Day 7. April 11, 2017.  one day of yomtov.

Yomtov started around 630.  Tzvi went down for davening late after throwing a fit about how he was ready for davening once in his life and couldn’t go on time because Hallie was being a crankster. Two peas in a pod, I say.

He finally left and then we all met in the lobby around 8.  We went in for the seder in the side dining room.  There were a lot of tables in the room, and everyone was running their own seders over the noise of everyone else’s seder.  We immediately asked for food for Hallie because she was clearly already hungry and starting to get cranky.  First they brought us a bowl of yellow matzah mush that we still don’t know what it was.  Then we saw kids eating real food and asked for a kids plate, which had hot dogs, chicken nuggets and potatoes.  She ate a little potato and chicken and even tried the hot dog, but she was cranky and I guess not so hungry.

We made it through kiddush and carpas – they gave us the tiniest celery sticks I’ve ever seen for carpas – and then let Hallie out of her seat to walk around a little.  She did a bit of a tour through the dining room, waiving to people while either Tzvi or myself followed her.  We started magid, but she really wouldn’t sit, so we took turns walking her around the hotel.  The hotel has an interior outdoor courtyard and she really had fun running around there.  About halfway through magid we could tell she’d had it so we put her in the stroller and then took turns wheeling her around for the next 20 minutes until she eventually fell asleep.  By the time Hallie was sleeping, we were basically up to the meal.  Tzvi said he felt like he pretty much missed the whole seder, which was in keeping with his usual complaints that we do Magid too fast anyway at home. The marror was potent and the charoset looked like Hallies doods, but tasted decent.

Luckily we were able to at least enjoy most of the meal portion while Hallie slept.  To start, they brought gefilte fish, chopped liver and cabbage salad for the table to share.  Pretty sure the fish is jarred. For the first course, we all chose the beet leaves stuffed with meat and vegetables, which was actually pretty good.  For soup there was a choice between chicken matzah ball and asparagus leek – we all chose chicken soup.  The matzah balls were pretty terrible – extremely dense – but Tzvi said he kind of liked them.  For the main course there was a choice of a veal chop, duck, or some fish.  Tzvi and I both got the veal chop.  I didn’t think I liked veal (I chose it because I know I don’t really like duck), but it was actually really good.  Tzvi liked it too.  Tzvi also tried Austin’s duck and said it was good too.  For dessert there was only one option: chef’s surprise.  Well, it was a surprise, because I still don’t know what it was. The one thing we did know was that it had hazelnut, so Tzvi was stuck with a fruit plate (actually they brought him two) and sorbet. The surprise dessert was the big dome with layers of some sort of mousse like cream and cake. It was…something.

After dessert Hallie woke up again so we decided to call it a night and take her upstairs. Second year in a row I’ve missed the end of seders. Thanks Hal. After getting through the seder, or what little bit of it we were there for, these are Tzvi’s impressions of the holiday so far:  I think the best thing has to be that we didn’t have to clean our house, help clean my parents house, or do any cooking or preparing.  You just can’t beat that.  The food was fine, and since it was pesach, I didn’t really find myself missing the home cooked food, although I did kind of miss mama’s egg noodles for the chicken soup.  I think the actual seder experience was a little weird.  For one thing, they gave us one type of red wine and one type of white.  If you wanted anything else you had to pay for it, which we didn’t.  Usually the seder is a big wine night for me (I’m always excited to try new good wines on pesach), and Steph usually likes to have some red moscato.  So that element was lacking.  Also, usually it feels like we do a lot of eating during the seder, before the meal – we usually have two types of carpas, boiled potatoes, eggs, really filling charoset and sandwiches.  They had most of that stuff here, except for the boiled potatoes, and the charoset was good but nothing like what we have at home.  So in the end it kind of felt like we had the seder and then the meal, whereas at home, the meal really feels like part of the seder.  Lastly, I have to say that I didn’t find myself so bothered by everyone else having seders at tables around us.  Some people do weird things, but I don’t really have anything else to say about that.

Anyway, we took Hallie upstairs, changed her into pajamas and put her to bed.  She almost immediately started crying, so we tried to calm her and comfort her, but it basically took 30-45 minutes before we could actually get to bed.  The rest of the night was a little rough.  Tzvi said she woke up every half hour moaning starting around 3-6, but I didn’t get up. Tzvi thinks it's because I had ear plugs in but I just think I had reached a level of exhaustion, considering I hear her through earplugs and two doors usually.

