Steph in Israel. Day 1. Welcome to Israel.
Hello everyone! For those of you who are unaware (or are too busy with your own lives to follow the minutia of mine), I am currently traveling for work to the holy land of Israel. I work for a little organization called Jewish National Fund (people know us for planting trees, but we do a LOT more than that - if you’d like to know more you should probably come to our FREE breakfast at Congregation Beth Sholom on Sunday November 11th to hear from Alan Dershowitz and Ben Brafman (shameless plug)). ANYWAY, one of the things I do is recruit for the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, a school where students in 10th-12th grades can come spend either 8 or 18 weeks in Israel, doing Israel studies AND their general studies. Yes, it’s pretty great, and yes I’m happy to tell you more. SO, I’m here for the week to see for myself what happens at the school (as it’s hard to recruit for something you haven’t seen), and then I’m bringing a group of students home on Thursday night.
Now that that’s out of the way, here we go. Thursday morning I dropped of Hallie at school. She was less sad than I was at our parting. Then I went home and said goodbye to TV, who was equally sad. So, then I had the rest of the day to finish packing and get last minute errands done. When I told a couple of people that I was leaving to Israel that night, they told me to “stay safe” really sincerely. Funny (well not funny) thing is, everyone back home should stay safe. I’m probably safer here. So, I finished up and headed to the airport at 5ish. The Uber was fine and check in was no big deal. At the counter, the woman saw that I had ordered the kids meal. “Smart choice,” she said. I nodded. At security I forgot to take out my laptop and tablet (along with about 40 percent of others). I think having pre-check for so long just made me not think about anything. Oh well. After that, I walked to the gate and passed a Dylan’s Candy Bar. Being that I have no willpower, I walked in and bought myself candy, but not just candy, Reeses Pieces! You know why? Because I could, without having to worry about anyone else dying. Hooray! Once I got to the gate I saw people already lined up, but there was no way I was doing that. Again, I was on my own, and I was in no rush to get on that plane early. Instead, I spent 10 minutes doing a Pelton stretching video and looking like a fool, but hey, I had 10 hours on a plane coming up.
Finally I boarded and settled into seat 25K, an El Al economy plus window seat, which means it was a standard airline seat and probably less legroom than JetBlue. I had a middle aged Israeli couple next to me. They held hands a lot and it was cute. It made me miss Mr Tzvi. We taxied for a LONG time. Our departure was 7:30 and we didn’t take off until 8:45. During this time I video chatted with Hallie and Tzvi, so basically from the time she was in bath until she went to sleep, and then even after that. All of a sudden we were going really fast and we were STILL video chatting so I was like, “I think I need to hang up now,” and then we were in the air. Right as we got up I got SUPER bloated, and remained that way the ENTIRE FLIGHT. It was miserable. So uncomfortable. Didn’t stop me from eating some of my kids meal though (3 chicken nuggets). I watched some of a movie with Mila Kunis and Kate Mkinnon, and then listened to a few soundtracks, watched some of Designated Survivor, and tried to sleep. I definitely slept through a few songs, but not much. Breakfast was fine; the kids meal was much better that the regular meal. I got strawberry yogurt, pancakes with that appley filling, chocolate milk, a weird pastry, and I think that’s it. I had a few bites. We finally landed at 12:30 Israel time.
I got off the plane and headed to customs. The passport control lady asked me zero questions, and actually didn’t speak to me at all. She was complaining to her friend in the next cubicle about her friend who was on a bathroom break and not coming back fast enough. So, she said nothing to me and just let me in the country. At baggage claim I was surprised that you now have to pay 10 shekels for a cart! You used to get all the carts for free! I guess they wised up. I still bought one. After that I went to the taxi stand where I got a slip that said I was going to Jerusalem. I asked if they take credit card and the man said yes, and if the guy says his machine is broken then just don’t pay. I could do that, right? So I got in a cab and made my way to Jerusalem. OBVIOUSLY once we pulled up he said he didn’t even HAVE a credit card machine. He was apologetic, and didn’t seem like he was screwing me, and said the guy at the airport shouldn’t have said that everyone has one. So, the driver first took me to a gas station which he said would have an atm (it didn’t), then we went to random stores and found an ATM machine which didn’t work. Finally I called Abby (my host) who paid for me. I need to pay her back.
