Days 3 and 4. April 7-8, 2017. up all night.
Last night was rough.
Hallie woke up at 1 am and cried for a while. It was tough getting her to go back to sleep. Then she woke up again at 6 and wouldn't go back to sleep, but finally fell asleep laying sideways in our bed, which kept me up making sure she didn't fall off.
We finally got out of bed around 9, got dressed and went down for breakfast. The hotel is already kosher for pesach, but breakfast was still the same old fantastic king David breakfast, just without bread and pastries. Hallie had a lot of cheeses and some fruit and veggies and yogurt. Tzvi also had a lot of cheese. It is harder for me because I don't eat a lot of the veggies and cheese obv. At breakfast, we also met the King David rabbi, Rabbi Friedman. My father and Tzvi went over to ask him some questions, and we ended up selling him our hotel chametz. Wouldn't want to waste all those jars and cookie bars.
After breakfast we left the hotel and took a cab to the old city. We really didn’t want to bring the car seat to the old city because it makes it so difficult to get around and push the stroller with it, so we just got in a cab and stuck Hallie on our laps. Maybe not the safest thing, but oh well. We all made it to the old city in one piece.
Our first stop was Ne’eman, where we got diet iced coffees. Next, we walked down to Hadaya jewelery, where we bought Hallie her first Hadaya breacelet, engraved with her name and a special pasuk containing her name. After that we walked a bit more in the cardo and looked at art galleries, walked in the rova, and then eventually made our way all the way down the stairs to the kotel, which was not too easy with the stroller (though Tzvi was carrying Hallie in the baby bjorn, so it could’ve been worse).
Hallie’s first visit to the kotel went well. She went in on the men’s side and sort of wandering around a little bit. She was a bit hesitant about actually touching the wall, but had no problem trying to pick up peoples notes.
After the kotel we walked out the Dung Gate and tried to get a cab, but all of the cab drivers were arabs and they all tried to rip us off. We needed to get to Ben Yehuda, which isn’t that far, even though there was sure to be some Friday afternoon traffic. One guy said he could take us for 70 shekels, then another one said 100 shekels. We told them we would take the meter (you are always supposed to be able to choose between using the meter and negotiating the price beforehand – apparently drivers prefer to not use the meter because the ride stays off the books and they can avoid tax, but they also typically give you higher prices when you don’t use the meter), but they all kept telling us that there was traffic and they wouldn’t use the meter, which technically is illegal. Then we walked farther down the street where there were more taxis, and one driver with a van said he would take us for 120 shekel, which was really nuts but my mother was willing to go because it was a van, and she actually got in the car. But then another driver showed up and said his taxi was first in line and that we couldn’t take the van, but he didn’t even quote us a price, he just told us we had to get out of the van, and then started yelling at my father “it’s not right! You talk to me man to man! Man to man!” We’re not really sure what that meant, but we’re pretty sure he was saying he shouldn’t have let my mother (a woman) negotiate it.
Anyway, we decided to just get away from that whole situation and started up the hill, where eventually we flagged down a cab from an Israeli company who said he would take us for 70. We said fine.
We were dropped off at the top of Ben Yehuda and then made our way down the hill. We ran into Judah and Sherri Cohen (Gabriella’s parents) and ended up talking to them for a little while. Then Tzvi bought a couple of kipas, and then we went for lunch at Moshiko, where I had a schwarma plate and Tzvi had half of a schwarma laffa. All was good. After lunch we also ran into Barry and Aviva Greenberg from Beth Sholom. You just see everyone here. Then we got a cab back to the hotel.
We put Hallie in the stroller and wheeled her around and down to the pool and she pretty quickly fell asleep. Then we sat by the pool for a few minutes until she got up. After she woke up we went back into the hotel and started to get ready for Shabbos. Tzvi got ready pretty quick and went down to davening with my father for the first time in who knows how long.
We met Tzvi and my father and went down to dinner. Hallie was already getting cranked at that point, but we put her in her seat at the table. She ate a little, but she was getting really tired during the meal so Tzvi took her outside and walked her in the stroller, and the bumpiness of the sidewalk put her to sleep pretty quickly. Dinner was four courses. I had the beef cheek appetizer, chicken consommé, entrecote steak entrée and pavlova for dessert. Tzvi had the same thing, but he had the celeriac soup instead of chicken, and the half duck instead of steak. The beef cheek was actually very good – it almost tasted like short rib. My soup was fine and Tzvi liked his soup. My steak was inedible, but Tzvi liked his duck. The pavlova was actually very good. We also got a bottle of white wine, a Riesling, which was okay. My father didn’t like it, but he drank it and said “I don’t have to like it to drink it.” They also gave us matzah rolls, which looked and tasted like hockey pucks.
