What do you think Steven would rather have for his Big 60th birthday…in addition to public ridicule?

1) A poke in the eye from the big butt of a 10 ft tall woman on a swing? Or a….

2) Big poke in the eye from her boob while she does a lap dance on him? So many birthday choices, so little time. Maybe one day soon he will forgive me….

Although we didn’t get an invitation to the Chinese Banquet, we enjoyed the parade of 25 of these huge roasted pigs being delivered. We had ringside seats for the Lion Dance….(6) two-tiered lions dancing on elevated poles…

….and then RAN for cover as we were positioned directly underneath the dangling rounds of chinese firecrackers.

Some birthdays are just more memorable than others! I know we all wish the sweetest and most darling man on the planet, a very happy and memorable birthday….and one last goofy portrait, Steven going incognito as an Arab. Fortunately, Steven is a very forgiving man.

In this week before Purim, we find ourselves perhaps, among the tights and pink tutus in San Francisco….? Maybe we are in Mexico with the Caballeros…

…and with Dia de Los Muertos celebrants?

No, we are in Tel Aviv on the promenade with all the other party go-ers like the astronauts and police officers with kipot. Only in Israel, and only in this very young and arty, big beach city.

Incredible shopping for hip designer fashions (Ayala Ball necklace)…

…stylized, modern and bauhaus architecture…

…and quirky sculpture around every corner. Keep your eyes peeled, high and low!

We stayed near Old Jaffa, the Arab port and flea market, which provided the famous “Dr. Shakshuka” restaurant, shopping, music and great people watching. We needed the many, soothing, chaise lounge “islands” we found in shaded bicycle/pedestrian strips in the City Center. They invite you to grab an expresso and a gelato, and stretch out for a nap…Ahhhhh.

The green public bikes are affordable, available at stops all around the City, and are even electric powered so you don’t have to work too hard. The only drawback is motorcyclists and bikers ride fast on narrow sidewalks among pedestrians, and park on the sidewalks blocking the way. We happily block their way on the sidewalk when we stop to enjoy local musicians jamming with shofars and drums.

We love Tel Aviv’s juxtaposition and richness of diverse cultures; Israel is a very young country, only 67 years old and its population is also young and tech saavy. There are more Start-ups in Israel than in the entire United States. Although the conflicts with the residents of the occupied territories is very real, and the threats to Israelis on public transportation, in malls, and on the street is real (separate attacks by Palestinians on Israeli citizens and soldiers occurred every week we were in Israel, and if you Google “Sderot” a town 1 miles from the Gaza Strip, most of the images are of rocket caches and launches from within the Gaza Strip targeting Israeli civilians in Sderot), yet the Israelis have adopted a fatalistic philosophy, because they say the violence is always possible and there is no way to predict or control it.

Israelis minimize the sense of risk and tell us that always knowing where a bomb shelter is within 40 seconds of a rocket siren, is just built in to their consciousness. We don’t buy it; it is a stressful awareness. Every resident serves for three years in the National Armed Services. Even when they go home for the weekend, they must carry their uzis. Even when they complete service they must return for reserve training. Our airbnb.com host grew up in Sderot, served 10 years in the National Defense and is now in medical school, yet reports weekly for reserve training. The entire country is always prepared to fight for the survival of the State of Israel. So, why be surprised that the drivers are angry and aggressive, the service providers are sullen and have no concept of guest relations/customer service. Israelis laugh at this and say such rudeness is not because we are tourists, that they are treated with disdain by merchants as well because, well, “Israelis are just brusque”. With real estate and services quite expensive, and very low salaries (although not much unemployment), Israelis, Jewish and Arab alike, are stressed. Both communities feel that they cannot personally make a difference. What will be, will be….

Everyone we talked with wants Peace….but feels that war is inevitable. 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years, it will come. Everyone states the need for a Two State solution. Most people do not believe it will occur in their lifetimes. However, after winning his fifth term, Netanyahu announced an intent to create a two state solution this term! He knows how serious it could be for Israel to lose U.S support.

The biggest challenge for Israel is remaining a Democracy, meaning one person=one vote. The Israeli Arab population is growing faster than the Israeli Jewish population. Making it easy for Jews to make aliyah will not make enough Jewish citizens in the long run. There must be a safe haven for Jews in this anti-Semitic world and as Netanyahu made clear in his address to the U.S. Congress, Israel will survive with, or without U.S. support. We are confident that the tiny State of Israel (the size of New Jersey) will survive as it is the only country that guarantees Jewish immigration. We wonder however, whether a Democratic State of Israel can survive in the years to come as Muslims become numerically the dominant population. Stressful indeed.

When my son visits Israel this coming Winter Break as a Birthright participant, he can wear his  patriotic underwear while he engages in his and Israel’s favorite activity, arguing about politics.

