Hai-Bar

The spot we were staying is best known for it's little zoo, called a 'hai bar' (roughly: living desert) which Mikael, Yael, and Liya really enjoyed. There was a petting zoo and a bunch of monkeys that aren't pictured. We toured the zoo towards evening and again in the morning.

The place had a cart that was for hauling luggage or equipment, but it was also useful for hauling kids.

The legend called this a 'swamp cat' which is apparently also a jungle cat.

That's a camel. Mikael really liked the camel.

Here is Mikael with his new down-over-the-eyes-cool style for wearing his hat, joining Liya and Yael in the cart.

Vimeo.

Springtime in Givat Ada: the field

We took a long walk through the woods which are in beautiful flower right now. At some point, Maayan Shahar stopped us and said, let's just put Mikael down in the grass so he can play. It was a great idea. He had such a good time! It made us want to live just up the street from some beautiful woods that are always in flower, but we'll make do with having grandparents there.

The hike

After the first picnic the Gotlieb's and us went on a short hike. Eran was laden down with both the girls, but he didn't seem to mind too much. He used the opportunity to complain about what poor physical shape he's in, but I got tired enough with just my one baby.

We also put Mikael in the rear carry for a while. He liked it a lot, and it's very comfortable. It's a little disconcerting not to be able to see him at all. Also, when he started to fall asleep his head kept bouncing against my back and we decided to move him around to the front.

The hike went down from the hill where the picnic site was into a nice valley and then back out again. It's certainly not going to make any book of Asia's 50 most spectacular hikes, but it was great for us. I thought about how I used to wonder what kind of people went on family hikes. I guess it should have been obvious then, too. Liya found another stone to bring back that would be a good size for Mikael to play with. It's sort of white to counterbalance the brown stone door stop he likes so much.

One great thing about having kids and hanging out with people who have kids is that you have no trouble finding stuff to talk about.

Picnic with Yalli and Noa

Last Saturday, Eran Inbar (and Roni and Shir) came with two cars to our home and then we all headed off (us in one car and them in the other) to Park Brittania for some picnicing and some hiking. The original idea came from Ido, but they started their day much earlier than we did. They really were on the trail at 9:00 when they said they would be. We, on the other hand, were in the cars at 12:00 after saying we would head out by 10:30. No matter. It worked out very well. They were just finishing their picnic when we arrived and so we got to picnic with them before the walk and then again with Eran and Inbar and Ronnie and Shir after the walk. This first set of pictures is from the first picnic.











While the picnic started around a picnic table laden with food, it quickly adjourned to a large mat where people just sort of hung out while kids ran around. One guy kept waiting for some kids to gather so he could tell his funny story about the horse. Yalli was mostly interested in the cars. Noa sat with the grownups and listened with a sage expression on her face.





Here is Ido holding Mikael. Ido makes fun of me that in order to get into the blog you have to get your picture taken with him.

Aikido seminar: nahal dragot

On the last day, I decided that it would be terrible to spend three days up in Metzukei Dragot and not see Nahal Dragot. We didn't have a lot of time between the morning and afternoon classes, but a bunch of people were interested so we decided to do it. We ate lunch really quickly and then ran around like chickens with our heads cut off for a little while, and finally got organized and out into the desert. The canyon was, of course, really spectacular. It made me want to go hiking every weekend.