We are getting ready!... and have been for months

I say that we have been getting ready for our trip, but, actually I feel that time has caught up to us and is about to take us in its unrelenting path.  All of us are going.  Randall, Maura and I leave for Tel Aviv on Saturday, through Chicago and Philadelphia and arrive on Sunday afternoon.  Reyna will join us by December 24 and stay through January 2.  We return on January 5/6. 

The pile of gifts and orders has become quite large- and is still growing. Orders are still expected and gifts are still unfinished and we leave on Saturday!

Our family there is quite excited as are we;  our friends (my oldest friend in the world) Connie and Walter are coming to Israel with their Temple from Seattle and we have plans to visit with them. 

The trip started because Maura is writing a thesis for her program at U/Mich; the paper is about socialism and she is writing about changes in kibbutzim which she believes requires field work. Well, of course, we needed to go along. 

And, last year Randall turned 60 warranting big trips- and since I am turning 60 this year, and, being an egalitarian couple- a "big" trip was just as equally warranted- and, since Connie and Walter are going- I thought how perfect it would be to start the year floating in the Dead Sea with my family and friends. And so- off we go.  I believe in immersion- and this one feels just right. 

This trip, we are renting an apartment in downtown Tel Aviv- just on the edge of a great neighborhood called Neve Tzedek.  we can walk most places in the city from the apartment. We are staying on Ben Yehuda just above Allenby Street; this is just near the tayelet- a walkway along the entire length of the city on the Mediterranean.  Walking markets (shuks) and wonderful cafes and museums and a vibrancy unfelt elsewhere. 



And so we are preparing.  And, as usual, I will keep you posted with photos and mementos and small thoughts.