tub that looked like a Nutella bottle, but was actually just chocolate spread. I should say, I’m not sure the actual quality of everything was quite at the level of somewhere like the Orient, but the sheer quantity and variety were definitely impressive.
We met Muriel at around 10:00 and headed out. We drove about 40 minutes to Reish Lakish, an olive-oil farm in Tzippori. We spent a while there with a woman whose name I think was Rachel. She was around 80 years old and had immigrated from Wales, which immediately made me realize that I had never really thought about the fact that there are Jews in Wales. She met her husband in Israel, and they had six children in ten years. At one point, they spent two years in Venezuela earning money so they could come back and buy their farm on the moshav in Tzippori. Eventually, they bought the farm and built up the whole operation there.
She took us around and showed us how everything works. We picked olives directly off the trees, and then she crushed some of them with the girls so they could actually see how the oil comes out. That was really cool. She also has one beehive. Apparently, she has a friend who makes honey and gave her a hive, so we got to see that too. At the end, she showed us where they make the real olive oil with industrial machinery. Tzvi asked if anyone has ever fallen into the olive oil vats. Then we tasted the different olive oils. It was a really interesting place and a very nice stop.
Right before we left, Madeleine desperately needed to pee. Unfortunately, the bathroom had cobwebs and a spider in it, so she had a complete meltdown. Then Tzvi took a picture of her crying. She was extremely angry about that. It was pretty funny.
From there, we drove about 20 or 30 minutes and stopped for lunch at a mall. We got shawarma and falafel. While we were there, we saw a few soldiers ordering food so we sent Hallie to the counter with a credit card to pay for their meals. I think the soldiers were completely confused. They seemed to have no idea why these random people were paying for their lunch, or what exactly was happening.
Then we left the mall and began the long drive back to Jerusalem. Eventually, we made it back to Jerusalem at around 5:30. We were exhausted, but there was laundry to be done and then we needed to go check in to the Orient, which Tzvi was not excited about, but more on that in the next installment.
Israel. Sukkot 2026. Part I. Shabbat and Yom Kippur.
Well, here we go. Two and a half weeks in Israel, a trip that began the Thursday before Yom Kippur and ended after Sukkot. Rather than attempt to write a day-by-day account of this 17 day adventure, we’ll be doing something a little different.
To start, musings on the beginning of this trip.
The Journey to Israel
I’m trying to think of what’s actually worth mentioning from the plane. Not much. As discussed, we left on a Thursday on the 530 pm flight. Behind us was seated a woman who’s mother had just died. In fact, her mother was traveling with us, under the plane. The flight wasn’t awful, aside from the kids sleeping on me for seven straight hours, during which I couldn’t move and needed to pee. Amazing I didn’t get a blood clot. At one point I was able to stand up so Tzvi and I went to the open area just to stretch our legs. That’s when the husband of the woman behind us said “no fornicating in the alley.” Mind you, this was a man who had been conversing in yiddish with a chasid over seats. The icing on the cake was at the end of it when Tzvi put Madeleine’s shoes on her, and the same guy told him he was a really good dad.
We got off the plane, made it through immigration and customs, and got our luggage with no problems. As we exited the airport, we obviously stopped at Aroma for coffee, and then we met our driver, whose name I could not remember. I’m pretty sure it was Oren, even though I called him Ofer at least three times.
The ride into Jerusalem was uneventful, and then we pulled up to Mordechai Yehudi 6, where my parents were standing on the curb waiting to greet us with open arms. Here is a photo of my parents greeting us in the lobby of their apartment building.
Isn’t it amazing what you can make with Chat GPT?
We arrived and nobody was there to help us. So we schlepped all of our bags into the elevator in three separate trips, made it upstairs, went into the apartment, and finally saw my parents.
