masada, the dead sea, jerusalem: israel - part 4

Sorry for the delay...things have been busy busy which is a good thing but also quite a tiring thing! Here is the last installment of my Israel photos.

Smack in the middle of the hot, dry desert was Masada - a huge fortress and ruins of ancient palaces built atop a plateaued rock. This was surreal! The desert landscape was gorgeous, but it was so absolutely broiling in the sun. How anyone built anything there 2000 years ago, let alone on the top of a 1km high rock, beats me! And how they maintained a water supply and food storage is even more incredible. The photos don't do it justice...the scope of this rock and the scenery was breathtaking!


Masada overlooks the Dead Sea, so we stopped to take a dip. This is the lowest point on the Earth's surface. It is also the saltiest sea! Does it look like we are sitting in shallow water? We weren't we were floating! You can't sink the in the Dead Sea, as the salt content boosts you right up to the top. It's considered extremely healthy {just don't stay in longer than 10 minutes or else you will get pickled}. The mud at the bottom of the sea has tons of minerals...made our skin look awesome!


Onto Jerusalem...another amazing place! I wished we had more time there as there was so much to see. We took a tour below the Old City, in an excavation site...there are more cities beneath the Old City that they are uncovering as we speak! The Wailing Wall was particularly emotional, and I thought of all of the wishes and prayers that must have been made on the wall.


This is a small, mystical town in the mountains called Safed. Comprised of many art galleries, it is a very spiritual place, and you can feel the peacefulness. Madonna visited Safed the same day we were there...unfortunately we missed her though!



We went to a food market in Tel Aviv and I just wanted to share this photo...I loved the colours of all the spices in their baskets!


Some views of Haifa, the city where we stayed. It's gorgeous, and built on top of a mountain. Here are some views of the Baha'i Gardens from the top of the mountain, and one from the bottom.


And of course I took a photo of an Israeli license plate for my collection.
Well there was our trip in a nutshell!

zichron and caeserea - israel: part 3

The day after the wedding, we started doing some sightseeing and went to a charming nearby little town atop a mountain, called Zichron. A lovely place with shops and amazing food. Did I mention the food in Israel? I was expecting potato latkes and brisket {don't get me wrong, I love that food too} but it was anything but! There was actually a real Mediterranean feel to the food - fresh vegetables, salads, cheese, olives. Check out this antipasto dish...a work of art! And so tasty too. Every food experience I had in Israel was a good one!

After Zichron, we checked out nearby Caeserea where 2000 year old ruins of an ancient city built by King Herod remain. Quite gorgeous!

the wedding! israel: part two

Weddings in Israel are a lot different than weddings in North America! First of all they are huge - sometimes 500 people or more! And secondly - they are casual. People show up in jeans and cargo pants! And thirdly - it basically doesn't rain there in the summer so no tents required for outdoor weddings! It's pretty much guaranteed.

My sister Shayna's wedding was quite beautiful - on the beach at sunset. Here are some highlights of the day!

shalom y'all! israel: part one

Shalom! And apologies for my non-blogging the past few weeks. My sister got married in Israel and so my hubby and entire family made the journey to the Middle East. And was it ever beautiful! Truly a profound experience, I enjoyed every minute - the weather {hot and sunny...every day}, the food, the people, the beach, the amazing sights and landscape. I gained a better understanding of history, religion. What an amazing experience!

I will feature a few photos from the trip in each blog post...there are over 1300 pictures to sort through so bear with me! I will start chronologically.

When P. and I arrived in Tel Aviv, it was nighttime and we were whisked off to a delicious pre-wedding bbq. But because it was late, we weren't able to see much of the landscape on our drive from Tel Aviv to Haifa, where we were staying. In the morning though, we awoke to this spectacular view from our apartment...we were right on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea!

The water was...and I'm not exaggerating here...90 degrees. Still refreshing though, as outside it must have been 100 degrees or more. I soon realized that I could settle quite easily into the life of a beach bum.

This was the view from the front of our apartment building...

We then explored a market in an Arabic village, Daliat El Carmel, with cute little trinkets, textiles, and knick knacks.


On the way back to our hotel, we stopped to take in this view of Haifa, and that is Lebanon in the distance! Kinda freaky...didn't know it was within seeing distance!


We stopped at a great little cafe on our way back to our apartment where I was introduced to a little piece of heaven...the limonana. P. and I are now a tad obsessed with what we are convinced is the best drink ever! It is a lemonade slush with ground fresh mint leaves. Heaven I tell you! I sampled one at every restaurant we went to. Delish.

Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll feature my sister's wedding!

the Bloomers check out Masada and the Dead Sea

What an amazing adventure the Bloomers have had so far in Israel. Apart from the wedding (pictures as soon as we get back, I promise...we can't get the good wedding pics onto this computer yet!), the Bloomers got the chance to check out Masada, an ancient mountain in the desert on which King Herod built his palace over 2000 years ago, and a place very important to the Jewish history, as it marked the spot that the Jews fled to when the Roman empire captured Jerusalem. It was an awe-inspiring experience, not only to see the ancient ruins and understand how these people could live their lives on top of this EXTREMELY hot and dry, vegetation-free mountain (they even figured out how to get water up there those sons of a guns!), but the view was incredible, looking over the Dead Sea and the mountains in Jordan (see pics below).

Then it was off to the very hot Dead Sea where yours truly and fellow Bloomers got to cover their bodies in mud and float in the Dead Sea. It's so neat to use your body as a lounge chair!! Our skins feel nice and soft this morning!

Above: The view of the desert, the Dead Sea and Jordan - from atop Masada.

On the way up to Masada on the cable car...

Look at the decor we saw on the walls of King Herod's palace ruins on top of Masada - this small patch of wall on the palace ruins has remained like this for 2000 years ago - including the stucco like material behind it! We like to know that they were conscious about decor even back then...

Joelle Bloomer (and her husband P. Bloomer) float in the Dead Sea.

funny signage

I've been meaning to take a picture of this forever. Each time I come to Israel and stay with D's parents this sign outside their condo cracks me up. Its just so graphic!! The straining dog and the pointy poop is funny!

hello israel!

In light of our upcoming trip to Israel for my wedding, I decided to show you a little bit about this beautiful country we are going to see. Its funny because as I was researching Joelle Bloomer coincidentally sent me this link {Tel Me More, Tel Me More!} that she received today from DailyCandy! Such a clever title...wish I came up with it myself! It gives a few ideas of where to go in Tel Aviv. Specifically I'll be taking the family to shop on trendy Shenkin Street, for sweet potato latkes at Orna & Ella, and the Nachalat Binyamin market! We are also going up north to the the Golan Heights, to my favorite town Zichron Ya'akov, to Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and many, many of the glorious beaches. And oh yah...my wedding :)

I found some pictures on a blog called The Real Israel that I think are a great snapshot of what we'll be seeing. As for the wedding I'm pretty much done the planning however I'm still having trouble with the bouquet. Sadly poppies just aren't going to work there. I think I might research big orange dahlias instead...stay tuned!

{The Dead Sea...one of the most magical places to be!}

{View of Old Jerusalem}

{Artists' Colony in Einhod which is near Haifa}

{The stunning Bahai Temple in Haifa}

{The port in Haifa}


{Tel Aviv!}