Winter Break 2023. Day 1. Southern Migration.
Today, like many Jews from the Tri-State area, we are flying south for winter… break.
We woke up around 7:00. We scheduled our Ubers for 8:00am and we were actually out the door by 8:07. I would say that is pretty successful. We met my parents at the Mosaic check in, which was pretty crowded, but checked in easily with all 9 suitcases (for 7 people). They didn’t weigh any of them either and my dad thinks that’s because he gave the porter a $20 before they started check-in and when the woman said it was time to weigh the bags the porter said “these are fine.”
By the time we got to the gate they were already up to boarding Group D, which made no sense because they said boarding started at 9:20 and it wasn’t even 9:17. Tzvi wasn’t happy as he wanted to be the first on the plane with the Mosaic passengers, and he actually had to wait in a line for 2 minutes. All was well though because we got to our seats (Row 2) and there was more than enough overhead compartment space for Tzvi’s small backpack.
Shockingly, the flight wasn’t too bad. We pushed back on time and even took off quickly. The flight was a little over 2.5 hours. The girls survived on iPads and lots of snacks, and I even managed to get through Oceans 8, which is about 1.5 hours. And to top it all off, not one bag of luggage was lost.
We filed into two Ubers and made our way to the Lowes Miami Beach Hotel. As we pulled up we saw the bright red and black sign that make our hearts warm and our tummies hungry: Aroma (which is right outside our hotel).
Check-in took a while - we had three rooms under our name, but only two connected. Tzvi’s mom arrived yesterday and was given one of the connecting rooms, which meant she had to switch rooms today. That was annoying. Then it took hours for housekeeping to come and actually change the sheets. Could have been worse though.
My parent‘s room wasn’t ready yet, so we all headed to Aroma for a very late lunch/snack and iced Aromas. Solid, except they wouldn’t make me a tuna sandwich, even though it was on their menu and they actually had tuna. Tzvi asked if he could just get bread and a side of tuna but they said they couldn’t do that. They said they had a tuna croissant sandwich, but we didn’t want that, so Tzvi tried to order the tuna croissant with no croissant and a side of toast. The woman was like, “that’s the same thing.” These weren’t Israelis, but it sure felt like home. We ended up ordering a tuna salad, which had tuna, hard-boiled egg, roasted eggplant, and a bunch of other things. We asked for the eggplant on the side, but somehow ended up with the eggs and tomatoes on the side (eggs, and tomatoes are plants?). Oh well. At least it came with bread and I was able to make my own tuna sandwich. All’s well that ends well.
We showered and changed for dinner, and then headed to the lobby to pick up our car from the valet. We had rented a Tesla Model Y from Turo (the same app we used in LA last August – it’s like Airbnb for cars) for about 36 hours, just enough to drive around Thursday and Friday. After getting the car, we began our very long drive to Fuego. I knew it would be long, but this time it took about an hour and 15 minutes. My parents were running late, shockingly, because they didn’t get their room until 4:40. They didn’t shower or change, so I’m not sure why they didn’t leave their room until 5:25. We had a 6:00 pm reservation, but hey, those are just suggestions right?
Dinner was delicious. Tzvi and I got cocktails, and then we all shared pastrami egg rolls, dirty nachos (nachos with pulled brisket, chili, salsa and guac) and a lamb flatbread. For the main we got the Argentinian styler Parrillada platter for 2, but it really fed the whole table. It had flanken rib, grilled steak, chicken and beef skewers, a huge lamb chop and sausage and came with guac and salsa and some sides. We also got sticky ribs, and a burger with beef bacon, which we cut up into a bunch of pieces and was actually really tasty.
As we ate, we saw parade after parade of sparkling birthday platters going by while loud music blasted and waiters clapped and danced around. Loyal readers will recall that when we visited last year we told them it was Hallie’s birthday, and then as the waiters said happy birthday to her she said, “It’s not my birthday.” This year we prepped her and made sure that didn’t happen again. She was pretty excited when they brought the dessert.
At the end of dinner they came around and took a photo of us. We waited ten minutes and then of course we bought the photo.
After dinner we walked next door to the Winn Dixie to do some shopping. It isn’t a Florida vacation unless you’ve gone to a supermarket. We picked up some water (because the hotel charges $6 a bottle), cheerios, snacks and a few other things. The drive home only took about 35 minutes, and we got to hear Hallie sing her siddur play again, which was fun for everyone.
Bedtime took a while, and these kids are exhausted. I also think Hallie has a cold and I just heard a cough, because why should everything go smoothly.
Good day.
Disney World. No Kids. Day 3. Happy Birthday to Me.
Shabbat morning we got out of bed around 9 and went to our 9:30 character breakfast!
To be clear, we didn’t say, ‘hey, we need to do a character breakfast,’ but we wanted to do a buffet breakfast on Saturday, and on Saturdays the buffet is a character breakfast. We’ve done this breakfast before and it is always great. Mickey, Minnie and Goofy walk around. It was cute, but also awkward when we gave them hugs and then sent them on their way without taking any photos. At one point though we were reading the Wall Street Journal and there was an article about the Iger-Chapek feud and there was a picture of Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, so when they came by we told them they made the paper. It was cute. The food was good, but the star was the fresh whipped cream. It had vanilla bean and was just delicious.
After breakfast we got ready to go to the spa for our couples massage. This time I put down that I wanted firm pressure. I feel like I always write moderate and it’s never firm enough, so I went with firm, and boy was she firm. It was a fantastic massage. We then spent a few hours relaxing in the spa and reading on the zero gravity chairs. It was nice. I think around 3 we decided to move and sit by the pool and get some food. Tzvi and I both got the same things we had when we were here last year - I had a salad with tofu, and Tzvi had a chirashi bowl. We also shared a tasty rum cocktail.
It was probably low 70s and cloudy. There was no sun at all, but it was warm enough to sit in a bathing suit, though way too cool to swim in the pool. Luckily there was a hot tub. There were a few other couples there. One couple was a man and woman probably in late 20s or early 30s. He looked like a linebacker and it’s possible that he was; we overheard him talking coach and captain and other sports words. Also, he ordered the fish tacos AND the chicken wings AND a hamburger. There were also two couples from Boston who were super drunk and very chatty. One woman, who for some reason was wearing a big floppy hat even though there was no sun, told us she had a learning disability. I can’t for the life of me remember why she shared that. Eventually we went inside and got ready for dinner.