We’ve stayed here before, so we got ourselves settled and then decided that we needed to go out for lunch. We walked down toward Emek Refaim in search of food and somehow decided on Kum Kum, which is apparently a tea house that has been there for several years. We’ve always said we wanted to try it, and my mom thought that Erev Shabbos, immediately after landing from an overnight flight, was the perfect opportunity. It’s a little restaurant with some outdoor tables, tea, and a few other things. All of the china is mismatched and looks like it has been collected over the years, which is kind of cute. There isn’t a huge menu. I got a tuna sandwich, Madeleine got lasagna, and Hallie got a salad, which basically meant she ate some lettuce. We also got scones, except they were out of most of the scones, so we ended up with chocolate chip. They came with butter, jam, and cream—except when I say cream, I mean whipped cream. And Israeli whipped cream isn’t that great. So it was an interesting experience. As Tzvi put it, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in the sense that he never needs to go back there again.
Shabbos, or, How My Husband Slept 16/24 Hours
Shabbos was uneventful. My mother made two very nice meals in her apartment. She also got Tzvi a birthday cake from a local baker and it was delicious, especially for a pareve cake. We almost made it to shul, went on several walks and took the girls to the playground.
Meanwhile, Tzvi slept sixteen hours.
After Shabbos, we thought about going out, but everyone was tired, so we ended up ordering pizza instead. I don’t remember the name of the pizza place. The pizzas were square, and we also got garlic bread, bourekas, and a tuna salad. I’m fairly certain the tuna salad was full of dirt because I kept crunching on something and could see little black flecks all over it. So that was truly appealing. The pizza itself was mediocre.
Yom Kippur, or, On Monday’s we Wear White
Sunday we had a nice pre-Yom Kippur meal, got ourselves ready, and headed to shul at around 6:15 for Kol Nidre. For Yom Kippur, we were davening at my parents’ shul. We were in the downstairs minyan because, apparently, if you aren’t a member, you can’t sit in the upstairs minyan for the High Holidays. The davening was very nice. Everyone was extremely quiet, and overall it was just a great] atmosphere. The girls stayed in shul for the entire Kol Nidre service, which was [really nice].
After davening, we walked up Emek Refaim because that is what everybody does. One of the things that was most striking was seeing Jerusalem on Yom Kippur night. The roads are basically closed, and even the ones that technically aren’t closed have almost no cars on them. Everyone is walking around. Everyone is dressed in white. Kids are riding bikes. There is just this sea of people in white filling the streets. Everyone is wishing each other a G’mar Chatimah Tovah, and there’s almost a festive atmosphere to the evening. At home, Yom Kippur always feels more like, “Okay, good luck. Have an easy fast. We’ll get through this.” Here, everyone seemed happy to be outside. It was just a really beautiful scene.
The next morning, we got to shul pretty late. I don’t think I got there until after 11:00, which I thought was a perfectly normal Yom Kippur arrival time. Apparently not. By the time I got there, they were already well into Mussaf. I will say, this was an efficient shul. The davening was once again very nice, and somehow they were completely finished by around 12:45. The girls were in and out during the morning, but enjoyed. Apparently you can have a nice davening without sitting there until 2:30 in the afternoon. Tzvi was also one of only two Kohanim there for Birkat Kohanim that morning.
We walked back to the apartment and spent the afternoon hanging around. We read, played cards, and relaxed. I will not discuss whether anyone packed or prepared anything for after the fast, because of course you are not actually supposed to do that on Yom Kippur.
Eventually, we headed back to shul for Mincha and Ne’ilah. I got there toward the end of Mincha. The Kohen who had received an aliyah that morning had told Tzvi that if Tzvi made it to Mincha on time, he would give him the aliyah instead. Tzvi actually got there on time, so he got his aliyah. Then, to his surprise, he ended up doing Birkat Kohanim again during Ne’ilah, which he had not realized was going to happen.
Ne’ilah itself was very nice. They finished a little early, so they stretched things out with a few additional prayers, including a prayer for the soldiers and some Tehillim. For Avinu Malkeinu, they did every line responsively, so they were clearly doing their best to drag things out until the proper time. Finally, the shofar blew. We walked home and had break-fast, which obviously included Toddy’s bagels that I had brought from home and frozen. You can take the family out of the Five Towns…
After that we packed up and got ready to head north the next day.