For Shabbat I stayed at the Kehats, old family friends who we’ve stayed with many times. I got in and made myself comfortable. The Kehats have 4 kids, all who are still in the army, even though they’ve completed their mandatory service. They are also all very smart. One of them is currently like the number 3 in the intelligence brigade or something. He basically knows EVERYTHING regarding security, and I mean everything. Unfortunately he wasn’t home for Shabbat. But, Roni (my age) and Avri (younger but I forget by how much) were home. When I walked in Roni was trying to make a mayonnaise recipe that their chef cousin Josh had given them. I’m not lying when I say from when I got there (2:30) until I think 3:30 she was trying to make that mayo. It was hilarious. It wasn’t whipping up. Eventually she gave up and used regular mayo. Anyway, I showered and got ready for Shabbat which was technically at 4:15 Jerusalem time, but they said they went by Tel Aviv time plus 18 minutes. My kind of people.
After we got ready for Shabbat I realized that Roni and Mordy we’re going to shul, so I decided to join them. I’d been there before, it was actually right across the street from where we stayed for a month back in 2010. When we got there I spotted Marc Friedman, a guy I’d been friends with in high school and who is now married to Carly Rothenberg. Funny. Shul was nice, I almost fell asleep.
Shabbat was lovely. We ate shabbat dinner and I was passing out, but I made it until 9:30ish. Abby insisted on giving me Melatonin to sleep through the night. (Drugs! I took drugs!) And it was fabulous. I woke up briefly at 4:30 but then slept until 10:30. I don’t think I’ve slept until 10:30 in 3 years. I was still so bloated though. At 4:30 am I had to take off my rings because my tree stump fingers couldn’t handle them. Though, when I woke up I felt a little better. Anyway, after I woke up at 10:30 I spent 3 hours reading Busy Phillips’ new memoir. It was a great morning. We had lunch, and hung around. Their chef cousin Josh came over in the afternoon (who I also know for many years) and we hung out, played Code Names, and before we knew it Shabbat was over. Roni left for a friend in Modiin and Josh and I decided to go to the Tachana Rishona – the first station - a nice area with restaurants and shops near the first train station in Jerusalem. We ate at Miznon. We split a soba noodle salmon dish and then got three desserts: crème brulee, chocolate crème brulee, and lemon tart. All good, but the chocolate crème brulee tasted more like a flourless chocolate cake. I didn’t mention that Josh has been a chef at Jacko Street (a great Jerusalem restaurant) but recently quit and is starting on Monday at some fancy Asian place in Tel Aviv. He is also in school for restaurant management. He wants to own a restaurant one day.
I got back to Abby’s at about 9:30 and grabbed a cab to Hod Hasharon, where the AMHSI campus is and where I will be staying for the rest of the week. Its near Tel Aviv and was about an hour drive. I was met by Aviv, one of the Madrichim, who showed me to my room. It’s a nice room, with a bed, bathroom, and little kitchenette. I unpacked and did a solid 10 minutes of exercise to try and relieve my bloating. It didn’t work. Aviv told me I have to be awake at 6:45, and I have to video chat Hallie at 12:45, so I’ll have a nice 5.5 hours of sleep. Isn’t that GREAT? Oh well. I’ll be tired. And bloated.
Until tomorrow!
Washington, DC. Day 4. Goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
We finally got up in time for breakfast. We got ready for the day, finished some packing, and then went down to the lobby around 815 for breakfast. The lobby restaurant is actually an Asian restaurant called Brothers and Sisters. I opted for the breakfast special, which was the least strange thing on the menu - two eggs, a potato rosti, fresh fruit, milk toast, coffee and juice. I wasn’t expecting much, but everything was actually delicious, especially the toast. The coffee came in a weird cup, but was also great and somehow the weird cup kept it hot. Tzvi ordered an omelet with farm cheese, arugula, wild mushrooms, tomato, which he said was pretty good, but I think he regretted not getting the breakfast special.
After breakfast Tzvi went to work and we had our final sessions. Our last session had little to do with campus work, but was a great session by Innovation Africa (originally Jewish Heart for Africa). They take Israeli innovation and bring it to African countries. For example, she began by installing solar panels in order to power a lightbulb for kids to go to school. Then she realized kids weren’t going to school because they were too weak because they had no food or water, so she worked on building a pump, powering it, and drilling for water. It’s amazing. Google it.
Tzvi: I had another uneventful day at work. I tried a new place for lunch today that had been recommended by a coworker. It was a Mediterranean fast casual place called Cava, which it turns out exists in the village as well. It was a far walk and it started raining as I walked back. The food was fine. I’ve had better fast casual falafel bowls.
Around 3 Tzvi left work and I left the hotel and we headed to the airport. Incredibly we ended up pulling up within seconds of each other. Thanks Uber. Tzvi took 14 Ubers on this trip. He’s pretty proud of that.