Shabbat ended at 6:13 and we were off to Disney Springs! We headed straight for our dinner at Enzo’s Hideaway, which we’d booked for 7:00. Unfortunately when we got there we were told that they were having issues in the kitchen and had been closed all day, and they weren’t sure if they’d be opening for dinner. This was pretty bad because Disney Springs was packed. Like the most crowded I’ve ever seen it, meaning there was no way we’d be able to get a table anywhere else. They said they’d make a decision by 8:00 and would call us if they were able to open.
We walked around a bit and looked at different restaurants, but it seemed there were a lot of people with the same issue as us. We put our name on the list at Paddlefish, where they said it would be 90 minutes. We kept walking and hit a bunch of stores. While I was shopping at Everything But Water we got two text messages – one saying our table was ready at Enzos and one saying it was ready at Paddlefish! Somehow we went from having no table to two tables. I bought a couple of bathing suits, and then we headed to dinner. In retrospect it was good that dinner was delayed because I wouldn’t have been in the mood to try on bathing suits after eating a massive bowl of pasta.
Dinner was pretty good. The restaurant is underground and is supposed to be like a speakeasy/hideaway, which is actually a pretty smart way to make an unused windowless space seem cool.
We both had cocktails – I had a limoncello gimlet and Tzvi had a gin and tonic. We started with a Caesar salad, which I actually liked event though it was pretty creamy. The menu said it had focaccia croutons, but there were no visible croutons. Tzvi said something and the waitress said, ‘they’re in there.’ Tzvi started pushing around lettuce like he was looking for truffles in the forest until the waitress offered to bring him more. Then she brought a tiny bowl of breadcrumbs, which to be fair were delicious, but odd. For the main I had spaghetti with tomato sauce and Tzvi had eggplant parmesan with a side of spaghetti. A real heart healthy meal.
Oh, did I mention today is my birthday?
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me.
Anyway, we decided to skip dessert because were planning to get ice cream at Ghiradelli, so we paid and left and headed over to the Disney side to do shopping, because we hadn’t bought enough Disney stuff yet.
One of the most exciting moments of the evening took place at Goofy's Candy Co. The make your own caramel apple is back! For those that need a refresher on the apple saga, back in October 2019 I made a caramel apple, but unfortunately left it in the hotel fridge at the Four Seasons. They would not ship it back to me, as it was perishable. When we came in October 2021, they were no longer doing the make your own apple "because of COVID." So now, finally, in December 2022 the apple is back! Unfortunately, not all of the same toppings are there, but the magic hasn't left. I got a caramel apple (no marshmallows) dipped in milk chocolate, 50th anniversary sprinkles, and Oreo crumbles.
After shopping we walked to Ghirardelli and ordered the customary ice cream sundae – warm gooey brownies, cookie dough and cookies and cream ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and caramel sauce. Delicious as always.
Finally we finished and called an Uber to take us back to the hotel. We rarely have issues with Ubers, so it’s strange that we had two issues tonight!
The first Uber came, we got in, and then as soon as we were in the car the ride cancelled. The driver said, “it says you cancelled the ride.” Tzvi said, “No, I didn’t. You cancelled it.” The driver insisted he didn’t and then showed Tzvi something on his phone and said he could take us for cash. Tzvi said no and tried to call another Uber, but he claimed he wasn’t seeing the job come up on his phone. Pretty sure this was just a scam to try to get us to pay him cash.
We got out and called another one. The second Uber came. His name was Clarence. To start, he made us wait a minute before he started driving because he needed to “flag that last passenger on the app for not tipping.” He had two screens in his car showing live football and basketball games. He also had signs all over the car that talked about tipping. The text kept changing on his screen, and at one point there were several paragraphs about how passengers wanting to increase their Uber passenger rating should make sure to tip. Then he told us that Tzvi’s Uber rating is low (4.69 is low? someone (probably Javad) comment below and tell us if that’s low) and that one way to increase your rating is to tip. The guy was really strange and we didn’t want any trouble so we just nodded and didn’t say anything, but the whole thing was totally inappropriate and made us uncomfortable. And we always tip Uber.
Finally we made it back to the hotel, did a little packing, and went to sleep.
Great day.
Epilogue: We woke up Sunday morning with a few hours to spare before needing to leave for the airport.
Goodbye room
After packing up, we went back down to Ravello and enjoyed another breakfast buffet. This time there were no characters, but at least they had the delicious vanilla whipped cream.
After that we called an Uber and headed to the airport. And for those who are wondering, we left WITH the caramel apple.
When we got home, we had to wait a while at JFK for our luggage to come out, but at least it all came out.
Thanks Disney. See you next time.
Disney World. No Kids. Day 2. Roll Me Out of Here.
After getting a solid 5.5 hours of sleep, we got up for the day. At least there were no kids waking us up in the middle of the night to tuck them in.
We got up around 6:30 AM and managed to get out by about 7:15. We Ubered to the Contemporary Hotel and then walked over to the Magic Kingdom (it was faster than taking the monorail). They don’t actually like people doing that, but they don’t stop you. We were inside the park by 7:35 AM. Pretty good.
It was relatively empty since only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open, and only for guests of Disney hotels; the park opened to the public at 8:00AM.
We immediately ran to Peter Pan, which is always one of the worst lines. It said it was a 25 minute wait, but I had read a blog last night that said at park opening, even if it says 25 it’s not going to be 25. We were in and out in under 10 minutes. I think that was the first time I’ve done Peter Pan in a decade.
We were hungry since we’d skipped breakfast so we went to Starbucks and grabbed coffees and a bagel, and then stopped at the Cheshire Café and got a Cheshire Cat Tail, which was basically a way-too-sweet long donut with pink and purple glaze. Nourishing breakfast.
From there we ran into Tomorrowland. Tzvi wasn’t ready for anything too fast so he sat drinking his coffee while I rode Space Mountain alone. Then we did Buzz Lightyear (Tzvi won), Astro Orbiter and the People Mover. The voiceover is new on the People Mover and included a narration about the new Tron ride that’s opening soon.
At this point we had already heard from my mom that Hallie had been up all night and had a headache and a red throat. I guess we can’t expect everything to go according to plan.
We then headed to the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, which was cute, hit the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise (which has been slightly rethemed as Jingle Cruise for the holidays), Pirates of the Caribbean, and then made our way to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. All before noon. I’d say it was pretty crowded in the park, but we really didn’t need to wait on any lines. Every time we used a Lightning Lane we became eligible for another one, and there was always a Lightning Lane available for that time, so we just kept booking Lightning Lane after Lightning Lane and didn’t need to wait on any regular lines.