My dad vomited, presumably because he did not want to go north.
And that pretty much sums up the first leg of the trip.
A Weekend in the Hampton (Inn). Cleveland. October 2026.
Cleveland. The Sixth City. The Rock and Roll Capital of America. Here we go.
Steph is on hiatus so I (Tzvi) will be writing this short adventure to Cleveland. She will return next week with the long overdue journal from last month’s Israel trip.
Early on Friday morning we embarked on our trip to Cleveland for the wedding of Steph’s cousin Katy. We had a seamless check in at American Airlines, got bagels at Dunkin, met Steph’s parents at the gate and boarded on time. When we booked this, for some reason the cost to book first class seats (which included free bags) was only $8 per person more than the cost of a regular seat plus bags. Hallie has been very excited about flying first class, although we tried to temper her excitement about how wonderful first class would be in the tiny Embraer 250.
We boarded and were pleasantly surprised by the size of the seats. We were also offered orange juice immediately upon sitting down, which was nice, even if it was in a plastic cup. The flight was easy, a quick hour and a half.
We landed, got our bags and then went to get our rental car. For this trip we had rented through the Turo app, which is like Airbnb for cars. We’ve used this app before and usually the owner leaves the car in a parking lot and leaves the key in a lockbox attached to the window. This was a different experience. We rented a Kia Carnival (which is kind of a cross between an SUV and a mini van). The owner, Jonathan, met us at the curb to deliver the car. This was very convenient. We could immediately tell we were in the Midwest by the fact that we could park this car curbside at an airport for fifteen minutes while we completed the check in and photographed the car, and no one said a word. Then it got weird as Jonathan asked which way we were heading and offered to drive us to our hotel because it’s closer to his house and easier for him. He also helped us load all of our suitcases into the trunk. This was all quite strange to me but my mother says that this is normal in the Midwest where apparently people are just nicer. Jonathan was very friendly; he had previously lived in NY and worked as a video editor for MTV. Nice guy.
For the weekend we are staying at a Hampton Inn in Beachwood, which is where the bride and groom had reserved a block of rooms for the wedding party. You know that thing, where someone really doesn’t want to be responsible for something so they do it really poorly so that you never ask them to do it again? Apparently Steph doesn’t want to be involved in booking travel. Before departing the airport we decided to call the hotel to see if the rooms were ready. That was the point where Steph started looking for a confirmation code and realized that she had never actually booked a room.
So there we were barreling down the Cleveland highway, the six of us and Jonathan, heading to a Hampton Inn where we didn’t actually have a room to stay.
Unfortunately, the hotel had no more connecting rooms, but they did have an accessible room with two queen beds that would fit four people. Amazing.
We made it to the hotel, parked, said goodbye to our new pal Jonathan and checked in. There was not quite the same fanfare that you get when checking into the Four Seasons despite my Hilton Honors diamond status. The lobby is leanly staffed - just the two women at the front desk and a security guard. I wondered whether the guard actually needed the cane or whether it was for protection against would-be criminals.
We got our room immediately. It’s actually quite spacious and could probably fit two or three wheelchairs. We dropped all of our stuff and then headed out across the street to Pinecrest, which is basically a nice outdoor shopping center. We had originally told ChatGPT we had three hours to see Cleveland and get a flavor of it and asked what to do. We opted not to see the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame because we didnt think the kids would appreciate it and it seemed like just too much of a hassle. The original recommendation from Chat was to visit downtown Cleveland where there were local restaurants and shops, but Jonathan told us he didn’t think that was worthwhile. We think he maybe just didnt want us taking the car into downtown Cleveland, but either way we were hungry and needed to eat so we opted for Pinecrest.