In the ‘Cradle of Civilization’ we expected to see well researched antiquities from the Canaanites, through Hellenistic and Roman Periods, through the Crusades to the Fall of the Ottoman Empire. What really surprised us though is the frequent NEW findings by amateur archeologists, even in the midst of our visit to Haifa. Local spelunkers just found coins from Alexander the Great in a local Israeli cave, and amateur scuba divers unearthed a huge cache of coins just offshore from the Caesaria ruins (above, halfway between Haifa and Tel Aviv).

A wonderful museum, with displays that put these artifacts into context is the Archeological Museum at the University of Haifa. We lucked out and got our friends’ son JJ, a diver and reclamation/preservation specialist to give us a tour of his labs there, and the Museum. A Phoenician sailing ship crashed on the reef near Caesaria, and lay there protected by salt water and sand for over 2000 years. JJ and his colleagues had to bring it up without exposing it to air as it disintegrates if not immersed in polyglycolethalene solutions, until all the sea water is slowly replaced with the absorption of this waxy solution. Unfortunately, the team is stymied with recovered rope; it just doesn’t respond the same way, so the lab has tiny shreds of rope in experimental solutions for the time being.

The Phoenicians (Canaanites from 1200 BCE) were the ultimate maritime trade specialists. They were known to the Greeks and Romans as, “The Traders in Purple”; they hauled cargo in large and small loops all around the Mediterranean basin, but called western Lebanon their home, and Tyre their capital. Because archeologists recovered an intact keel, and the lower planking and cross beams, the bottom third of the original sailing ship above is on view. Not only did they painstakingly preserve an unusually designed anchor (below, exhibit photo), they made models and repeatedly dropped them in water…..to find that they always landed right side down for anchoring!

JJ’s instruction really expanded our appreciation of Caesaria and Akko, the two archeological sites we visited. We enjoyed being students again at the edge of the Sea, observing the march of civilizations before us in touchable form. I am sure I would have enjoyed that History of Western Civ class at Stanford a lot more if I could have listened to lectures in the Hippodrome and the Coral Palace at Caesaria, and the Ramparts at Akko with the ocean lapping at the ruins.

Israel not only offers the “Old and Older”, but the caves throughout the country, especially on the slopes of Mt. Carmel near Haifa, also offer hikes to caves with prehistoric remains. The Tabun Cave (above) was our favorite;  turn north across the wadi to view the largest intact fully exposed fossilized reef in the world, and turn south to view limestone bell caves and a collapsed karstic cave revealing a perfect wall of civilization (above). Here, evidence was gathered that confirmed that Neanderthal and Homo Sapien Sapien coexisted in this area and controlled fire earlier than expected.

Notice I did not say “peacefully coexisted” because DNA and other evidence from other caves in Israel and a 2.5 Million year old jaw found recently in Ethiopia suggest that Homo Sapien replaced Neanderthals due to several factors: 1) Neanderthals were driven out by Homo Sapiens; 2) Homo Neanderthal females mating with Homo Sapien males produced sterile offspring so Homo Sapien is not a Neanderthal evolutionary descendant; 3) both of these forms of early human descended from the same source of DNA;  4) Neanderthals required far more calories to survive than Homo Sapien putting them at risk; 5) Neanderthals did not adjust to cooling temperatures turning the forests into grasslands, requiring new “planned” hunting techniques the collapsed chimney in the cave above was used by Homo Sapien to drive herd animals in to their death and butchering inside the cave; and 6) Neanderthals never developed sufficient tool use from rock and bone to allow them to evolve to smaller teeth in favor of tool use,  and therefore derive nutrition from a greater source of nutrients.

As Steven turns 60 in two months, he feels he can’t possibly be that “old”. As his elders, we know,”being old” is just a matter of perspective. After 2.5 million years of adaptation, we learn from our predecessors, “Adapt or die”. Since Steven is the most adaptive man we’ve all ever met, we know he will “Live Long and Prosper” (R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy), and quickly learn the most important lesson of wisdom and age….GETTING OLD IS FUN IF YOU DO IT WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE….that would be me!… and our friends and family!

Fortunately, he already knows, that a nap with a big dog in your lap extends your life more than any super vitamin package and anti-oxidant elixirs!

The Kingdom of Jordan has few resources to raise their citizens above the poverty level. They have no oil reserves like the Arabic countries around them, and the landscape is barren desert or arid mountains. Most agriculture is primitive, low yield farming eg. ‘plant seeds on steep hillsides, wait for rain, hope for the best.’

Up a valley near the Israeli border at Eilat, our Jordanian driver boasted about this one unique, modern area of agriculture, with pumping stations and greenhouses; in the Negev Desert due west in Israel, there were hundreds of these same size sites. Israel’s ability to wrest water and food production from this landscape is very inspiring. As were the miles of date palm groves seen in Israel, not in evidence in Jordan. Jordan remains very much a third world country; heartbreaking, really.

