April 30 - Visiting with Benny and Ariella's Family

This is our last day in Israel!  We checked out of our hotel in Haifa and would head out to Tel Aviv to visit with Benny and his family and stay overnight in Tel Aviv as we had an early flight out on Thursday. We began the day with my parents walking along the Mercaz, last minute shopping.... And my last time at Aroma to have my latte and pastry. 

From there we drove to Tel Aviv.  We were invited to Hadas' house for coffee and cake with Hadas and her kids, Sharon and her kids, Yuval and his kids, and Benny.  We were to be there at 4:30. We had planned to drive first to our hotel, check in.....then go to Hadas' house.  We were driving in heavy traffic when Benny called us and said don't go to the hotel come to Hadas instead!  We could NOT get our GPS or Waze on my cell phone to work. We had no idea where we were so we pulled off the freeway at the first exit. We were in Barach Brek, a very orthodox community .... The roads were very narrow, orthodox men, women, and children EVERYWHERE!  Cars darting in and out, cutting us off, backing up without regard .... We stopped and tried to find out how to get to where we were going. I was getting frantic!  I had to speak Hebrew and did pretty good considering!  Not only did I speak and communicate decently..... I did a good job of driving VERY AGGRESSIVELY, as it was totally necessary. 

Finally, after driving in this community having not a clue where we were going our GPS miraculously began to work and we made it to our destination. It was, once again, wonderful to be with my family.  This time Benny and Ariella's 3 of their 4 children.  Sharon with Nogah and Iri, Hadas with Adam, Jonathan, and Shera, Yuval, his wife, Tally with Guy and their baby Noah. We ate, talked and had a wonderful time.  

Then off to return our car and to our hotel.....alarm set for 3:30 am to get to airport for our flight to Nice