Israel 2010

In December 2010 we traveled to Israel, along with Ellen's parents and sister and brother-in-law, to visit our Israeli cousins, most importantly Pinchas, who turned 100 earlier in the year. We also saw some other friends of Ellen.

	We drove up to Philadelphia International airport, and had a few hours to kill. As we had business class tickets, we were able to spend the time in the very nice USAirways Club lounge
	The long flight over was very hard on all of us, and Max collapsed on the floor of Ben Gurion airport
	Cousin Pinchas and Abigail
	Pinchas' wife Ora is holding Abigail
	Our first full day in Israel we went to Ramat Gan safari, with cousin Ingbal and her daughter Or.
	Or enjoyed this contraption.
	Max did not, but I give him props for trying it
	As we were in Israel during Hannukah, we went to a Hannukah party one evening at the home of cousin Moti's daughter Kessem
	We also took a day trip to Jerusalem
	. Here's Max in front of the Western Wall.
	Bubbe and Pop Pop
	Here's all of us, with Moti on the left
	We took a guided tour underneath the Western Wall. Amazingly, the woman who led our group had grown up in our Bethesda neighborhood, on the same street we live on, just a few blocks south of our house. Small world!
	We had lunch in the Souk, at a terrific hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
	At one point Ellen had to feed Abigail while we were in the Souk, and to avoid offending local sensibilities, we were forced to take drastic measures
	We took a daytrip to Caesarea, and met Ellen's old friend Gila and her family, who live on a moshav where they raise chickens.
	Max and Or had fun climbing around the ruins of the ancient Roman port city
	One day we went to lunch with two of Ellen's friends, Gila (middle) and Shlomit, both of whom used to live in DC.
	On our last full day in Israel, which was a bit rainy, we went to a shopping mall in Herzliya
	Our last night in Israel we hosted a big dinner party to celebrate our trip and, more importantly, Bubbe and Pop Pop's anniversary. More of the cousins came to join in the festivities.
	Before leaving for the airport, one last photo with Pinchas and Ora
	Due to some mechanical problems with our aircraft, our flight home was forced to land in Ireland. While David stayed back at the hotel with Abigail, the rest of the group took a short visit into Dublin