We had lunch at a place called Kitchen Social, which was actually delicious. We ate fried cauliflower, fish tacos and other things. I spent most of the meal sitting outside the restaurant on work calls. After that we walked around and got a coffee at Heartland Coffee Roasters. The coffee was delicious but it took forever, mainly because the cashier was spending lots of time talking to each customer. My mother would love it here. Then we walked some more and I bought a sweatshirt at Alo.
After that we wanted to get ice cream, so we looked up local ice cream places and found Mitchell’s a ten minute drive away. We walked in and realized the place was kosher and the local yeshiva must have just let out. The ice cream was delicious.
We got back to the hotel and Steph realized she had forgotten to bring a book to read, so I drove five minutes to Barnes and Nobles in another shopping center down the road. I think Cleveland is just made up of lots of shopping centers, or at least that’s what I’ve seen of it. It took me five minutes of browsing to pick out a book for Steph and ten minutes to wait online while they helped the three people in front of me.
We got ready for shabbos and walked across the street, trekking up a hill and through the Porsche dealership, to the Courtyard by Marriott where we were having dinner, because our hotel didn’t have any kind of private space. So we had shabbos dinner in the Courtyard boardroom. Katy’s brother Joel and his wife Jenny arranged the entire dinner (and entire shabbos portion of this weekend). The food was from a local kosher caterer and kind of reminded me of the food we used to eat in college. BBQ chicken thighs, potato kugel, beans. It was all pretty good, except Jenny said it was nothing that she actually had ordered. It was nice nonetheless, and then we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep.
We woke up Saturday morning and went downstairs for our free hotel breakfast. Once again we told Hallie to temper her expectations and explained this would not be like an Israeli breakfast buffet. It wasn’t horrible. There was coffee, waffles, eggs we wouldn’t touch, oatmeal, yogurt, toast, some terribly sweet muffins and scones, and cereal. No one starved, especially because at 10:30, just minutes after breakfast ended, Joel and Jenny came into the lobby with kiddush! Kiddush involved lots of pastries and muffins from a local kosher bakery.
We stayed in the lobby for a while just talking. I watched House Hunters on the big tv in the lobby. I think we probably spent more time than anyone has ever spent in the lobby of a Hampton Inn. I know I’m a hotel snob, so I’ll be objective and say this hotel is fine. I’m pretty sure it was originally built as some kind of hospital or institution.
We decided to take a walk across the street to Pinecrest where there was a playground. Around 1pm we walked back and ate lunch in my parents room. There were supposed to be “deconstructed” deli and schnitzel sandwiches so things didnt get soggy, but this caterer answers to no one so he made fully dressed sandwiches with potato chips that probably once were crispy and delicious but just tasted like mush.
After lunch we sat by the indoor pool for a couple of hours while the kids swam. Steph and I refused to go in. Let’s hope they dont catch something from that water. At one point a woman came in with a bunch of kids, none older than 10, and then just left them in the pool. Cool.
After that we went back to the room and got ready to go out to Katy’s Saturday night pre-wedding dinner. The dinner was at La Dolce Vita, a bar in the little Italy section of Cleveland. The evening was very nice and I enjoyed the arancini, eggplant parm and bowties with Alfredo sauce. Steph ate four bread rolls. Madeleine seemed to enjoy the crosses and photos of Jesus hanging on the walls. After dinner we drove a few minutes to a different Mitchell’s ice cream, because people needed more ice cream.
When we got back to the hotel we found the parking lot completely full. I was particularly upset because there are a few spots at the front of the hotel that have a sign that say they are reserved for Hilton Diamond members. They were also full and I am quite sure that they were not all diamond members. I had a mind to march right into the hotel and ask whether they had taken an inventory of the Hilton Honors status of each car, but instead I just parked in the hotel driveway.
Sunday morning we got up early. Tzvi and Hallie drove across the street to the same coffee place again and got coffees. We had breakfast in the lobby and then headed out by 1045 so Steph and her mother and the girls could get their hair done for the wedding. I spent an hour and a half walking around a mostly deserted shopping mall. Then we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, which took almost two hours, because… well, because Cleveland.
