Twenty years ago this summer, I took a trip to Israel for the first time. I have been back since, but I am amused by the fact that this summer, twenty years later, I am also taking a trip to Israel. You may recall my previous trip from some of the blog entries I wrote about it – that was four years ago in 2011. Being that my kids are four years older now, there is much that I am hoping they will get to see and enjoy. Israel is a unique country with lots of things to experience. Here are some of the things I am hoping we can do on our trip!
- Eat. There is a lot of food in Israel that I love and there are specific places I want to go to get my favorites, including falafel, iced coffee, rugelach, and kosher McDonalds!
- Shop for Israeli and Jewish items and gifts. Bring back candy for the kindergarten class for Simon’s birthday. Also, more skirts like the ones I bought last time.
- Take pictures – I took some good photos last time (I love my photos at the market!) and I hope to catch some awesome ones this time too!
- Re-visit some of the iconic places we visited last time, but with the kids older now and more appreciative – Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the beach, etc.
- Visit some places we didn’t get to last time – possibly including Tzfat, Tiberias, Mini-Israel, Banias, Beersheva, Natanya, Jaffa, etc.
- Check out some of the places our friends recommended to us recently: the Clore Garden of Science, the Ramat Gan Safari, etc.
- A few other possible ideas: Mitzpe Ramon including the Alpaca Farm, find a geocache or two, visit the Teddy Fountain in Jerusalem, an archaeological dig, maybe some kind of adventure like a ropes course??, etc.
- See our friends!
Israel is far away and not an easy trip, so I hope we will be able to make the most of our time there. I will certainly share everything once we return!