Check in and security were easy with pre-check, and then we had about 40 minutes to sit at the gate where I went looking for food and Tzvi did some more work. The only food I could find was Chex mix, but that was fine with me. We were pretty anxious about delays, especially as our 4:20 pm boarding time rolled around and they still hadn’t announced anything. Somehow though, at 5:00 we were on the plane and pushing back. We took off just a few minutes after 5:00 and landed around 6:00, about 20 minutes early. Good job Delta. We got off the plane, got our bags fairly quickly, got an Uber and set off for home.
All in all, I’d say a pretty successful trip.
Washington, DC. Day 3. At Least Some of Us Got to Eat.
We got up today, again too late for breakfast. It’s great. Tzvi left for work and I got coffee at the coffee shop in the lobby, which of course has its own obnoxious hipster name, though this one is actually kind of fitting - The Cup We All Race 4. Yes, that’s actually the name of the place and yes, there really is a number in the name. Good coffee though. Very slow service. I did order the pour over though, so I don’t know what I expected.
Today was packed with professional development. I couldn’t even tell you what we learned. It was all great stuff, but just too much at a time. Tonight, instead of heading to the night activity, we went to Nelson’s apartment. Nelson is the head of campus affairs in the education department at JNF, and my supervisor. His apartment was super nice. Must be nice living outside NYC. He even has a Peloton in his gym! He doesn’t use it. It’s a travesty. Anyway, we hung out there for a bit, met his wife, and then eventually headed out at 8:15. We ubered to this bar where all of the ICC people were, but by the time we got there the kosher food was gone, so I ate a lot of cauliflower. It was also so loud. Most of the people here are single and young, and while I may be young, I’m too old for loud bars. A few of us decided to leave pretty quickly, so we ubered back to the hotel and got ice cream. We’re cool.
Tzvi: Another busy day at work, but it wouldn’t be another late night in the office, because I had made plans to see a client. Around 3 I left the office and went for a visit at a client’s office in Virginia, and then around 7 came back into DC with a couple of lawyers from the client and went for dinner.
Dinner was at a French restaurant in the 14th Street neighborhood called Le Diplomate. We had to wait a bit for a table so we started at the bar. The clients shared a bottle of wine and I ordered an old fashioned. The place was beautiful and actually a pretty large space that made you feel like you were in a typical French bistro. Eventually we got a table and started with a bread basket that was simple but perfect. It’s hard to go wrong with a bread basket in a French restaurant. And butter, of course. Such good butter. To start, I shared two appetizers with one of the lawyers - a tuna tartare that was paper thin and delicious and a basket of gougers, basically fried cheese puffs. Cheese puffs is a terrible way to describe it because it invokes images of fingers covered in gross orange powder. These were like dough, puffed cheesy… things. I wish I had photos, but I thought it would be bad form to take out my phone and snap photos of food in front of clients. Wikipedia describes them as a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. Whatever they were, they were delicious. For the main I had trout almandine. It was perfectly classically French - melt in your mouth trout covered in toasted almonds and on a bed of tender, salty, buttery green beans. For dessert I had a crème Brule that had so much fresh vanilla bean in it that it was basically speckled black and white. We finally finished around 11 and I got an Uber back to the hotel.
our pretty and useless shower
can you tell this used to be a church?
Washington, DC. Day 2. No Wine, Cocktails.
We woke up Monday morning too late to go downstairs and have breakfast. While that was sad, it was a nice change from getting up super early with Hallie! We got ready for the day, and Tzvi left for work around 9. I didn’t have to be at anything until around 1, so I went to the gym and then headed out to walk around. I got my free underwear at Victoria’s Secret. The coupon was expiring that day, so I’m glad I got that in, even though the cost of Ubering to the store was more than the underwear was worth. Afterwards I met Tzvi for coffee at Compass Coffee a block from his office.
At 1pm we had a ‘networking lunch’ where I guess people met each other, but the JNF people mainly sat with each other. We’re a friendly bunch. After lunch there were some panels, Russell Robinson (JNF’s CEO) spoke, and we had some regional breakout groups. After that we had our ‘night activity’ which involved taking a bus to District Winery. I’m pretty sure it was the first winery in DC, but I wouldn’t know because we didn’t actually do anything at the winery except eat dinner and socialize. I should add that this conference is ‘kosher style’ so no, that winery was not kosher, and no, neither is the food. There was a separate table of kosher food. How nice for us. A bunch of us got tired (read: bored) and ubered home before everyone else. It was nice, but a little long.