We rushed back to the hotel, now late because of the very long lunch at Cheesecake. We quickly got ready for the wedding and made it out by about 315. We had to be there by 4pm to get seated for the 430pm start time.
This wedding is unlike most weddings (or any wedding) we usually go to. We walked in and were greeted by the wedding planner. We saw our place cards but were told we were not allowed to take them yet. The wedding began with the ceremony, so we arrived and chose our seats. Then we basically waited for the ceremony to start. In the meantime we took some photos. Then all of a sudden we heard music and saw Rabbi Joel walking down the aisle…pushing a stroller… with Katy and Chad’s cat. Did I not mention this wasn’t a typical wedding?
The ceremony was lovely. Joel did a great job and spoke very nicely about the couple. He mentioned this was the first wedding he’s ever done, so if anyone is looking for a Rabbi… Because basically no one here was observant, they had to bring in a rent-a-Jew from the Jewish community to be one of the witnesses. Sheldon and I both had sheva brachot, which was nice. And then it was time to party! Wait, nope, cocktail hour. We took some photos with the bride and groom during this time. It was cold outside, but we finished just before it started to rain.
[Steph: I thought it was an interesting observation that we go to shul weekly where we get to socialize with lots of people. Most people don’t have that, so I guess going to weddings and other infrequent events is where they socialize?]
Cocktail hour had some appetizers like tuna tacos and corn ribs and a big veggie platter. They had these seed crackers that Steph was inhaling.
Finally it was time to welcome the bride and groom. Katy and Chad had a first dance that they had apparently taken lessons for. Chad threw out his back a few days earlier, but did a great job. We were then seated for dinner in a gorgeous room. It was all fall themed and very well decorated.
We started off with a salad that was served to us, and then immediately received the main. We could have ordered kosher meat meals, but we opted not to, mainly so we could enjoy dessert. We all had salmon that was very good that came with potatoes and asparagus. Something also of note, apparently normal weddings don’t revolve entirely around food. Odd.
For dessert there were mini tiramisus, berries and cream, and then a cake bar from a baker in West Hempstead. Apparently Chad loves it so he flew them in. It’s called Sydney’s Sweets and it was delicious.
Then it was time to dance. It felt like they played songs in order of the decade, starting with songs from the 60’s and making their way to more modern songs. Except when it got close to 10:00 Steph’s parents wanted to leave so we left during the college / 2010’s portion of the set.
The girls had a fantastic time at the wedding. Someone had given them disposable cameras and they took their job very seriously, taking pictures all over the place. It was very cute. If anyone is looking for photographers and/or wedding dancers…
We drove back to the hotel, packed a bit, and went to bed.
Sunday morning we woke up nice and early. I went for coffee again at the same coffee place and brought them back to the hotel. We had a quick breakfast in the lobby where we found Jonathan, the owner of the Kia. He was also sitting and enjoying the free Hampton Inn breakfast. We packed up the car and Jonathan drove us to the airport. Check in was easy, but we were unfortunately delayed by a couple of hours including an hour on the runway. Thankfully we had our comfortable first class seats to wait in.
The flight was quick and then we were home.
Nice trip. While we may not have seen much of Cleveland, I feel like we really got to experience the midwestern lifestyle. This long weekend has made me want to be a friendlier, kinder, more patient person.
Or maybe not.
End of Summer. Days 6, 7 and 8. Should We Get the Beach Bag?
Our driver met us at the port and took us to the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale where we are staying for the end of this trip. The hotel is right on the beach. As we checked in, a man brought out a big red wagon full of stuffies. Madeleine picked something that was either a hamster, a guinea pig or a beaver. Who knows. Hallie couldn’t decide between the same hamster/guinea pig/beaver and a weird looking dog with huge eyes, and somehow talked the man into giving me the dog. Good job, Hal.
