Since Ari was young, we've discussed the idea of having his bar mitzvah in Israel. This seemed more appealing to us than the standard party. Not that the party wouldn't be fun but, we figured that if we're going to spend a lot of money, lets make it a more memorable family experience (the strongest memory I have of my bar mitzvah is the food fight my friends started in front of the Jenks Center, where the party was hosted. Ok, it wasn't really a food fight, it was more just Emile and Pooh chucking rolls at Eric H., but my dad came and yelled at them just the same. That and I do remember the first line of my haftarah.)
A trip to Israel would fit the bill and we'd been mulling it over for a while. In all honesty, I hadn't mulled it over hardly at all. I am not a very good muller. It really hadn't crossed my mind -- party, trip, bar mitzvah -- nothing further ahead than tomorrow's lunch, if I can even think that far ahead. It was really Dara that had been doing the mulling and I did a lot of nodding in agreement.
As it happens, last summer we found out that Carrie, the education director at Congregation Kol Emet and one of our favorite people in the whole world, was organizing a trip to Israel at Christmas this year. We figured this was close enough to Ari's 13th birthday (he'll be 12 1/2) that we couldn't pass it up. Carrie was Ari's first teacher, she's lived in Israel and she is passionate about the country. We know it will be a great trip.
Once we decided that we were going to Israel, our imaginations started wandering. Years back, when the idea of going to Costa Rica hatched, Dara and I had independently and concurrently come up with the idea of going somewhere. The same thing happened this time. We figured we were going to be so far away, it would just be a waste to rush right back. In a follow up post, maybe I'll go through the permutations that led to our final plan but for now, it looks like this:
Two weeks in Israel, mostly with the synagogue group (with our parents and Dara's sister's family joining us too). Then a few days in Athens and a week in Crete. From there we go to Rome for a week and then the Naples/Pompeii area for a few days. Since that is a lot of running around, after that we are going to settle into an apartment in Sienna for a month. That will be our home base for short trips to Florence, Pisa, Venice and other great places in Italy. After that we head to Spain for a month where we will visit the Cunats (Nacho and Alex, the exchange students that lived with us 2 and 3 years ago, respectively -- and respectfully).
That's it. At this point, we typically get one of two reactions. From those of us that don't know us too well, we usually get the modern version of, "Whatchou talkin' bout, Willis?" For those that do know us too well, we get the same reaction as if we'd told them we were going to the supermarket: "Oh, we were wondering when you were going to do something."
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| Before we left, Ellie made a Powerpoint presentation to her 4th grade class about our trip. The kids followed our itinerary around the world (using globes) and asked tons of great questions about our upcoming trip. Ellie's awesome teacher then proclaimed the last day before we left "Ellie Bortman Day"...Thanks for making it so special Mrs. Lopez! |
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