We got up and out of bed around 10 to 10, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.  Everyone else was already there.  By coincidence we sat at the same table we had seder at.  Breakfast was good, but not up to King David standards.  They had an omelet station, typical Israeli stuff, lots of cheeses, etc.  Also, for some reason they only had small plates.  Like breakfast tapas.  Weird. I think they are encouraging us to eat less.  After breakfast we met the Cohens in the lobby.  They were dropping off Gabriella who was coming to spend the day with Avery.  No sweaters for Judah today, but he was rocking a great plaid sport jacket.

We went back to the room and changed into bathing suits.  My parents took Hallie on a walk while Tzvi and I went to the pool.  It was pretty crowded at the pool, but we managed to find two seats to put next to each other.  We sat for a while and even went in the water a little.  It was really warm and the water was nice. 

Around 130 my parents came back from their walk and we went upstairs to change back into nice clothes for lunch.  We all met back downstairs and went in for lunch, this time in the main dining room.  Lunch was buffet, and I think is really where the hotel excels.  We started with cold dishes – once again only small plates – including avocado salad, chopped liver, salads, deli meats, lots of different fish, grilled vegetables, and other things.  All was really good.  They even had matzah rolls which were pretty good and reminded us of the ones my mom makes.  Next we had soup, some kind of carrot soup, which was pretty good.  Next we had the hot food, and finally!  Large plates!  The hot buffet included a carving station with veal, spare ribs and prime rib, as well as chafing dishes with chicken breast stuffed with beef, lamb osso bucco, dark meat chicken cutlets, and stuffed artichokes.  Between Tzvi and I we tried everything, and everything was really good.  I’d say the meats were better than the lunch we had Shabbos at the King David. Finally, we had desserts, which were all fine, not king David standard.  They tasted like Passover.  Nothing was particularly bad, but nothing was particularly great.  Tzvi was able to eat them all, but still had a ton of fruit.  The fruit is just so good and so fresh here.

After lunch we went back upstairs, changed back into bathing suits (including Hallie) and headed back to the pool where we met my father.  Someone had stolen one of our seats, but that was okay.  We took Hallie in the kids pool a bit, and then in the main pool, and she really seemed to enjoy it.  We’re going to need to get her swimming lessons this summer.  We swam for a bit, then sat out in the sun.  Eventually my mother came down, and Hallie napped in her stroller.  Around 5 o’clock the sun went down and the Cohens came back to continue their “Swimming Pools of Jerusalem” tour and sat with us for about an hour talking.

Around 7 we took Hallie up and fed her some dinner.  Sometimes she’s happy and sometimes she’s cranky, but she’s always super cute.except in the middle of the night.

Sundown came, and that was the end of yuntev.  No two days for us.  It’s so nice to just have one seder and one day of yuntev.  I think it’s time we bring that to America. We would have just been sitting down to lunch at home.

We got Hallie bathed and into pajamas and put her to bed around 915 (early night for her on this trip).  Then my mother, who was too sick with some sort of coughing disease, came to sit with her.  Me, Tzvi, my dad and Austin left the hotel and took a cab to Black Burger on Shlomtzion ha’malcah, over near Mamilla.  Amir kornblum had told pop pop  he had to try the burgers because you can barely tell the buns are fake, so he’s been very excited to go.  We got seated upstairs.  The tables were very strange – there was a circular bench in the center of the room with tables around it.  Kind of hard to describe.  When we were seated they were playing music, but after we ordered a waiter came over and asked fi we wanted to move because they were about to start showing the Barcelona soccer match.  We said we’d stay, and soon they started blasting in Israeli soccer announcers.  It was a real authentic Israeli experience.  We all got burgers.  My father and I got the 160g burger, Tzvi got the 220g, and Austin got the 330g.  Mine came too rare so I had to send it back, and then it was good.  The burgers were actually very good, and the buns were fine.  They weren’t the best hamburger buns, but you could’ve tricked me and told me it was real day old bread.  Actually, they’re probably just the gluten free buns they use all year.  We also got fries which were good too.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, making a stop at Mamilla to go to the pharmacy, maybe the third time this trip.It was a warm night, probably around 70, and the walk was very pleasant.Now we’re back in the hotel room, Hallie is sleeping soundly (so far), and tomorrow we have a long day of touring.