It was bittersweet riding Splash Mountain, as this was the last time we would be riding before they close it in January and retheme it to Princess and the Frog. I think it will actually come out great, but we will definitely miss Splash Mountain. Luckily I didn’t get too wet, but Tzvi got a little wet.
We saw the parade and then it was time for lunch. By now my mother had taken Hallie to the doctor and confirmed that she was positive for Strep. Could be worse – at least she’ll start antibiotics and be better by tomorrow.
For lunch we went to the Columbia Harbor House, which used to have this great tuna sandwich, but alas, no more tuna. So Tzvi got a fake crab cake sandwich and I ordered the salmon. It comes with string beans and rice, but the rice was inedible and I had to go back and ask for another scoop, which was only moderately better.
After lunch we did Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Goofys Barnstormer, and finally Small World. We really got everything we wanted to done. Our efficiency was just on point. We didn’t end up doing Carousel of Progress, but I’m okay with that.
We headed to main street for our shopping, but not before stopping to join in some hoola hooping (so random). Tzvi waited online at Starbucks for 20 minutes to buy his Starbucks mug, only to find that they sell it in the other stores on Main Street. I got a bag of popcorn that you specialize by adding different candies and chocolate. I put M and Ms and Twix and white chocolate. Delicious.
We had some time before Shabbat so we left the park (begrudgingly) and took the monorail over to the Floridian again. I wanted to actually buy a gingerbread cookie from the gingerbread house. After that, we went back to our hotel.
With some time to spare before Shabbat, we headed to the spa to sign everything we needed for our massages tomorrow. We also looked around the boutiques on the first floor, but the only thing we ended up buying was Children’s’ Tylenol because everywhere in New York is sold out of it. Then we got ready for Shabbat, which started at 5:13. I’d say a Disney Day well done.
Dinner tonight was a Capa, the Michelin starred Spanish restaurant on the roof of the Four Seasons. We have never eaten there, mainly because there isn’t much for the kids. Also, I can only imagine my father trying to understand that menu. Going in I didn’t think there was much for me either, but I didn’t go hungry.
The only way to describe the meal is ‘flawless.’ Our waiter was Kevin. He seemed pretty young, but he has apparently been working at the restaurant since it opened 8 years ago. He was super knowledgeable about everything and really did a perfect job. When he was describing different dishes he kept saying “chef does…,” or “chef believes…” and I just couldn’t stop thinking about the movie The Menu, which we had seen a week ago. I told him he needs to see it and may never look at fine dining the same way again.
We started the meal with cocktails. Tzvi had an old fashion variation that had a huge ice cube with walnut bitters and other alcohols in it, so as the ice cube melted the drink actually transformed into a different drink. It was cool. I had a gin and tonic that came in a huge glass with lots of fruit floating in it.
The restaurant is mostly small plates (except for the meat entrees that we couldn’t eat). We started with pan con tomate (grilled bread with tomato) and patatas bravas (crispy fried potato chunks with tomato sauce and chipotle aioli). Next we had fried cauliflower that was good but had too much of a curry taste. Tzvi had seared tuna with mango and avocado and truffles. For the main we had arroz sofrito, which had rice and veggies; it was kind of like a vegan paella, served in a hot dish so the rice got crispy. It was delicious. Tzvi also got a side of “maiz,” which was a creamy polenta dish with roasted corn; it looked gross but he finished the entire thing.
There were three desserts that looked good and we couldn’t choose which to get, so of course we got all three. They plated it really nicely on a big board that said Happy Birthday. We had churros with caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, chocolate mousse with coffee ice cream and olive oil cake with berries. All were so good. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t take photos of the best meal of the trip.
One of the special things about the restaurant is that you can see the fireworks at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom from the patio. At 9:30 we went outside and watched the EPCOT fireworks. Tzvi got another cocktail, this time with rum that was a little more desserty. Then we went inside and ate most of our dessert, then went back out at 10 to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. You can’t hear the music in the parks but it’s nice to see. Just as we went outside we saw a proposal happen as well, so that was cute. After the fireworks we went back inside and finished dessert.
Roll me out of here.
Good day.
Disney World. No Kids. Day 1. L'chaim, l'chaim, to luggage!
“Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”
This is how I felt waking up Thursday morning.
As with any story, we start at the very beginning. Back in September, Tzvi surprised me by telling me we were going away for a weekend for my birthday. Then in October, when we all had COVID, Tzvi told me that we were going to Disney World, alone! We spent two months very excited about this trip, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
Wednesday night we all slept at my parents’ so we would be ready for our early departure Thursday morning. Tzvi’s mom had flown in Wednesday, my parents were on duty, and Inbar was going to be around. Four adults for two kids seemed like more than enough to keep them alive until Sunday. So, we got up Thursday morning around 6. Hallie was up early as well. By 7:00am, I had my first lightning lane booked! Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
We woke Madeleine up to say goodbye and we headed out around 7:30 am. Our kids knew we were going to Florida, but we never explicitly said we were going to Disney. We didn’t NOT tell them. Hallie asked if I was going on Splash Mountain. I asked if I should go on it and she said yes, but I still don’t think she understood that meant Disney World.
Anyway, we Ubered to the airport and went to the Mosaic check in area. There was this family checking in ahead of us, parents and two boys probably 6 and 10. It’s always interesting to see people who act like they’ve never flown before in their lives. ‘Oh, you need my precheck number? Let me spend five minutes looking that up while the line builds behind me.’ Anyway, once it was our turn we checked in in two seconds and made our way to the gate. Once again I mobile ordered Starbucks and bypassed the entire line. I will never understand how people don’t do that. At 9am I was able to book our Guardians of the Galaxy Lightning Lane, and then at 11am I booked Frozen. While the flight was good, it was VERY bumpy. In the middle of the flight I saw that Disney World had put out a Tornado watch. That was promising.
It was quite a bumpy landing, but we made it. We stepped off the plane into the beautiful new JetBlue Terminal at the Orlando airport. The walk to baggage claim took forever, and you don’t take a tram to get there. I kind of miss the tram, but the terminal is really gorgeous. At some point Tzvi got an email that his bag didn’t make it on the plane. He immediately went to the baggage people while I waited for my bag. Thankfully mine came out right way. At the JetBlue baggage office they basically told him that his bag didn’t make the flight (no explanation as to how this happens, especially when you check in at a Mosaic desk) and that it would be on the next flight which was due to arrive at 430 but was currently delayed for weather, and that it was likely that it would be delivered by the end of the day. So with that we called an uber, went to the wrong spot for pickup, figured out where to go, and made our way to the hotel. This was actually not the worst time to lose a bag given our schedule. Tzvi didn’t need most of the stuff in his bag until tomorrow, so not having the bag basically meant he couldn’t put in his contacts and needed to wear his airplane sweatpants to the park.
