Saturday 7/1/06 – Herzelia, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem – visiting family and friends – Day 6

On Saturday, the tour went to a conservative synagogue for services, but since we had plans to visit Miri and Orly we skipped them.  I got directions the concierge to Herzelia and from Miri to Orly's house and located the rental cars and around 11:15 we set off.  We had no problem getting out of Jerusalem and finding Orly’s house – but once we were there we couldn’t get past the gate to the front door.  But eventually they noticed us and we got lots of hugs and kisses.  Miri’s son Dandi was there and Miri and Orly and Dan and her two girls Tal and Shelly and the baby.  A friend of Miri’s came to visit too. She took the picture on the left.  In this picture, the back row is Marc, me, Dad, Dandi, Dan, Shelly, Orli, Sue, Don.  Then Samantha, Jonathan and Michael are standing in front of Dad and Dandi.  Seated are Miri, Benjamin, Mom and Tal.  In the picture on the right, Michael and Samantha are in the back, Tal, Jonathan and Benjamin are in the middle, and Shelly is on Jonathan’s lap.

Below, in the picture on the left are Miri, me, Sue, Orly, and Mom.  Baby Itai missed out on the other pictures because he was napping, so here he is on the right in Jonathan’s lap.  Note the big grin on Jonathan’s face.  Both my kids love babies!

Around 3, I called David to come pick us up.  He arrived just before 4, but we did not leave until 5.  We went back to see his apartment.  Then we went to a shopping center and got a pin for my watch band, which I had lost a few days before and a new battery for mom’s camera (the film camera, not the one Dad dropped in the Jordan.)  Then Jonathan realized he had left his camera at David’s so we went back to get it.  Then off to the cat rescue that David volunteers at.  That was fun – there are hundreds of cats in two huge chicken coops.  We went into one and David and Benjamin lay down and the cats climbed all over them (Jonathan sat down).  That blue splotch in the lower left corner of the mattress is Benjamin.

Jonathan stood up, took out his laser pointer and a cat was chasing the light.  He got a big shock and a scratch when a cat climbed up him to get the pointer itself.  We left there and went to Jerusalem.  We arrived around 8:30 and hadn’t eaten in hours.  We decided that the fastest would be to get dinner in the hotel, but it was not fast.  Because we got back too late, we missed Havdallah (the rabbi did Havdallah for the tour.)  After dinner we put the boys to bed and David took off.  I repacked the bags and we crashed too.

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