After dinner we went back to the room, gave Hallie a bath and put her to bed at 945. Again it was pitch black in the room so we were falling asleep too, but I still needed to take my contacts out. Tzvi kept telling me to do it before I fell asleep, and kept telling me to go to the bathroom, so finally I went after about 15 minutes. Well, as soon as I opened that bathroom door, Hallie was up, awake, crying, standing up in the crib. Tzvi took her out and tried to calm her, but that didn’t work very well, so he brought her in the bed and tried to cuddle her and calm her, but that didn’t work either, so eventually he just put her back in the crib and let her cry. For an hour. Around 1045 we finally took her out of the crib and brought her back in the bed. She moaned for a couple of minutes, and then finally calmed down.
And then she got happy. We were laying there, saying we just didn’t know what to do. And then we heard it. Clapping. She was sitting up in the dark and clapping. And then, with the little light coming in the room, I could see what she was doing, and I told Tzvi, “she’s doing wheels on the bus.” (Wheels on the bus means rolling her arms, which is what she does when you sing the wheels on the bus.). Well, at that point, we just lost it and started laughing. Then she started laughing. I think she spent about an hour just playing nicely in the bed while we laid there wishing we could sleep. After an hour I finally nursed her again and put her back to bed, and there she stayed until 6 am.
She got up at 6, fed again, then went back to sleep. We all slept until 10 am, which was wonderful, but breakfast ended at 1030, so we got up and had to move quickly. I went next door to my parents and knocked on the door.
Well, it turns out the clock in our room is an hour slow. It was 11 am and we had missed breakfast! That was pretty awful, but so was the realization that we actually put Hallie to bed at 1045 (not 945), and that she kept us up until 1 am (not 12 am)! Oh well. We got dressed and got out of the room by around noon as nothing was rushing us anymore. We went to the dairy restaurant in the lobby and got a table on the balcony overlooking the pool and the old city – another beautiful restaurant view. We ordered coffees and a fruit plate. Hallie played and walked around, and we fed her lots of grapes. She's such a royal.
After that we went back upstairs, dropped Hallie in my parents room with a clean diaper and wipes and then snuck off before they realized we were gone. We went down to the lobby and sat for a while playing gin. Eventually my parents and Hallie showed up and we went in to lunch. Again, she was getting pretty tired, so we tried to feed her a little something, and then walked her in front of the hotel again, which again was great at putting her to sleep.
Lunch was a buffet. The buffet had deli meats, chopped liver, a salad bar, roasted vegetables, different types of fish, fantastic roasted carrots and onions, two types of veal carving, lamp, chicken, ratatouille, and two types of potatoes, just to name a few of the things. Everything was pretty good. Tzvi said the cold food was really good but that all of the hot food tasted the same. The meat tasted the same as the vegetables. The two different types of potatoes were cooked completely differently, but both tasted the same.
After lunch we changed and went down to the pool. Abby and Ronnie Kehat came to visit as did Sherri and Judah. I got to say, Judah's sweater game in on point this trip. Yesterday it was a deep green, today was this colorful design. We all sat by the pool talking. Hallie was very cute – she ran around playing with her ball and liked standing in the water. Tzvi fell asleep for a while laying on a lounge chair – how nice for him.
After everyone left we went back up to the room, fed Hallie dinner and started getting ready to go out. Shabbos ended at 8 and we left Hallie with my mother around 9 and headed over to Mamila for dinner. We had a reservation at Rooftop, which is on the rooftop of the Mailla hotel. We’ve never been there before, so it was exciting to try a new restaurant. Also, we were celebrating our 6th anniversary, which we hadn’t yet had a chance to celebrate. The restaurant was very nice with great views. My seat had a view overlooking the old city. Tzvi had a view of the King David.
The restaurant had already turned over for pesach, but that was fine. To start, I had a black truffle spaghetti with a poached egg on top.Tzvi had shredded duck wrapped in lettuce, which he said was really delicious. For mains, I had the entrecote steak with fries, which was good – definitely better than last night’s steak. Tzvi had goose breast seared and sous-vide with asparagus, bok choy and spring onion in a maple caramel sauce with valrhona chocolate snow. He really liked it – I’m not a fan of goose, but it was pretty good. The sauce was actually really rich and the sweet and savory elements of his dish really worked well. We also each got a glass of red wine. They also gave us bread, which Tzvi unfortunately couldn’t eat, though I have to say it was much better than the bread at the King David. Tzvi also couldn’t have my spaghetti, and also couldn’t have any desserts. The problem isn’t even peanuts – they’re kitniot so none of the restaurants have them. The problem is hazelnuts, and they kept telling us that all of those things had “nut oil” in them and they don’t know what nuts are in the nut oil. I highly doubt there was hazelnut in the oil, but whatever.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel and relieved my mother and now here we are.Thank you very much to my parents for allowing us to go out.