Jordan’s greatest resource is the residents, who are warm, charming and very hard working, many of them the aboriginal Bedouin nomadic tribes. The second biggest resource is Jordan’s World Heritage Site, Petra National Park.
Most of us first encountered it in the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

It is just so fantastic rising up out of the desert after a hike through the shady, steep walled gully called the Siq; it looks like a movie set constructed on a back lot at MGM studios in Hollywood.

Even the Siq has tombs and carvings as it was the Nabatean entry route for the spice trade. Why not advertise your camels and caravaneering businesses with life sized camels carved in the rock in the Siq? (However, I can’t look at the carving below without thinking of the little girl’s explanation in the movie, “Little Miss Sunshine” that she is called “Camel Toes” by the mean boys at school because she is ‘strong like a camel.’)

The Nabateans who carved this city out of the exposed sandstone walls carved and decorated thousands of tombs and even held off Roman invasions until 106 AD when the Romans altered the trade route to the North. That worked better than a siege to destroy the domination of Nabatean influence as the controllers of trade routes between China, India, Arabia and the Mediterranean; ultimately the Nabatean king swore allegiance to the Romans to save his city. Fortunately, the Nabateans had already incorporated Graeco-Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian styles into their carvings and they were left standing by the Romans.

However, the rise of Christianity meant the decrease in sacrifices and pagan rituals, and thus the demand for frankincense and trade in general along these routes was destroyed. The City was gradually abandoned, and lost to the West until a Swiss traveler rediscovered it in 1812.

What you see below is an example of Nabatean engineering advances; clay water pipes with widened areas and openings to reduce pressure and encourage fast flow, hidden in the rock 16 feet above the trade route in 100 BCE before it filled with silt to its current level where we walk beside it now. It saved the City from multiple sieges as water flowed from buried cisterns outside the Siq, downhill through these hidden pipes.

When you exit the Siq into the sunlight, you are surrounded by steep pitted rocks filled with caves, tombs, amphitheaters seating 7,000, small carvings, colonnades, and enormous facades carved with detailed designs.

Although the Treasury and the Monastery are in good condition the exposure to erosive wind, rain and shifting sands is destroying other parts. One freestanding arch that Sally viewed on a visit 12 years ago was three rock strings thick. Now it is one fragile rock string across. Go soon, and give the Jordanian economy a boost!
We hiked 12.5 miles and climbed 66 stories to access three high trails. Lucky we did that on our first day as the following days were impaired by a 45 mph gusting sandstorm darkened the day and wrecked visibility.

Instead we camped out at our favorite local Jordanian restaurant and ate Mansouf (yoghurt sauce chicken and rice eaten Bedouin style with the right hand) and a drinkable sweet cream of wheat dessert, sock-a-leb, and hot bread that was a chewy high gluten quick bread between a tortilla and naan.

…and then we came back for Macloub (saffron chicken and rice) and a flan like dessert…

If you go, skip the more expensive and less tasty places on the entry road. Walk up one block to FETAFEAT (next to the blue and yellow apartment building) where the locals eat like kings for $7 each. Our friend Othman and his mother, the chef will take good care of you!

Location:Petra, Jordan

We realized upon our arrival that our pre-formed ideas about Israel were based primarily on the little we knew about Jerusalem: old and religious. Eilat was a culture shock; the mix of European scantily clad bikini bods, Chasidim in wool frock coats and black hats, Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, and young Arabic families strolling together at the beach in a, “Disco/Atlantic City Boardwalk/Riviera” themed world was… bizarre and wonderful. Perhaps cosmopolitan, high tech and religious Israel needs one super relaxed, tolerant secular city (like China has always needed Hong Kong) as an outlier? Our first Shabat in Israel was so sweet and quiet among the waving date palms in our lovely airbnb host’s garden.

The beach/hotel area is hemmed in by the Red Sea to the South, the Negev Desert to the North, the Kingdom of Jordan to the East, and Egypt to the West. It is a unique juxtaposition of culture.

Then put the airport, with roaring jets taking off next to the charming cafes, right in the City Center, add a lot of uzi-toting Israeli Defense personnel, then add a huge dose of relaxed, resort feeling, and lots of ice cream and shopping….you get the drift…a strange and unique kind of Israeli Disneyland.

We took a scuba refresher course at home, to ensure we would safely dive the world famous coral reefs of the Red Sea. No need to worry ourselves, our Russian Dive Masters were very professional and the equipment was in good condition. With beautiful coral reef available as a shore dive, we literally ran into other divers on the reef, especially near a popular sunken wreck. The hordes that feed fish on the reef have conditioned one particularly enthusiastic 14 inch Clown fish (Nemo’s big bruiser, dark blue cousin) to rub up against us throughout the dive cadging for food. It was a bit unnerving at first as he had huge overbite fangs protruding from his mouth.