It was still early—around 10:00—but one of our rooms was already ready. We left our luggage there and then spoke with the concierge to try to plan an activity for the day. I don’t know how, but planning the day ended up being the activity for the day, because by the time we figured anything out it was nearly noon. The hotel has a little seating area outside where Tzvi and the girls sat and played mini golf on a putting green. We then went back to the room to get our stuff before going out and found that our room keys weren’t working because the card reader on the door had a dead battery, so we sat waiting for security to come fix it. They were very apologetic about it.
The hotel drove us to Las Olas in one of its street-legal golf carts. I don’t know whether this is a Miami and Fort Lauderdale thing, but they have these large golf-cart-like vehicles that are registered and can actually drive on the road.
Las Olas is a shopping and dining area, and we had lunch at Earls Kitchen + Bar. It was pretty good. I ordered a bibimbap bowl that was absolutely delicious. Tzvi had a salad with a piece of grilled salmon. After lunch, we walked around and visited the Romero Britto store, which was fun. We found a small Dumbo sculpture that Tzvi really wanted to buy, but it was $350 and very tiny, so we decided it was unnecessary.
From there, we took an Uber to GoYummy, a huge Swedish candy store. They had tons of vegan options, so the girls were very excited to fill their bags with candy.
We returned to the hotel and spent some time by the pool, which was very nice.
Then we got ready for dinner at Evelyn’s, the hotel’s “Levantine” (read: Israeli) restaurant. Dinner was very good, although the service was extremely slow. We had a Jerusalem bagel, stone-fired pita and delicious hummus topped with olive oil and toasted pine nuts. Tzvi and Shir also had a French onion labneh that they really liked. We also ordered pomegranate-glazed salmon and a whole branzino, which arrived with its head still attached. Tzvi picked through and ate basically everything except for the eyeball. Gross.
We skipped dessert because the girls were going nuts and, honestly, none of the desserts looked that appealing anyway.
After dinner, we went upstairs and sat for a long time on our balcony. It was just so peaceful out there. Good day.
At 7:00 Saturday morning, we were awakened by an enormous boom. We looked outside and saw that it was thunderstorming.
“Well, this can’t last all day,” we thought.
Famous last words.
Miraculously, the storm did not wake the girls even though incredibly loud thunder seemed to go on for an hour. Eventually, everyone got up, and we made our way to breakfast. We all got the buffet, which came with one made-to-order egg dish. It was a very nice, fairly standard breakfast buffet.
And then it kept raining. It rained for pretty much the entire day. We spent a lot of time sitting outside under cover and watching the lightning, which was actually pretty cool. But the biggest saving grace was the kids club. The girls refused to use the kids club on the Disney cruise, but at the Four Seasons, they got it. They spent hours there in the morning, leaving only for the half hour lunch break that the kids club closed. We eventually ordered them some lunch, which we ate outside by the putting green, even though the adults weren’t particularly hungry, and then they went straight back to the kids club. Tzvi and I were actually able to sit and read our books. It was wonderful.
The kids club closed at 4:00, and thankfully, the rain had finally stopped by then. The girls and Tzvi went into the pool for a little while, and we all just hung out. That kids club was the best thing that could have happened to us on such a rainy day. We also ordered drinks by the pool, including the Popsicle Margarita, which had passion fruit and a whole pomegranate popsicle on top. It was a very fun drink. It was a very nice end to the day. There was a couple with a small child that kept jumping in the pool, except he didn’t seem to know how to swim and they didn’t seem to try to stop him. He just kept swallowing water and coughing. It was strange and annoying.
Eventually we went back to the room, packed, showered and waited for Shabbat to end. Once it was over, we walked down the block to Wine + Garden, a casual, homey Italian restaurant. We ordered several different pastas and pizzas, including a Margherita pizza. I had gnocchi with zucchini, Shir ordered some sort of pasta, and Madeleine got her own pasta. Tzvi also ordered a pizza with eggplant, sun dried tomato and straciatella. The food was all very good, but it just took a very long time to arrive. I kind of felt like we were inside a house, and once the waitress left to go out into the garden it was impossible to get her back.