Tzvi: I took an Uber to work because I was too lazy to figure out the public transport. It was about 12 minutes and $8, and then when I got there one of the partners told me he does that walk every day. Oh well. Our firm’s DC office is beautiful - much nicer than our NY office. My office in NY has a view of the east river, which is nice, but the view of the White House from the DC office’s rooftop deck wasn’t bad either. It was a busy day and I ended up working until 9:00.
For dinner I ordered from a restaurant called Beefsteak, which is a Jose Andres fast casual restaurant. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, but I did not particularly like my food. I ordered a gazpacho soup topped with some weird vegetables, and a veggie bowl called The Eden, that had Quinoa, edamame, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, cilantro sauce, garlic yogurt, leafy greens, cucumber salad, scallions, sprouts, sesame seeds and lemon honey dressing. So basically a lot of raw vegetables, which I guess is the theme of this place - vegetable forward. It was just weird and not particularly good.
We met back at the hotel around 9:30 and went to the lobby to get a drink. We had our pick of the downstairs lobby bar or the bar at the fancy restaurant upstairs overlooking the lobby. We chose upstairs. I think the giant chandelier at the center of the lobby is made from the organ that was once in the church that this building housed. Pretty cool. If it wasn’t clear already, this hotel is super hipster. The restaurant upstairs is called A Rake’s Progress and the bar is called A Rake’s Bar. Sounds more like the name of a poem than a restaurant. Tzvi ordered a fancy gin drink with lots of ingredients that also had an obnoxiously hipster name and was basically just a gin and tonic. Not that he didn’t really like it. They said the gin was from some local producer. I had a peach julep that came in a really cool cup and was very strong, but tasty. We sat for a bit just enjoying being out, alone, on a Monday night, having cocktails. Then we went back to our room and went to sleep, because, let’s face it, we’re not that cool.
Washington, DC. Day 1. Church on Sunday.
Today was a great day. We woke up early, made it out of the house by 9:15 and dropped Hallie off at my parents’ house. We called an Uber around 10:15 and we were off to LaGuardia. We made it to the airport around 10:45 and checked in for our flight to DC. The security line was ridiculously long, but thank God we had precheck, which still had a line, but much shorter. After giving the TSA agent both our tickets and IDs, the agent handed my license back to Tzvi and said “I think this one’s hers.” Tzvi said, “well, people do say we look alike,” to which the agent replied, “not that much, she doesn’t have a unibrow.” Nicely done TSA agent. Nicely done.
In the terminal we spent $17 to buy a banana, a box of grapes, a cottage cheese and a water bottle. We boarded our Delta flight and took off almost on time. The plane was tiny, only four seats across, and the turbulence was ridiculous. I really thought the plane was going to go down at one point.
We ended up landing about thirty minutes early, got our bags, called an Uber, and made it to our hotel by 2 o’clock. To step back a minute, we’re here until Wednesday. I’m here for the Israel on Campus Coalition conference that brings together campus professionals. Tzvi’s here because I have a free hotel room and he has an office in DC. He also has a client here that he’s going to visit, so he was able to make up a legit business purpose. We’re staying at The Line hotel in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC. The building is a beautiful converted church. Walking into the lobby you can actually tell that it was once the knave of a church. It’s actually pretty ironic that an Israel conference is being held at an old church. The hotel is very modern and has been ranked as one of the top boutique hotels in America by a number of different magazines/websites. We don’t have much of a view, but the room is nice. I’d say the main disappointment of the room is the really awful shower. It’s pretty, but there’s no pressure.
We quickly changed and then got an Uber to Georgetown. Our first stop was the America Eats Tavern, a fairly new restaurant from famous chef Jose Andres. It was late so the restaurant wasn’t very crowded. We started with an order of parker house rolls that were beautifully shiny (butter!) and an order of skillet corn bread. Both delicious. The rolls were like little tushies. For mains we shared a Caesar salad with grilled salmon and an order of bbq glazed salmon with okra, tomatoes and corn. Both were very good. Tzvi thought the okra was weird. For dessert we shared a giant warm chocolate chip cookie in a skillet with a scoop of really delicious vanilla bean ice cream. It was really good.