I booked another Lightning Lane at 1, but I don’t even remember what. We made our way to the hotel in pouring rain.
Our hotel for this trip is the Four Seasons Orlando! Hooray! We arrived at the hotel around 130 and checked in. The hotel is gorgeous and all decked out for Christmas. There is a big Christmas tree when you walk in and then there is this whole display of chocolate Christmas trees. They smelled delightful.
We grabbed a tuna sandwich from the lobby café, and then made our way to our room, which thankfully was ready early. I changed, but unfortunately Tzvi could not. Oh well.
We Ubered to Epcot. It was still raining, but not as hard. We entered the park and were on our way!
The first ride we did was Guardians of the Galaxy, the newest ride at Epcot. It was phenomenal. I can’t even explain it. It’s like you feel weightless while being tossed around on a coaster. I would say it’s like Space Mountain but way better, but that wouldn’t even come close to doing it justice. Let’s just say it was the perfect way to start the day. Tzvi mostly complained that he had to hold his glasses the whole time and was afraid he was going to drop them so he didn’t get to fully enjoy the ride, so thanks JetBlue for that. After that we did Test Track, Soarin’, and Ratatouille.
EPCOT currently has the Festival of the Holidays, which sort of tries to highlight how the holidays are celebrated around the world, but it's really just a way to extend the International Food Festival with a different name and theme. Basically it’s a whole bunch of booths around the World Showcase with different holiday foods from different countries. This year there was a Jewish one called L’Chaim! We got the black and white cookie, latkes, jelly donuts, and a Manischewitz cocktail. The latkes were delicious, the donuts tasted like Entenmann’s pop'ems, the black and white cookie was very interesting and pretty tasty, and the Manischewitz cocktail was surprising delicious (it was a New York sour with frozen lemonade in it). [Tzvi: just to be clear, it was delicious by theme park standards, not by objective cocktail criteria.]. After eating our latkes we watched the Hanukah show where a guy named Zachary came out and told the Hanukah story. It was cute, and nice of Disney to be inclusive.
From there we made our way through each of the countries. We got a Linzer Tart in Germany and a Chocolate crinkle cookie at American Adventure. There was a cookie stroll where if you got five cookies you got a prize, but after 3 we were starting to feel ill, and we were pretty sure that the prize for eating five cookies was a sixth cookie, which we just couldn’t do.
We did Frozen at Norway, the boat ride at Mexico, and then made our way back to Future World to ride the Land and Figment. At this point it was dark out and the Land was all lit up. Tzvi thinks he doesn’t like the Land, but it really is the best. [Tzvi: It’s a fifteen minute boatride through a greenhouse…] One day I’m going to do the “Behind the Seeds” tour there. Then we ran back and walked around England before heading to our dinner at Canada.
Before I go on with dinner, I should mention that around 5:30 Tzvi checked the “Find My” app on his phone and saw that the Apple Air Tag in his luggage was at Orlando Airport. This was good news, as it meant that his bag had actually made it on the next plane and had arrived in Orlando. However, by 8:00 he was getting worried that he hadn’t gotten any update from JetBlue and the Air Tag was showing that the bag hadn’t moved from its spot at the airport, so he decided to call. After waiting a half hour on hold, he reached Central Baggage, only to be told that they had no way to call the airport baggage office, but that they would send an email to the baggage office requesting they call Tzvi. He never received that call and spent the entire dinner obsessively refreshing his phone to see that the bag still hadn’t moved from its spot at the Airport. More on this after dinner.
Tonight we were eating at Le Cellier, the restaurant in Canada. We’ve never been there and have always heard it’s one of the best EPCOT restaurants (which is why a reservation is always hard to get). It was a great meal. The servers were so nice (what else would you expect from Canadians?) and the food was delicious. They started off with a bread basket and we ordered cocktails. For appetizers we got impossible meatballs and Tzvi had a wedge salad. For the main we both got impossible dumplings in a veggie brother. For dessert we shared crème brulee and a chocolate caramel thing. Everything was delicious.
By the time we finished the fireworks were starting! The show at EPCOT now is Harmonious, which isn’t great, but they are getting rid of it over the next year I think and will be introducing something new.
On our way out of the park we went to Creations to shop. Tzvi bought a t-shirt so that he’d at least have a clean shirt to wear tomorrow.
We found the Chanukah section.
At that point he still hadn’t heard from JetBlue so he called again. This time he got right through the Central Baggage, but they were so unhelpful.
They started by telling him that they didn’t have any way to directly contact the baggage office, but that they had an email from the baggage office saying they didn’t have the bag.
“What do you mean they don’t have the bag? Where is the bag?”
“I’m sorry sir but I can’t answer that. The bag hasn’t been scanned in at Orlando airport.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not at the airport so I can’t tell you what it means.”
“Okay. I have an Air Tag in my bag and it’s showing me that the bag is at Orlando Airport, so it’s definitely there in the airport. So what does it usually mean when a bag is not ‘scanned in?’”
“It could mean a number of things. It’s possible that your bag didn’t make it on the plane at JFK.”
“But I just told you that I have an Air Tag in the bag and it’s definitely in Orlando.”
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not at the airport…”
They went around and around and basically said he’d need to wait until tomorrow for an update but that they had no idea where the bag was. Finally I got the idea to call the Four Seasons and see if they can help. By now it was about 10:30. Tzvi explained the situation to the concierge who said of course they could help. “Give me 10 minutes and I’ll call you back.” Well, less than 10 minutes later, Kathryn at the Four Seasons called right back and said, “I just spoke to Lou at the baggage office. He said he’s looking right at your bag, it’s there in the office.” Okay, can someone please explain to me why the concierge at the Four Seasons could get in touch with the baggage office in less than 10 minutes but JetBlue customer service couldn’t? Anyway, given the time, the baggage office said they were scheduled to have the bag picked up tonight and delivered to our hotel, but that there was no 100% guarantee. In order to ensure Tzvi wouldn’t be rewearing underwear tomorrow, we decided he would go to the airport and pick up the bag.
