A 20 hour day!

4:15 am. The alarm went off and we reluctantly got out of bed, took showers, and started packing up. We woke the big kids soon after (after all, it was their idea to do this sunrise hike up Masada!), but let Sylvia sleep in as late as possible (4:40 am). We packed lots of water & some breakfast foods, and checked out of the hostel. We made it to Masada by about 5:10 (by the way, the temperature on the car thermometer at that time was about 90 degrees) and started the climb up the snake path in the very faint pre-dawn light. The climb was harder than we expected (especially with a baby in a backpack on Abe’s back and 3 liters of water in a backpack on mine), but we kept on going. We reached the top in about 50 minutes, just as the sun peeked over the top of the mountains facing us. It was a beautiful sight and an amazing feeling of accomplishment (especially when you consider that we kept pace with kids 20 years younger than us). I still have mixed feelings about the whole idea of a sunrise hike, but I’m glad we did it.

Once we got to the top, we found a little ruined house with some low walls to sit on and had a secret breakfast (you're not really supposed to eat up there). The juice, bread, and fruit was very welcome after the long hike. Since we were planning to tour around with the Gold's tour group later, we just took it easy for a little while, waiting for the cable car to start running and bring up their group. They made it to the top around 8:30 and we all went to the ancient Beit Hamidrash (study house) for Noa's bat mitzvah (along with the other b'nai mitzvah kids in her group). The service was led by a wonderful rabbi (originally from New York, has lived in Jerusalem for 30 years) who did a really amazing job of making the relatively brief (1 hour) service meaningful, special, and warm. Noa was a star - she read Torah like a professional! She also did an English reading in the service. We were really proud of her and moved by the whole service. 

After the service and some photos, we joined the tour for their visit to Masada. Their tour guide is a very knowledgeable guy, tells good stories, some funny jokes. His main weakness is that he goes on way too long. We sat in a shaded area for him to tell us the story of Masada (I expected 20 minutes) and he went on for an hour and 20. He covered every emperor Rome ever had as the background to the Masada story. In a nutshell, Masada was originally a retreat for the Roman king of Judea, Herod. Later, when the Romans destroyed the Temple, a group of several hundred Jews camped out on Masada in revolt of the Roman's attempts to destroy their way of life. After a several month siege, however, it became clear that the Romans would take Masada soon. Nearly a thousand Jews committed mass suicide (actually, the drew lots to determine who would kill the others and only the last one committed suicide) rather than give themselves over to the Romans. Masada is considered a testimony to the Jewish commitment to our ideals and principals, which makes it a very meaningful place for a bat mitzvah. 

After the rather long background, the group went to walk around and look at the various remaining structures on the top. We decided to go our own way and walked to the southern end to see Herod's swimming pool and the amazingly deep water cisterns. We also went to see the ancient synagogue (it was a stable until after the destruction of the Temple). There was actually a man sitting in it (behind a glass wall) writing a Torah. We checked out a few other sites, and were ready to take the cable car down. We met up with the Golds at the bottom (in the extensive gift shop, food court area that has been built there recently) and had a nice lunch together. 

The drive back to Jerusalem was interesting. We drove back on route 90 and route 1 - roads which go through the West Bank, but are under Israeli control (which makes them ok for us to drive on in our rental car). It was very interesting driving this route, and I have to say, I don't fully understand it. There were check points at either end, but no real check (which might have had something to do with the Avis stickers plastered all over our car). I don't know how far on either side of the roads Israeli control extends. but we were surprised to see almost no development along the 90 minute route, other than maybe 1 gas station and 1 cafe cafe (which is an Israeli restaurant chain). We could see some (nice) housing developments in the distance. It would be interesting to understand more about the evolving relationship between these two governments and how they are managing this quasi-sharing of the region. 

We drove as close as we could to our *last* hotel in Israel - The Market courtyard, an awesome apartment/vacation rental place in an amazing neighborhood right across from Machane Yehuda (the shuk). The place is on a pedestrian street, with narrow alleys all around with a major thoroughfare (Agripas Road) at the end of it. Needless to say, it was not easy driving, but Abe did a great job, found a temporary parking spot in a nearby alley and we unloaded the stuff and brought it into our (very nice) apartment. We got the kids settled in (snack & wifi password and they're good to go) and headed out once more to return the car. The drive north to the car rental place went right through Mea Shearim, an ultra orthodox neighborhood, which made me nervous about the walk home (since I was wearing capris and a t-shirt). But, we found an alternate route, and has no problems. 

We checked in on the kids (more snacks, plenty of ipads) and went out one more time, this time to Ben Yehuda Street to do a few errands (bat mitzvah gift for Noa, reservation for dinner Saturday night, a couple of souvenirs we wanted, groceries). All errands were successfully completed - something I don't think has ever happened in Jerusalem before - at least not for us! 

Next, showers and dressed for Noa's bat mitzvah party. Sylvia had slept through the tour guide's lecture this morning, and the big kids had slept a little bit in the car, but we were all pretty tired. Nonetheless, the cool Jerusalem breeze, which we haven't felt in a long time, convinced us to walk the mile and a half to the Inbal Hotel (a nice, downhill walk through our "old neighborhood" from June). The bat mitzvah party was fantastic - really nice in every way. There was a great cocktail hour with an open bar and yummy passed hors d'oeuvres.  Then an awesome band who kept everyone dancing all night. Delicious food. A touching candle lighting ceremony where the kids lit candles for important and inspiring Jewish figures from history. In the lobby there was some Orthodox speed dating event, which led Amy and the kids to invent a game about Orthodox dating ("You like the Talmud? *I* like the Talmud!"). The Israeli band somehow knew all of the American Bat mitzvah classics (YMCA, We are family, Celebration, I've got a Feeling, etc). Each kid had their chance to be lifted up on a chair. Everything about it was perfect, and we had a blast. We finally left around 11:30, and took a fast bus home (we were the only ones on it), and put the kids to bed around midnight. Hopefully, we'll all sleep late tomorrow.