The food in Eilat was healthy and affordable, but mediocre in the cafes. More expensive restaurants such as Eddie’s Steak House, and Fish Only, are available when you need a higher end meal, in the hotel district.

Surprisingly, in our quiet airbnb.com neighborhood up the hill with a charming garden, we found the best fresh pastries, and great sandwich shop. Sally had to wait 30 minutes for three deep, triple parked taxis to clear out of the Nevi’ot intersection to take a picture. Note for future travel: for fast food, go where the local taxi drivers stop for a quick meal!

Location:EILAT, Israel

Tonight at 5:21 PM, the sun will set here in Eilat on the Red Sea in Israel. We will light shabat candles with our portable, traveling candleholders (Todah Rabah, Ricky!) in our airbnb.com garden. We wish my son Jacob could be with us tonight, especially as it is 87 degrees F. here while he awakens in -24 degree weather in Upstate NY. However, he plans to travel here next Winter with Birthright Israel.

We are so excited to share the sabbath with an entire nation. We are grateful to be here, embracing peaceful coexistence with our neighbors. We hope you all enjoy a warm and restful Shabat with your loved ones. L’Chaim!

En route to Israel and Jordan, we elected to stop for a family visit in Essex Fells, New Jersey. First, a day in Manhattan after a red eye flight…in 16 degree F. weather with a wind chill factor bringing it down to 4 degrees F. Brrrrr!

As Californians after 4 years of drought we celebrated the snow with 1) a snowball fight in Midtown…and icicle sword fighting!

2) a trip to the top of the Empire State building with NO tourists at 8 AM after a night of snowfall,

…and 3) the search for outdoor activity to stay warm with insufficient snow to cross country ski in Central Park, but too icy to bicycle either. What were we to do? Head into deeper snow in the woods next to our family members’ home in New Jersey for a good dog walk with Sal’s brother!

In such extreme cold, our visit to the Turtleback Zoo provided lots of animals (and 0 people) out in the snow.

However, the Liberty Science Center (indoors) was thronged with kids so we camped out at the IMAX films, making us want to plan a trip to Madagascar to see lemurs and tropical birds as soon as possible.

Tomorrow we will put away the parkas and mittens, and fly to the deserts of Israel and Jordan, on the heels of another snowstorm tonight. 66 degrees and scuba diving in the Red Sea sounds so-o-o-o very enticing right now. Shalom!

Mid-November, we expected 70 degree F. mild biking conditions. Not a chance during the 4th year of drought in Southern Arizona. It was 85 degrees HOT at the border with Mexico, and even hotter climbing long, slow hills. I had never been on a supported bike trip before with a “sag wagon” to carry our luggage, and scrape us off the side of the road when we needed a lift. We were a very fun, fit, and congenial group of 5 Canadians, 3 Californians, and our 2 biking guides. Our first dinner together, we realized that 7 of the 8 of us were Jewish; what’s the odds of that? We were all over 60 years of age except for my fabulous roommate, “Gene, the Machine”, and the young bike guide Noah, both screaming up hills on  speedy road bikes. She won the yellow jersey (like the Tour de France) EVERY day. That’s Sally riding in #2 position…in the catch-up group that is. (photo credit, Gene Jones)

Having fallen from my bike and torn a ligament while training for this trip, I used the sag wagon (and the ice onboard) more than anyone else.

However, there was something about the advice I received on the first day when I asked for a ride on the killer hill, “Watch out for snakes, when you stop to wait for us”.  It made me ride more, and stop less. We met this guy behind glass at the Desert Museum.

I also learned that biking guides are big fat liars. In our morning meeting they would routinely describe each day’s ride as, “flat, with a few rolling hills”.  As we rode each day we learned that phrase really translates to, “very steep, long hills that will hurt like hell but won’t actually kill you”.

We enjoyed late afternoon “post-ride” tourism in Tombstone, the site of the OK corral shoot out. We grabbed shotguns and dressed up in period clothes for a photo with my two regular riding partners and best pals since 1978 from Palo Alto, CA and my new pal Gene from Sault St. Marie, Ontario.

Saguaro (pronounced “saw-WAR-oh”) National Park (featured image by David Ehrlick) makes people posture with yoga “cactus arms” because it feels like you are surrounded by tall people with weirdly long limbs and torsos. One of the best parts of a week long bike trip, besides the camaraderie and new terrain, is the fact that you get to eat like pigs for a week! This was especially true our last night in Bisbee, AZ which had galleries, coffeehouses, bars, restaurants…and chocolate infused with red chili pepper! Viva Mexico! Viva Hidalgo! …Also nice to be WALKING around town, giving our sore butts a welcome break from the saddle.