After lunch we walked around Georgetown and did a little shopping. We had spent a lot of time davening over what to do with our free afternoon. We debated museums and sightseeing, trying to figure out the best use of our time, but we eventually realized it wasn’t worth killing ourselves to squeeze in some attraction, and it was a better idea to just hang out and go shopping sans child. That ended up working out quite well. We had our glasses tightened and cleaned at Warby Parker. We bought macarons at a shop called Olivia (recommended by our concierge). We bought a bunch of sale stuff at J-crew. We got coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee. We also visited the Amazon bookstore. It was basically a regular bookstore that sold Amazon products too (though maybe the book selection was a bit more limited and curated). I’m pretty sure Amazon’s master plan was to create a website that would run all of the brick and mortar book stores out of business so they could open the only brick and mortar stores. Interestingly, if you had prime, the books were the same price as if you ordered online, so I have no idea how they’re making money (they’re probably not). As our last stop we went to a bakery called Baked and Wired (also recommended by the concierge). I got two cupcakes.
the circle of life
blue bottle coffee
we didn't go here, but they have the right idea
We called another Uber and headed back to the hotel. We’re too lazy to figure out public transit here and every Uber seems to be about $10, so we’ve just given in. Back at the hotel Tzvi rested (he hasn’t been feeling great) and I went to the gym. When I was done we tasted the desserts we had bought earlier in the day. The macarons were good, not great, but the cupcakes were solid. I had a strawberry one and a vanilla cake with caramel filling and chocolate frosting. Then we got dressed and ready for dinner and ended up leaving around 8.
We took an Uber (surprise) to the District Wharf, a fairly new waterfront development in south-east DC. When we had called the concierge earlier in the day to ask him what he thought of our plans, he told us not to go to the wharf. He said it was new and industrial and touristy. We decided not to listen to that an went anyway. Thank God we did because it was really nice. We walked along the water, saw nice views of the Washington Monument, got to swing on giant swings, and had an amazing Mexican dinner.
Dinner was at a restaurant called Mi Vida. The restaurant was really well designed and very stylish. When you walk in you’re greeted by a life sized tree. We started off with margaritas; I had a frozen margarita with mango, ginger, passionfruit and agave and Tzvi had a more traditional margarita with grand marnier, agave and orange. To start we shared guacamole, which was spicy, but delicious, and came with fantastic warm chips. We finished the entire thing of chips, and then they brought us another one. For the mains I had pumpkin seed-crusted salmon with sweet potato mash and pineapple-tomatillo salsa. Again, spicy but delicious. Tzvi had a roasted whole butterflied snapper that was painted one side in red adobo chili sauce and the other side with green adobo chili sauce. His also came with tomatillo salsa and black beans. He loved his fish. For sides we got roasted corn with cheese that Tzvi really liked, and roasted potatoes and string beans that had tiny crushed tortilla chips sprinkled over them. Also really tasty. For dessert we shared an order of churros that came with a chocolate sauce. The churros were crispy and flaky. All was really really good. Their bathroom was also ranked on a best bathroom list, but I didn’t think it was that amazing. There was a door, which already makes it lose points, and it just wasn’t the best. It was good, but not amazing.
After dinner we took an Uber back to the hotel and went to sleep as it was already after 11. We took 6 Ubers today. Great day.
New England/Canada Cruise. Day 8. Don’t Want to go to Hallie’s House.
Hallie woke up this morning from the squeak of the bathroom door. The first thing she said to Tzvi was, “Mommy make a pee pee.” The second thing she said was, “Don’t want to go to Hallie’s house.”
Today we woke up already docked in rainy New Jersey. Pop Pop had been up early so he actually saw us go under the Verrazano and dock. We were not up that early.
When we got our luggage tags we learned that our set departure time was 7:45am. That was funny. I'm sure there are people who listen to their selected time and think they actually need to be off the ship by that time, otherwise... something will happy. We are no longer those people. I think my mom knocked on our door around 7:45 to wake us up. The dining room officially closed for breakfast at 8:30, so we got ready pretty quickly.
We made it to the dining room and were seated in our usual area. We had a nice leisurely breakfast. Muhammed brought Hallie blueberries for a last hurrah. Tzvi ran to get the last coffee from the specialty coffee card that we bought at the beginning of trip, and it was probably the best latte of the trip. We really took our time with breakfast. I think we sat there until after 9 and I think we were the second to last people to leave. By the time we were ready to leave they announced that the gangways were so crowded that no one was allowed to get off the ship until further notice. So really it didn't matter that we were late.
Eventually we got off the ship and headed to the luggage area. Tzvi quickly found a porter who got all of our luggage and then took us to the front of the customs line. Obviously he required a tip, but was totally worth it (although I wasn't the one paying it, so that's easy to say). At customs I realized we had fruit with us, so we asked the customs agent if we could throw away the apple and pear. The agent took Tzvi into the back room where they checked the fruit and then told Tzvi he could keep the apple because he was officially declaring that he was importing an apple from Canada, but he couldn't keep the pear because you can't bring pears in from Canada. It's all a little funny because all of the fruit on the ship gets picked up once a week when they dock in New Jersey.
