Herzliya Beach

Today we said goodbye to Frank, Megan, and Carrie as they headed off to Turkey for a week with the BYU students.  They will be following the footsteps of Paul across Asia Minor.  We followed Paul's footsteps from Jerusalem to the the coast, and found a sunny beach just north of Tel Aviv.

 Isaac and David, the dynamic duo.  They're not brothers, but they get along as well as brothers do.  Isaac pulled Amanda around on a boogie board.

Mary is just younger than Lisa and makes great sand castles.  In the background is Cait Askew, a student at Hebrew University.  Candice brought along three Hebrew U. students from the branch as helpers. 

Aaron Edwards keeps Joe safe on his favorite play structure: a table.

David and Emily share a smile after lunch.  David is the champ of Marco Polo.

Lisa is ready for action!  She was the navigator the whole way from Jerusalem to the coast.  Only 2 u-turns on the way there!  That's a new personal best for me.

Amanda found some lovely shells and hung out in the waves.

Linda is in Emily's school class.

Lisa leaves her mark on the beach, in Serbian.

This is how the kids looked after pizza and popsicles.  We were fortunate to find an open restaurant as the community prepared for Rosh Hashana.    

The kids have two days off this week for the Jewish New Year.  This is a time of introspection and worship, rededication to the best principles of Judaism.  The Hebrew U. students said they were going to welcome the new year with Jewish friends at the Pool of Siloam, where their friends would symbolically send their sins downstream.  Amanda came home from school requesting apples dipped in honey, a traditional way to wish for a sweet year ahead and symbolize the divine presence.   On the way home we saw scores of Orthodox Jews in a stately procession to their synagogues to worship together, walking as it if were the Sabbath through streets mostly closed to traffic.  

Hag Sameach!  Shana Tova!  (Happy Holiday, Good Year)