But before heading to the airport, we decided that our Disney night wasn’t over and took a monorail over to the Grand Floridian to see the famous Gingerbread House. The lobby is really gorgeous, but apparently they will be redoing it soon. They sell actual cookies out of the Gingerbread house during the day, so maybe we’ll come back tomorrow if there’s time.
We then split up, Tzvi to the airport and me to the Four Seasons.
Tzvi retuned around 1240, luggage in hand - $90 in Uber charges and a measly $50 dollar travel credit from JetBlue.
Good Day.
Los Angeles. Day 7. Rollin' like a celebrity.
“Look at all those movie stars,
They’re all so beautiful and clean,
When the housemaids scrub the floors,
They get the spaces in between.
I wanna live a life like that,
I wanna be just like a king,
Take my picture by the pool,
’Cause I’m the next big thing.”
Well, we actually slept okay last night. I think Madeleine got up at some point, but we definitely slept better than previous nights.
We woke up, cuddled a bit, and the headed down to breakfast. We had a nice leisurely breakfast, as we had nothing to do, and then headed up to the roof to grab seats by the pool. It wasn’t too crowded, but there were already a lot of seats taken.
We got a few seats pool side and under an umbrella and then set up for the day. We spent a few hours swimming, reading and relaxing.
At 1230, Tzvi went downstairs and found his parents in the lobby. They’d come to spend the afternoon with us. He brought them up to the roof and we took up a second spot under some umbrellas around a table where we could order lunch. We ordered Hallie a jelly sandwich and fries because there was literally nothing else she would eat. Tzvi and I both got salads, and Madeleine got pasta with tomato sauce. Everything was actually pretty good.
After lunch Mark and Sherry hung out with Hallie in the room while Madeleine napped and Tzvi and I sat by the pool, mostly just watching all of the other people. This place is quite a scene.
First there were the people on our right. It seemed like two families somehow related. They had a cabana (which runs about $1200 for the day plus food and drink). They had a bunch of kids and just seemed like a nice, maybe Persian/Moroccan family enjoying the day. Then at one point in the morning another woman showed up and joined them. I was sitting at the edge of the pool watching Madeleine and Tzvi came over and very subtly sat down next to me and said, ‘don’t stare, but do you see the woman in the trucker hat over there? That’s Emmanuelle Chriqui, from Entourage and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.’ I asked how he knew, and his answer was, ‘well she looks exactly like her and they all just said “Hi Emmanuel!” No idea what the connection was, but she spent the day with that family. She looked amazing. I think she is about 45 but could easily pass for low 30s. I guess the family must have been “somebody” because at the end of the day I overheard one of the moms saying something like, “This place is so great. Why have we never been here before? No one bothered us ALL day!” Tzvi thinks they are probably on one of those real estate reality shows or something. Who knows.
On our other side was another interesting group. It was two couples. The first just seemed like your normal LA couple. Apparently they had been together a year. Then the second couple walked in, a friend of the first woman. Well, she was something else. She was 26 and with her new boyfriend. She wore a bikini that was basically not there. She was Bulgarian, so I guess nudity isn’t a problem in Bulgaria. I think both women had fake boobs, fake lips and fake who knows what else, but the Bulgarian woman was a bit more petite. She was also wearing 4 inch platform heels, poolside. Just watching her walk in her heels, basically naked, but wearing a hat, was hilarious. She had a scar on her leg and her friend asked what happened, and she very nonchalantly said, “oh, I was stabbed… by a homeless man.” Then she started praising Trump. At one point the Bulgarian woman and her boyfriend went to the bathroom, and the other woman told her boyfriend, “that girl has a lot to learn… if I had her body and my brains, I’d rule the world.” I guess someone thinks a lot of themselves. They were also Vaping in our faces and Tzvi couldn’t stand it. He kept waiving his hands around swatting away the clouds of vape, but they were so self-involved they didn’t even notice it, even though he was being very obvious about it.
There were some other families and kids at the pool too. At one point in the morning there was this British girl that started talking to Hallie and swimming with her. She was 5 but couldn’t swim without floaties. Then throughout the day she kept coming over and asking where Hallie was. Finally Hallie came back in the pool late in the day, but after a few minutes she kind of ignored her when she didn’t want to be bothered anymore.
Overall it was just fascinating watching the people around the pool. You had your few “normal” families like us, and the rest were just walking plastic surgery advertisements. It’s just a good reminder that no matter how fake and showy people may be here in New York, it’s nothing compared to LA.
Around 630 we went back down to the room and started packing for our trip home. At one point Robyn took the girls downstairs to “look for rappers” but also just to get the girls out of the room so we could finish cleaning up. That was helpful. The girls ate snack for dinner and some leftover schnitzel. I ate some leftover string beans which was a huge mistake because I then got violently ill. Thankfully it only lasted an hour or so and I was good to go after Shabbat! (By good to go I mean no longer sick but still maintaining that baseline nausea that has plagued this entire trip that we assume is from exhaustion and eating garbage).
Shabbat ended a little after 8. We put the girls to bed, but of course Hallie was upset we were going out. Oh well.
Mark and Sherry picked us up and we drove into Hollywood for dinner at the Musso and Frank Grill, which is the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. It’s been in the same spot for 103 years and has lots of Hollywood history. Back in the 30s, 40s and 50s the restaurant was literally known as the center of Hollywood social life, and even today it’s still a hangout for celebrities, though it’s also become a bit of a tourist attraction. That being said, it was still a great meal and great experience. The waiters all wear red jackets and bowties and the menu feels like it hasn’t changed in 100 years.
I ordered a White Russian which was pretty good. To start we shared fried zucchini and Tzvi had an iceberg wedge with lots of blue cheese and blue cheese dressing. For mains Sherry and I both had salmon, and Tzvi and Mark both had the fettuccini alfredo. According to the menu, silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were frequent guests at Musso’s, and while on their honeymoon in Rome, they had fettucine alfredo, then came home to Hollywood and brought back the recipe; the restaurant claims they use the same recipe to this day. We also got sides of potatoes and broccoli, but they were so huge I think I ate like one piece of potato. For dessert we had Crème Brulé which was okay. I wish I would have been hungrier to order more dessert.
After dinner we drove back to the hotel and said a final goodnight to Sherry and Mark. Then we went up and finished packing up. Tzvi was all nervous about needing to leave early in the morning and wanted to be as ready to go as possible. Yeah, that didn’t add to the stress.
Good day.