I also had blueberries, but I didn't declare those because God forbid they took those away. We had a long car ride home and Hallie needed her blueberries. We made it.
My parents and Austin got in the car with Dominic and we went with Joe. Sad to leave the ship, but a fine ride home.
Great vacation.
New England/Canada Cruise. Day 7. You Have Your Hands Full.
We woke up today for our final day, to be spent relaxing at sea. On our way out of the room we got the first good piece of advice of the trip. This whole trip people have been telling us how cute Hallie is and how we need another one to go with her. I don't remember if I mentioned earlier that our stateroom attendant told us we need a boy to go with her. Well, this morning one of the stewards on our floor who we see and say hello to every day told us, “you have your hands full with her. She’s enough for you right now.” Totally unprompted. Totally correct.
We skipped breakfast for ourselves but got a quick yogurt for Hallie, as we headed to the dining room at 10:30 for our tour of the kitchen. The tour would be me, Tzvi, Hallie, my parents, and the other 100 or so people who were gathered. There were so many people signed up for the tour that they took us into the kitchens on decks 4 and 5 in smaller groups. We first walked through the kitchen on deck 5, which is primarily used for room service and the buffet. Basically it’s a kitchen, but everything is on a much larger scale. After that they tried to seat us for lunch, which seemed unfair given that some people got to see deck 4 instead, which is where the bakery is. No problem, we just asked the food and beverage director, who said our guide would take us through the deck 4 kitchen as well. The kitchen was mostly the same, though it had a much nicer smell of freshly baked bread.
I'll take alllll of the bread
After the tours we had brunch in the dining room. The whole event was billed as a bottomless brunch and galley tour. I think they made a mistake in listing the event though, because it was really a bottomless bubbles and galley tour (i.e., endless champagne). The food was not bottomless – it was a three-course waiter service meal. Seeing as we didn’t drink the champagne, it wasn’t anything too special. When we sat down at the table there were some breads we hadn’t seen before, as well as a basket of chips, salsa and guac, and also some olive and other spreads. There was also a plate of sushi, but between the meat sushi and shellfish we just had them take that away. Otherwise the food was pretty much the same as what you got at other meals. The Caesar salad was exactly the same. The waffle said it came with a berry compote, but it instead came with a skewer of watermelon. Tzvi had mushroom soup and then a veggie pot pie that kind of just seemed like it was a bowl of mushroom soup with a piece of puff pastry across the top. Dessert was also nothing special, and none of this would be particularly problematic if the meal hadn’t taken two full hours. I honestly don’t know what we were doing there for two hours. It felt like it would never end. I think I fell into the sunken place during the meal. Maybe that’s what they mean by bottomless.
cheers!
I'll take allll of the cheese
veggie "pot pie"
During brunch, Tzvi got up and went to look at the photos we had taken the night before. If you’ve cruised in the last ten years or so, you’ll know that the way cruise photos used to work is that they would have a room where everyone’s printed photos are hung up on the walls and you have to walk around looking for your photos. Part of the fun was seeing everyone else’s weird photos. Of course that’s all been replaced with computers – you just swipe your room key and all of your photos come up. When they used to print the photos there were strict rules about not taking pictures of your pictures. Now that they’re on a computer screen, they’ve added a watermark on the screen so you cant get a photo of your pictures, and if you do try to take a photo, you get the Royal Caribbean watermark all over it.
Well, standing and looking at the photos, Tzvi saw one that he wanted to show me back in the dining room, so he took a picture of the computer screen with his phone. One of the photo workers was immediately on him telling him to delete the picture. Tzvi argued back, saying that it made no sense to bother him about taking the photo, since that’s why they have watermarks on them! The man told him, ‘no, it’s like you went into the grocery store and took the cereal off the shelf without paying for it,’ which was an oddly specific comparison. Tzvi kept arguing that it really made no sense – if you’re not supposed to take photos, then what’s the point of the watermark. Eventually the man was distracted by his supervisor and Tzvi just walked away. Anyway, it was pretty pointless of the man to argue with Tzvi, because we ended up buying all of our photos (one price for a flash drive of everything).
Here are a few photos from earlier in the week that came in the package of photos we bought.
After lunch we decided to walk Hallie around the ship to see if we could get her to sleep so we could go in the hot tub. It had been pretty foggy all morning, though when we got to the pool deck it was suddenly sunny and clear. Hallie wasn’t falling asleep so we got her out of the stroller and into a bathing suit. She splashed around in the kiddie pool for a while and had a great time. It was kind of cold and windy to be in the pool and the wind kept blowing cold water on us. It wasn’t fun.