By the end of dinner, it was around 10:00, and the girls were going nuts. Shir walked them back to the hotel while we paid the bill, and then we followed them back and went to bed.
Tomorrow we go home.
On our final morning, we hoped to squeeze in about an hour at the beach before heading home. We got dressed for the beach and went down to breakfast around 945. Today I skipped the buffet and ordered French toast. Unfortunately, the service today was extra slow. Slower than Friday’s dinner. Slower than Saturday’s dinner. The staff kept apologizing and telling us it was taking longer than expected, but after waiting at least 45 minutes, we began wondering how much beach time we would actually have left since we needed to check out by 1:00.
By 1040, Tzvi became so angry that he left without even waiting for his omelet and took Hallie down to the beach. They got there and got set up.
10:39 AM Tzvi: Did the food come?
10:39 AM Steph: Nope
10:43 AM Tzvi: The water is pretty warm there’s just a lot of seaweed. The waves are also pretty rough.
10:44 AM Tzvi: Did it come?
10:44 AM Steph: Nope!
10:44 AM Steph: I’m not even going to come down to the beach
10:51 AM Tzvi: All right, so Hallie wants to swim in the pool, and there was a giant ant crawling on me, so we’re coming back to the pool.
Our breakfast eventually arrived, but it was pretty atrocious. We met Tzvi and Hallie by the pool and hung out there for about an hour before returning to our rooms to change, finish packing and leave. It was actually a very nice hour. We tried to order the popsicle margarita again, but they said they were out of the popsicles, which seemed odd given they had just opened.
We checked out at 1:00 and headed to Sawgrass Mills, the huge mall about 25 minutes away, because it has one of the few Rainforest Cafes left in the country, and Hallie really loves that restaurant. The meal itself was not particularly memorable (is Rainforest every memorable?). Thankfully, as soon as we sat down, I asked the server to bring out the chef to discuss Hallie’s allergy. Usually, the server comes over first, then we explain the allergy, then they search for a chef, and the entire process takes forever. This time, we got ahead of it. The food still took a while, but not nearly as long as it has in the past. Madeleine was very upset that our table wasn’t near any elephants. I think this Rainforest Cafe has far fewer elephants than the one in Orlando. Orlando has a lot of elephants. We were seated next to the tigers. It was fine. Basically we spent $100 on Ubers so Hallie could get a meal at Rainforest. Can’t wait to hear what she has to say about us in therapy one day.
After lunch, we walked around the mall. I found a dress for Madeleine at Monnalisa, and Shir bought some things at Lululemon. Then it was time to Uber back to the hotel and meet our driver for the airport.
Before returning, I called the Four Seasons about the beach bag they had provided in our room. The hotel gives you a beach bag to use during your stay, but there’s a tag on it that says if you want to take it home they’ll apply a charge to your room (which was less than the cost of buying a brand new bag at the spa). Tzvi liked the bag, but kept waffling over whether he wanted to pay to take it home. He ended up not taking it, but then of course regrated it and spent most of lunch going back and forth over whether we should call and buy the bag. Eventually I just called and asked if I could still purchase one. They said of course and that they were very happy that I liked it. When we arrived, a woman brought me the beach bag inside a larger Four Seasons bag. She told me, “I know you’re going on a cruise, so I added some extra things for you.” Apparently, she didn’t realize that we had just returned from the cruise. Well, inside the bag was a very nice Four Seasons water bottle, a hat and a bunch of little things including a little sunscreen. That was very nice of them.
We reached the airport, checked in and everything went smoothly—until, obviously, our flight was delayed. Thankfully, it was only delayed by about an hour. Given my previous experiences flying through Fort Lauderdale and Miami, I had fully expected an eight-hour delay. But we eventually got off the ground and headed home.
It was a great vacation.