Epilogue
We woke up early. Too early. Tzvi went into panic stress mode and finished packing, even though we had finished packing last night. We went down for a last breakfast, and then we were off to the airport in an Uber. We managed to check in quickly at the Mosaic desk, then went through security, but by then it was basically time to board and God forbid we weren’t the first people on the plane. Well, once we got on and got settled I realized that I had forgotten the sandwiches I made for the girls at the hotel. Good thing we rushed onto the plane and didn’t buy any food in the airport.
Things worked out alright though. Madeleine was kind of annoying, but she mostly watched her tablet and wasn’t too bad. Hallie watched almost five straight hours of Bluey.
And then we were home, except Jet Blue baggage handlers in New York are the worst. First all of the Mosaic bags came down, except for 1. That’s right, we got 4/5 of our bags, then the bags just stopped. It was so long that I sent Tzvi home with the girls while I waited for the last bag, and when it finally came, it was the only Mosaic bag left to come. Thanks Jet Blue.
Anyway, I’m sure we’ll look back fondly on this trip. Or at least we’ll look back on it. Or maybe we’ll just keep moving forward and never look back.
I’m tired.
Los Angeles. Day 6. Looks Like Another Perfect Day.
“Look at that mountain,
Look at those trees,
Look at that bum over there, man,
He’s down on his knees.
Look at these women,
There ain’t nothing like ‘em nowhere.”
Well, Madeleine was up 345-430 coughing. I was so nauseous. Have I mentioned yet that I’ve been nauseous on this trip?
I think I finally fell back asleep at 430 and slept until 630 when Hallie woke me up. We hung out for a while, then she woke up Madeleine soon after that, and then Tzvi got up. We started our day, went to breakfast, and then packed up to head out for the day.
Unfortunately, Madeleine had a tantrum that lasted for about a half hour, so that was fun. Anytime Madeleine does something like this, or something annoying Tzvi is always like “I don’t remember Hallie doing this.” Except Hallie would do this often. I can even remember a vacation tantrum she had in Geneva when she was almost the same age as Madeleine. Good times. [Tzvi: I do remember that.]
Love a visitor while using the bathroom…
Finally, she calmed down and we were able to leave. We drove over to Daniel and Deborah’s house, which I’d never seen. That was very nice. Thank you for having us and allowing our children to run all over your house and furniture. It’s always interesting to see different kinds of house layouts, since basically all of the houses in the five towns are either split levels or center-hall colonials.
After that we stopped at Got Kosher on Pico for pretzel challah, and then Eilat Bakery for cookies. At Eilat I got out of the car and stepped in something that was probably homeless person doodie. Anyway, they no longer serve food at Eilat, which is unfortunate because I remember them having good stuff. Probably a Covid death. Mostly I was just disappointed that they didn’t have the chocolate allegator, though you can’t really fault them for that since it was Schwartz Bakery that sold the alligator, not Eilat.
We were hungry and weren’t sure what to do for lunch, so we decided to drive back over to Toast again. It was delicious, again. No celebrity sightings this time though. I had a tuna sandwich and Tzvi had a tuna melt. Hallie ate potatoes.
Then we drove to Hollywood. Madeleine fell asleep in the car, but Robyn me and Hallie walked around Hollywood Boulevard. We saw the stars on the Walk of Fame, including Donald Trump and Michael Jackson, which was exciting for Robyn who is a big fan (of Michael Jackson, not Donald Trump). Then there was a Ghirardelli/Disney Studio Store, where we bought more stuff, because why not. We also went to the Hollywood Store, which is basically a gigantic souvenir shop, and bought some Hollywood paraphernalia. That was fun.
Then we headed over to Larchmont Village, which is basically one street with a bunch of nice stores. We did some shopping, including at a cute bookstore that had a nice kid’s section and we got a couple of Little Golden Books of Disney movies, because we hadn’t bought enough Disney stuff on this trip.
And then we finally got Salt & Straw ice cream, which we had been looking forward to all week. Salt & Straw is the best ice cream and it didn’t disappoint. Although, I will say that they always have interesting flavors, which are sometimes good enough to get but at least usually good enough to try. This time there were really no interesting flavors that I was even willing to try. Tzvi tried the corn and cotija cheese flavor, which tasted like exactly that, and which should never be put into ice cream; I have no idea who’s getting a whole cone full of that. Anyway, our ice cream was delicious. We both got cones with sea salt with caramel ribbons and salted malted chocolate chip cookie dough.
Oh, no idea why I’m remembering this now, but two nights ago at dinner at Della Terra a dog licked Madeleine’s face. Robyn had been walking with her outside and they saw a dog and Madeleine asked to pet it, and the owner said she could, but warned that she likes to lick. Well, Madeleine came running in very excited to tell us, ‘A doggie licked my face!’ I swear Madeleine loves every dog except Margie.
Margie
Anyway, from Larchmont Village we drove over to the Kaplans and brought them ice cream. We hung out there for a bit, and then went downstairs to Erewhon, the grocery store at the bottom of their building. Erewhon is popular (mostly on Tik Tok and Instagram) for being probably the most expensive grocery store in LA. It’s always interesting to walk around there to (1) gawk at the prices and (2) sometimes gawk at the celebrities, because who else is paying $14 for a small bottle of juice? Well, other than us, because we had to try it and see what kind of juice could be worth $14. Actually, it was freshly squeezed orange, pineapple and strawberry and it was delicious and came in a very nice glass.
Then we came back to the hotel to get ready for Shabbos. We had to say goodbye to the car because it was being picked up at 7pm. Tzvi was sad about that, but it was great having it.
Around 730pm, the Kaplans came to the hotel with the Shabbos food that we had ordered from Lieders. They had heated it up in their apartment, so we had hot Shabbos food which was nice. We had ordered London broil, schnitzel, chicken, grilled veggies, humus, little egg rolls and pigs in blankets and some other stuff. We had a very nice Shabbos dinner in our hotel room, though Tzvi and I were still so nauseous. Tzvi took like three bites of food and then was ready to pass out on the couch, which was convenient because that was also where he was eating his dinner due to the lack of chairs in our rooms.
For dessert we ate the cookies from Eilat and some desserts from Erin McKenna’s Bakery (a vegan bakery that we stumbled on next to Salt & Straw earlier, and which also has outposts in NYC and Disney World).