After swimming Hallie was finally tired so we walked her for a few minutes and then left her with my mother once she was sleeping. I should add that my mom was spending the entire afternoon looking at wedding photos and dealing with getting her own photos stored properly on her computer and backup drive. Nothing like spending your vacation looking at old photos. Making memories one old photo at a time. We then purchased a cocktail in a hollowed out pineapple from the bar (we named him Fred, as we always do on these trips) and then made our way to the hot tub. Poor pop pop was waiting for my mom, but she never showed up. At least she watched Hallie.
After swimming we went back to the room and packed as much as we could since our bags had to be out in the hall by 11 pm. We then changed and got ready for dinner and headed to the dining room for our last dinner. As usual, Muhamed brought our kosher food as well as a big bowl of blueberries for Hallie. Then mama started asking him about whether there are elderly people who live on the ship. She started saying something about people who come on with their aids (helpers) and then asked, “Do you have people with aids on this ship?” He said no, though I’m not entirely sure he understood the question. Actually, I’m pretty sure he didn’t, because he chose that time to say, “Let me go check on your food.”
Dinner took a while and Hallie just wanted to run around, so we spent a large portion of the meal dancing one deck up at one of the bars with live music. She was a star. Everyone enjoyed watching her. There was this one old Asian lady who we saw there every night and she was really encouraging Hallie. I wonder if some family just left her there every night and said "okay grandma, we'll pick you up in 5 hours." While we were dancing, apparently the waiters did their usual 'final night celebration' which included walking around waving napkins etc. Then, a new addition, they all went to the middle of the dining room and sang "leaving on a jet plane." It was very nice, but in retrospect it seems weird. How many of them ARE leaving on a jetplane? Not many. I guess they are talking about the people, but still odd. Anyway, it was still really nice. Michael, our waiter, didn't participate much. He seems to be all business.
We said our goodbyes and after dinner we took Hallie to the piano bar to hear the piano man. She had heard him earlier in the week and has been asking for him since. Everyday, “where’s the piano man?” Well, she finally got to see him, and of course right then decided to get shy and bury her head in my shoulder. She said she was enjoying it though, so we stayed for a few minutes. While sitting there an old man came in with a woman who appeared to be his daughter. They were speaking quite loudly and she said he should stay there and she’d be back for him later. The piano man heard this and said, “oh don’t worry, he’ll be here.” The man took this as an opportunity to pick up one of the microphones which was laying on the piano. “Oh are we going to sing? What are we going to sing?” The old man chose God Bless America. So, we all stood and sang God Bless America, followed by America the Beautiful. He really belted it out, and he was not good. It was quite funny.
Hallie started to get cranky, so we went back to the room and put her to bed. Tzvi sat in the room watching TV while I went with my parents and Austin to see "late night adult comedy." This comedy was infinitely better than the other one. He had some good jokes about how people are now relieved to be seated next to a black person on a plane (as opposed to certain alternatives) and obviously how fat people are on cruises. Standard, but funny.
After comedy, we went back to the room and then Tzvi and I went back out to enjoy our last night on the ship. We started by hitting the casino as Tzvi discovered a piece of paper in our room alerting him to his own free $5 of casino play. However, once we sat down at a slot machine we found there was no $5 on his card, which was the moment I remembered that the paper said it had to be used before 10 pm. Whoops.
After the casino we sat for a little while in the piano bar listening to the piano man. We ordered a khalua and cream which was delicious as khalua and cream always is. We were sitting pretty close to the piano man and at one point he asked (jokingly, I think) if we were brother and sister. We shook our head no. Honeymoon? No again. Business trip? We nodded yes. After a while at the piano bar we went upstairs to the promenade and sat listening to the guitar man at the pub, who was once again finishing up his set.
Around 1230 we went back to the room and went to sleep. Since we weren't changing the clocks back until 2, our 12:30 bedtime was really 11:30. I kind of like this mini-daylight savings.
Fun day. I'm not sure what I dread more about tomorrow morning – vacation ending, or being in New Jersey.
New England/Canada Cruise. Day 6. Halliefax.
We woke up this morning already late for the day. We were supposed to be at the theater by 8:45 for our 9:30 tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, even though no one was even allowed off the ship until 9:30. Tzvi went to the dining room to gather provisions for the morning, including Hallie’s breakfast. While there, he stopped for a quick bagel, cream cheese and lox and a cup of coffee. I stayed behind with Hallie. Nice that he was well fed though.
