Last day in Tel Aviv

With just over a week left in Israel, I suspect a lot of "lasts" are coming. Today was our last day in Tel Aviv, so we made sure to get in a few things we've been meaning to do (or do again). This morning Abe and I got up early and the kids stayed home while we went to the Palmach museum (museum date!). It was every bit as good as we had heard. The exhibit is underground in a series of about 30 little rooms, each of which depicts some episode in the story of a group of about a dozen young Palmachniks. The Palmach soldiers were Jews in Palestine originally recruited and trained by the British to be ready to defend Palestine in case the Nazi army advanced that far. When the tide turned in WWII and it was clear the Nazis would not invade Palestine, the British told the Palmach soldiers, "It's been a pleasure. Now, give us back our guns and go home." But, the Palmach soldiers wanted to remain an army on behalf of the Jews, and they did so, in secrecy. They mostly lived on Kibbutzim, worked 1/2 of the month and trained the other half, and in this way were self supporting. In the exhibit, we watched the Palmachniks as they trained, fought, became friends, fell in love, and in several cases were killed. It was a very touching story and over the course of the 90 minute presentation, we became rather invested in their (fictitious) lives. The only odd thing about the exhibit was that the Hebrew narrative was mostly made up of conversations among the Palmachniks themselves, from which the listener gleaned the history. The English version (which we listened to on headsets) was mostly history and background, occasionally interspersed with what the characters themselves were saying. I'm not sure if they thought that they needed to dumb it down for the English speakers, or what.

We had lunch at home to finish up the rest of the food in the fridge, and then set out for a long beach afternoon. The kids played in the water and the sand and had a great time. Abe and I watched them in the shallow water, ordered a beer from the little restaurant behind us, and eventually watched the sunset. A very nice beach finale.

On the way home we picked up burgers and fries to go at a little beach restaurant (it was a typical Israeli balagan [chaotic mess] with an inefficient system where they took orders and people paid, but they kept poor records about who ordered what, so when the time came to make your burger, they didn't know what you wanted and weren't sure if you had paid).

Finally, after living 2 steps away from it for weeks, we finally took the kids out to see the fountain show at night. The multicolored fountain on Dizengoff Circle does a little show where it lights up, spins around, plays music, spouts water high into the air, and shoots fire out of the top. It's pretty impressive for the 2 year old crowd! As it began, Ella took a photo of the fountain, and a 20-something Israeli man came over and asked her what she was photographing. Over the course of the next few minutes, he got flirtier and closer to her. I suggested that Abe get a little closer to what was going on. Abe approached and the guy looked at him. Abe told him that he was Ella's father. Mr. 20-something said "you have a very beautiful daughter." Abe told him, "Thanks. She's 13." Mr. 20-something looked shocked and dismayed "13?! Really?! I'm very sorry" and he hurried off. Uh-oh
!

The fountain dance!