Eventually we got the girls to bed, then said goodnight to Sherry and Mark. Tzvi and I decided we would take a bath, but then we passed out on the bed reading. Actually, I was reading in bed and I thought OK, we discussed that we’d like to take a bath, but let’s see if Tzvi will go start it. Instead, he laid down to read. I was too tired to continue reading so I just thought ok, if he starts the bath I’ll go. If not, I’ll fall sleep. I think we woke up around midnight and decided to just quickly shower and go to sleep.
End of day.
Los Angeles. Day 5. Nothing comes close to the Golden Coast.
“I know a place,
Where the grass is really greener.
Warm, wet n’ wild,
There must be something in the water.”
So Wednesday night was a nightmare. But you already read about that.
Tzvi and Madeleine slept until 845. I was ready to kill myself just watching people sleeping for hours. Hallie got up at 7, which was actually pretty good for her. We played and hung out and she was actually very good… until everyone else got up.
We went to breakfast and then got in the car and drove to Santa Monica. We ended up going through the Pico-Robertson area, so we made a stop in front of Tzvi’s old house to show the girls.
We made it to the Pier, which I’ve actually never been to. It was pretty cute. The kids first went on the carousel, and then we all went on the Ferris wheel.
Then me, Tzvi and Hallie went on the little roller coaster; you’re supposed to go twice with each ticket, but after the first time Hallie said she was scared wanted to get off, so we got off.
Then she and Madeleine went on a few rides together, which was super cute.
Then we got ice coffees at Coffee Bean, Hallie got a bagel with cream cheese, and Madeleine got a plain bagel but it was inedible. I don’t know how they serve that. It was like very chewy but didn’t actually break down in your mouth. We did the carousel one more time and then headed out.
From there we drove to Beverly Hills and Madeleine fell asleep in the car. We were still hungry, so we stopped at Pizzana, a pizza place that Tzvi had read about and that was supposed to be really good. They only had outdoor seating, but it wasn’t too bad, though it was hot enough for the waiter to give Hallie a free lemonade. We ordered a margherita pizza and a “neo-margherita” pizza. [Tzvi: both were very good. The neo-margherita was kind of like an inverted margherita, with cheese on the bottom and tomato sauce dolloped on top. There was also basil breadcrumbs and it was kind of spicy.]. We also had a brussels sprouts salad that was very good. We ordered a fried cauliflower, but it never came. Womp Womp.
After that we walked around Robertson and went to Kitson, which is always fun. They’re actually the first store I’ve seen to BAN masks out of SAFETY concerns! They recently put out a statement that they’re banning face masks because of a spike in theft. Certainly a new one. Then again, this is LA.
From there we went to the Brunelle’s house. I had been texting with Karen and she wanted us to come by. The girls played Polly Pockets and she gave them gifts. It was so nice and was really nice to see them. So that was a fun visit.
Then we picked up Jeffs, dropped the girls and the food at the Kaplans and went back to our hotel to get changed for dinner. We thought it would only take 20 minutes to get to dinner, but then we realized it was actually going to take 50 minutes, so we only had 15 minutes and had to rush.
We took an Uber downtown to Death and Co., the LA outpost of our favorite New York bar. At the bar we met Daniel (who used to work at JNF) and his wife Deborah. We got cocktails, popcorn and bread, all of which were great. Tzvi and I both got a second drink, which we probably didn’t need but we wanted to taste things. It was so interesting – they really managed to recreate the NY atmosphere but in a way that’s still a unique LA location.
After that we drove back to west LA and went to Next Door, a new kosher restaurant that’s next door to a kosher sandwich shop. It was delicious but I was so tipsy and exhausted. It felt like the restaurant was trying to be Fuego (in Miami) – every once in a while they played Hebrew music really loudly and went through the restaurant with sparklers clapping. At one point they handed out sparklers to all of the tables.
We started with meat cigars that had a bunch of different meats in them, including sweetbreads. We also got a raw tuna appetizer that was in a sauce that looked like green toxic waste; I didn’t try it (as much as our waiter kept trying to get me to) but Tzvi and the others said it was very good. For the main Tzvi and I shared a rib eye and a short rib pasta. We spent a good part of the meal trying to figure out the couple next to us – they were Sephardi and she had her head covered, but he wasn’t wearing as kippa, and they also seemed super disinterested in each other. Also, she had a Fendi bag, and he had a Dior cross body bag. Welcome to LA. Apparently were in the area where the Jews must be super showy to survive. I mean, I come from a place of showiness (Five Towns) but this is a whole other level. For dessert we all shared a chocolate mousse that was okay.
When we were done we went back to the hotel, where we found Madeleine tucked into her crib with Hallie’s Mirabelle doll (from Encanto).
I was exhausted, which is a common theme here, so we passed out pretty quick.
And that’s it for Thursday.
Los Angeles. Day 4. Meet Me at the London.
“You can meet me at the London (London)
If you find time, we can run one (run one)
Talk about some things, we can undo (undo)
You just send the pin, I can find you (you)”
Well, Tuesday night was a nightmare.
I don’t even remember. I know I didn’t sleep, but I don’t know what happened. I think Madeleine got up, Hallie got up. I don’t know when people were coughing. I was exhausted, it was just bad. And Tzvi slept through all of it.
Anyway, we got up and dressed and went down for breakfast. The hotel has a free, pretty comprehensive, continental breakfast – bagels, toast, lox, pastries and fruit. They also have Tzvi’s favorite jam from France. Because I don’t eat cheese I feel like I’m pretty limited so I just basically had croissants and jam, though like I said – good jam.
After breakfast we packed up and headed out to pick up Sherry. For this portion of the trip we rented a car from an app called Turo, which is basically like an Airbnb for cars. Jay Todtman told us about it so thanks Jay, it was so great. I’ll let Tzvi explain.
[Tzvi: I always hate renting cars with traditional car rental companies. First, you always choose a car “category,” but you never know what you’re going to get, and then they never end up having your category. Also, you need to schlep to the rental place and the whole process takes an hour where you wait around and fill out more paperwork than a mortgage. I hate it. This was so easy – I did everything through this app, I picked the exact specific car I wanted – a gray Tesla Model Y – I filled out a few simple things before our trip, and at 9am on Wednesday morning they dropped the car off with the valet. Nothing for me to do but call down and ask for my car to be brought around. I think it was a little bit more expensive than a traditional rental, but for the convenience and the kind of car we got, I’d say it was worth it.]
It only took Tzvi a few minutes of driving to get used to the Tesla – the braking is a little different, but it’s easy enough. The car is amazing – there’s just one huge tablet in the middle that controls everything from navigation, to audio, to air condition (and it even lets you control which way the air is blowing). It’s also just a great ride and Tzvi had a lot of fun driving it.