We got off the ship and made our way to a group of four tour busses waiting for us. We got on bus number 3 and settled in for the long journey, an hour from the port to Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing community that apparently everyone visits because something special blah blah blah. Okay, let me just get this out of the way right now. If you ever find yourself on a cruise that stops in Halifax (because honestly, no one is just coming here as a vacation destination), and you only have one day here, you don’t need to go to Peggy’s Cove. I know that everyone says its beautiful and a landmark and you have to go, but take it from me, you don’t.
Basically, we got on the bus, drove an hour with a restless Hallie so that we could spend an hour walking around a cove where the three most exciting sights are (in order of excitement), a lighthouse, a bunch of rocks, and a parking lot. Then we got back on the bus and drove another hour back to the port with an even more restless Hallie.
Oh, and did I mention today was deathly hot?
I welcome thee
Oh, did I mention the rocks?
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I’ll mention a couple of other things. The way to Peggy’s cove was a bit windy and by the end of the ride Hallie said she didn’t feel good. I think she actually got nauseous and we had to quickly find an empty bag in case she needed to throw up, which thankfully she didn’t. I should also mention that there was a guide who wore a kilt and said some interesting stuff, but I remember none of it now. At Peggy’s Cove Hallie gave a dollar to a bagpipe player. We got an iced coffee at the one restaurant. We also made a stop at the Citadel, an 18th century fort built (I think) to defend against attack from the USA. We didn’t actually go in, we just saw the outside, and the flags flying over the entrance. In honor of July 4th they had an American flag flying higher than the Canadian flag; you would never see the inverse in the USA no matter what holiday it was.
Around 1:30 the bus dropped us off at the port and we started making our way back toward downtown. Tzvi was very anxious about getting a Starbucks mug. After failing to get a Maine mug, he had called three Starbucks in Halifax until he found one that had the Canada mug. So we walked, about a mile, mostly uphill, until we found Starbucks and he got his mug. Thank God. We made a stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, a store where almost everything was kosher, and then made a stop at Roots where we bought a ton of clothes because the only Roots in America are in Beverly Hills and Colorado (though they said they’re opening 20 stores in America next year, so hopefully we’ll get one in NYC).
After buying out the store at Roots we were all really hungry. We walked a bit more but couldn’t find anything, until we found a street with a bunch of restaurants. After figuring out what was wrong with the first three restaurants, we settled on the fourth, a place called Two Doors Down, though I don’t know what it was two doors down from. All the other restaurants? They only had one high chair and it was in use, so Hallie sat in a big girl chair. I had a dish that had rice, broccoli and a really spicy sauce but was pretty good. Tzvi had a really weird fish dish that had potato chip crusted fix over risotto that had smoked haddock mixed into it. He said it was weird. Hallie basically just ate carrots, which weren’t even cooked that much – they were pretty hard – but she loved them and ate a ton of them. So lunch was fine, but it took forever. After lunch we walked back to the ship, about a half-mile and mostly downhill for a change.
Once back on the ship we decided to take advantage of the hot weather and went to the pool. Hallie splashed around for a while and then it was time to get ready for dinner, our second fancy night in the dining room. Dinner was same as usual. We got our usual table and wait staff and everything was good. Mama was showing Muhamed the pictures from Avery’s wedding that we just got today. Muhamed asked how long the wedding takes, which we thought was an odd question until he told us that Muslim weddings usually last for three days.
The view from our room. So I guess we didn't need to drive an hour just to see a lighthouse.
with Muhamed
I think they were trying to race us
enjoying her "coffee" (milk)
After dinner we walked around the ship and went to the July 4th celebration on the promenade deck. It was so late, but we were walking around the promenade and Pop Pop went to buy a watch. He was having trouble closing the one he picked out and I think the salesman was getting irked, but whatever, he bought the watch. As they were finishing up in the store, the July 4th celebration began. It consisted of the cruise director coming out and wishing us a Happy July 4th, someone singing the national anthem, and then balloons dropping. It was very nice and ended around 1030. We finally took Hallie upstairs and put her to sleep.
After that, Tzvi and I went out for a night on the town. By that, I mean we walked around the ship looking for something to do. First we went to the casino to use my free five dollars of slot machine play. We ended up making 6 dollars. When we cashed out they gave us 11 dollars cash, which makes sense, but when Austin did it he only got the cash value of the money OVER the 5 dollar credit. Good for us. Then we walked around some more. We stopped by the pub to hear the singer and drunk people singing along. We stopped by the 80s party but it was kind of lame and then we went to find what was supposed to be the “white party” (whatever that means). I think they cancelled it because it was too windy, and not because it sounded overtly racist. Finally it was 12:30 and we decided to call it a night. Good night.
it was windy on deck 4