BortmanBlog: First Days in Israel

So we're a little behind in our blogging. We meant to send out our initial post before we left on our trip, but we didn't have our act together (or, rather, we were so busy getting our other acts together, the blog kept getting pushed back). We have switched from Travelblog (from our last adventure 4 years ago) to Blogger and we are still getting used to the way it works so please stay with us as we figure it out. It seems you need to sign up to be a follower when you access the blog in order to be notified when we make a new post (see button to the right that says Follow) - and you may have to have a Google, or Yahoo or one or two other platform account (I think Facebook also works somehow) to sign up to follow. We're researching to figure it out...email us or send us a comment if you need help, have questions, or know more about this than we do!! (Thanks!)

Ari is also keeping a blog so you can check in with his blog to get his perspective on our activities. The link to his blog is: http://throughariseyes.blogspot.com

As I mentioned, we were pretty crazy leading up to our departure. Dara has been working for weeks to get everyone's bags packed and get the house packed up. As for bags, each person only gets 1 bag and a carry on. Each bag has a weight limit of 44 pounds (one of Dara's going away presents from her friend Melyni at work was a luggage scale – great gift!). Dara found these great bags (at Kohl's, of course, her favorite store) that are suitcases/duffel bags with wheels that also have straps so you can carry them like backpacks. So the kids (Ari is now 12 ½ and Ellie is 9, for those of you who have been out of touch) will have to pull their own weight, so to speak. So what do you pack for 3 ½ months of travel that will fit in 1 bag? Not much. Basically the same clothes we would have packed for a 2 week trip to Israel, plus books and stuff for the homeschooling (including Ellie's clarinet which she insisted we bring along.) We'll see how well we did as we go. After 2 days, so far so good!

As for our house - We were lucky enough to find a great house sitter, Meghan, who will take great care of our house and Simba, our 16 year old, deaf, hyperthyroid, snoring, loud-meowing cat, while we're gone. When I saw loud-meowing, I mean she is really loud. One of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism is being very vocal. That combined with her deafness is enough to keep all the mice out of the neighborhood. But, she's also friendly and soft and warm at night...there's a reason we've kept her around for 16-plus years. Thanks for taking care of things and easing our minds Meghan!

We both did have to make employment changes for this trip. Dara took a leave of absence from her job at State Farm with the intention of, probably, going back part-time when we return. The women in her office are great and she'd miss them. Me, on the other hand, will not miss the teaching. It did not work out quite as I had hoped when I started teaching 4 years ago. Philadelphia kept moving me from school to school and subject to subject so I was never able to get in a groove. In addition, upon our return from Costa Rica, I started a business installing solar panels. For the first two or three years, it was just a sideline and worked out well with teaching since it was the busiest during the summer. Over the past year, however, the business has really blossomed (pun, although weak, intended) and when we return we'll see if we can make a living with that, with Dara joining me to help with the parts that could use some more attention (i.e., the stuff I don't enjoy doing...hope she does!)

So, anyway, the last week or so was a blur as we made final preparations for the trip and tied up loose ends. One day before our departure, Dara went to the school administration building and officially withdrew Ari and Ellie from school and registered them as homeschooled. Mark ran around southeastern Pennsylvania and finalized a bunch of solar projects. We hopped on the plane feeling like we'd pretty much tied up all the loose ends...pretty much...

So, we arrived in Israel a few days ago – on Sunday, 12/19. Our flight worked out very well – it left Philadelphia at 9:15PM Saturday and arrived in Israel at 3:00PM Sunday. Leaving late in the day made it easy for us to sleep on the plane (which we all did) and arriving late in the afternoon meant we didn't have to keep ourselves up for too long to fight off the jet lag.

The tour we are taking in Israel with the Kol Emet synagogue group doesn't start until Friday. Ari's bar mitzvah is the first Saturday of the tour. Dara's parents and Dara's sister and her family are coming on the tour with us. Mark's parents also wanted to come to Israel for the bar mitzvah, but were not interested in being part of the tour group. So instead, we came to Israel with them five days before the tour started so we can spend time with them, then we will all meet up with the group for the bar mitzvah. After that, Mark's parents will head home and we'll continue on with the tour. Make sense? I hope so.

Quick update from Dara:

The past two days have been great: beautiful weather (about 70 degrees), amazing sites (so far), good food. Zichron Y'aakov is a quaint, up-and-coming, hip town with a downtown pedestrian area that has a cobblestone street and many chic restaurants and wine bars. We've hit Zippori (incredible Roman-era mozaics, including the most beautiful one in Israel), Haifa (toured the Bah'ai Gardens, had dinner in the German Colony), and wandered through the old city of Akko (old fortress on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea with narrow passages through stone walls aging back to 1100 AD or earlier in parts – people still live there and they're still discovering new tunnels and buried rooms all the time). I'm attaching a few pictures of our latest stops.