We picked up Sherry and then drove over to the Tar Pits. Basically, there’s a huge area of LA that was developed over natural tar pits. The tar has seeped up through the ground for tens of thousands of years and preserved the bones of trapped animals, including wooly mammoths and other extinct animals. When Tzvi was a little kid his mother used to take him to the tar pits once a week, instead of sending him to nursery, because, well, you know. Anyway, Tzvi has always loved elephants. Sherry claims that when he was two-years-old he told her, “before I was a boy, I was an elephant.” Pretty progressive for 1989. As we were walking around, Tzvi had a revelation that the reason he loves elephants so much is probably because the entire museum is filled with wooly mammoths/elephants, and probably not because he was an elephant in a past life.
We went through the museum. Tzvi started by asking Hallie to take a photo with him in front of a woolly mammoth. Hallie excitedly ran over and smacked Tzvi in the crotch, we think accidentally. Off to a good start.
Madeleine was whining but had a good time. Hallie wanted to be in the stroller, but Madeleine didn’t want Hallie in the stroller, but Madeleine also didn’t want to be in it herself, she just didn’t want Hallie in it. So that was fun. Then we went to the gift shop and both girls got stuffed animals, which I think were some kind of extinct fox, but what Madeleine really wanted were rocks. That’s right. There was a giant table of shiny rocks and you could buy a bag and pick out your rocks and she didn’t stop playing with them for 20 minutes and she wanted them so badly, but there was just no way I was buying a 2-year-old a bag of rocks.
We walked a little outside and saw more tar pits, but Madeleine was trantuming because I wouldn’t pick her up, but I couldn’t physically do it because i’d been holding her for three days straight already.
After the Tar Pits we went to meet Mark at Toast, our favorite restaurant in LA. Right as we walked in we saw Mark Feuerstein sitting and having lunch. Actually, it looked like he was ‘taking a meeting,’ which is what people in LA do instead of working. Anyway, Mark Feuerstein has been in a lot of tv shows; he’s probably best known for the show Royal Pains, which was on USA for 8 seasons, but he was also on a bunch of episodes of the West Wing, and played Mel Gibson’s friend/colleague in What Women Want.
For lunch I had my normal eggs that I usually get and they were delicious. Obviously we also got the coffee cake crusted French toast, because that’s the best French toast in the world. Tzvi had his usual egg burrito. Hallie watched tablet most of the lunch, and after a sidewalk diaper change I put Madeleine in the stroller and walked her for five minutes until she fell right asleep because she was exhausted.
After lunch, Sherry and Mark went home and Tzvi and Hallie drove over to the Grove, while I walked sleeping Madeleine there in the stroller. Sherry was very concerned that I was going to get attacked on the way, but all was well. Somehow, I still beat Tzvi there.
We started by walking around the Farmers Market. We saw they were setting up to film something so I asked a man what it was. He said they were filming a segment for Jimmy Kimmel Live, with guest host Nikki Glazer, and that they were interviewing children about romance and dating. He said Hallie was super cute and would be great for it, but she said she was too shy and didn’t want to do it. So much for her big break.
While walking around Tzvi saw an older man with gray hair and a gray beard, who he thought was Mark Hammill. It’s also possible he was just an old guy with a beard, but this is LA, so it’s 50/50 it was Luke Skywalker.
We did some shopping. Hallie walked into the Charlotte Tilbury makeup store and wanted to try on the lipsticks. We also bought candy at Dylan’s candy bar, stickers at the little sticker store, and shoes at Nordstrom.
We finished up at the Grove and headed back to the hotel and spent some time at the pool. Both kids were whining so much. I was exhausted.
This is what exhaustion looks like:
Also, this:
(this is the hallway)
Then we went back to the room and changed for dinner.
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across from Sherry and Mark’s apartment called Della Terra. They had been talking about it for a while and really wanted to take us there. It was very good; good pizza, homemade pasta, really delicious and very accommodating. For weeks Sherry had been telling Tzvi how good the branzino was there, I think because they went out to eat one time and Tzvi ordered branzino, and now Sherry doesn’t stop talking about branzino. Anyway, they sat down and once again Sherry brought up the branzino, but Tzvi was so nauseous he didn’t want the branzino. I think she was very disappointed. Also the restaurant had like an inside room, and then a room that was outside of the main dining room but also still indoors; in the outer room there was a big table of older people and a table with a family with kids. One of the older people came in to complain to the owner about the kids, and the owner was just like, I cant tell kids to be quiet. They were coming at 615 on a weekday, what did they expect? Our kids were pretty good though. Anyway, we were both just so tired and nauseous by the end of the meal.
We went back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. As we pulled up there were a lot of big black SUVs. We saw a guy get out of one and Robyn started freaking out saying it was Lil’ Baby, which apparently is a famous rapper. Apparently the London is a hangout for rappers. There’s even a song written about it called The London.
We were both so exhausted and would’ve loved nothing more than to just collapse into bed and finally get some sleep.
But nope. Time to go out again!
Before we left, Hallie had a total meltdown and was crying about us leaving. As we left we saw Hallie cuddling and crying in the bed with Robyn and Madeleine. Later Robyn texted me saying that Madeleine was comforting Hallie and telling her ‘don’t worry, mommy will come back soon.’
Anyway, we took an uber to Harriet’s Rooftop, the bar at the 1 Hotel on Sunset, pretty close to our hotel. When we got there we walked through what looked like the main entrance, but it was just an empty room with a staircase leading down. We asked someone how to get to the rooftop and they told us we needed to go down two flights of stairs, which seemed kind of counterintuitive. Well, we went downstairs and then checked in and were sent to an elevator that took us to the roof. It was actually a very nice space – kind of clubby – with a great view. We met Benjy Bain and his wife Chen. Benjy and Tzvi were best friends throughout elementary school and high school. It was great catching up with them.
Also, Benjy managed to dig out these great photos of high school Tzvi.
[Tzvi: I was cool in high school.]
Unfortunately, we were just so nauseous the whole time and Tzvi’s asthma was acting up. I think we’re so overtired that our bodies are just failing. We came back to the hotel and got right into bed. Then madeleine started coughing, maybe at 430 am. Maybe it was 5. Who knows. Eventually I brought her into our bed and shell fell asleep. I guess this is really for the next day, but are there even days at this point? It’s all just blending together.
I hope I survive the rest of this trip.
I’m so tired.