Israel (1998, 2007, 2013)

These pictures are scanned from an album from the pre-digital days.  My dad flew himself, Grace, Carmel and me 1^st class from California to Texas then Business Class to London all on his frequent flyer miles.  He brought us to attend the International AIDS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was presenting.  This was the first major trip that Carmel and I took together, and this was during the summer after our Freshmen years at university (we had been together just over a year).  We did the whole Eurorail thing bopping around Europe as fast as we Americanly could. 

And then we flew to Israel with Carmel’s mom.

* A few more photos are added from a return visit in 2007.

** Another trip in 2013. Carmel had a conference to go to in Jerusalem. With relatives in Israel, including her grandmother, she wanted to take Rio, so I was coerced to come as well (though I managed to make it a work trip). Rio and I spent the week playing by the pool and in the hotel. Next, we all went to Rehovot to visit relatives. I gave seminars at Tel Aviv University and at the Weizmann Institute.

Tel Aviv beach 2007.

Dinner in Eilat 2007.

Our 5 star hotel in Jerusalem. Not a bad place to hang out for the week.

Rio loved the 3-story indoor fountain/waterfall.

The hotel also had its own park.

Carmel’s grandmother, Safta, who is Rio’s great-grandmother (we call her Super Safta, which is the literal translation of the Hebrew for great-grandmother) and Safta’s caretaker, Jenny, visited us for a few days.

Carmel’s grandmother attended Carmel’s talk.

We took a special VIP tour of the THE museum in Israel, led by the first cousin (Anat) of Carmel’s mom, Eilat.

Mirrored hourglass thing.

We happened upon this piece of art while Rio was literally finishing an apple, much to his delight.

Rio was amused to put his real piece of fruit next to the fake fruit.

Rio is not so sure there is room for more than one Rio.

We ate so much good hummus and falafel.

We went out for a night on the town in the Old City, where they were doing a big lights and art event.

Flying fish greet the visitors.

Rio the Avatar enjoys looking up at all the lights.

One of those cool sand artists live and in person.

We put on a little acroyoga show of our own.

Outside of Jesus’s tomb. It was totally dark, but when the photo came out there appeared an unexpected brilliant bright light coming from the wall outside the tomb.

Wailing Wall in the distance.

Rio with his great Uncle Eran and Aunt Shva.

Rio and Nava, who is Carmel’s double-cousin (related to both of Carmel’s parents).

Benny, one of Carmel’s mother’s cousins, is a pilot for El Al. He hooked up Rio with some awesome El Al swag to go with a hat from Uncle Alon.

Jacob Dick, who is Carmel’s dad’s cousin, and his wife, Shelly, and daughter, Maya.

We swam and played every day with Rio’s Super Safta.

Rio and Super Safta!

More Rio and Super Safta.

Really can’t get enough of Rio and Super Safta.

Playing with Daddy in the pool.

Working on that swimming.

Jumping!

Non-stop giddy laughing and squealing.

Rio liked to climb up Daddy then jump back for a big splash.

Fun times.

We spent a night and day in Tel Aviv, where we ate fantastically, starting with this phenomenal shawarma place. Get it laffa-style rather than n a pita, as that is bigger and more resembles a burrito. They also juiced 2-dozen oranges for some fresh squeezed OJ for us.

We also had very good Palestinian food.

Uncle Aran lives a couple blocks from this quiet beach on the Mediterranean.

Smooth sand and warm water.

At first Rio was cautious about the water.

But then we couldn’t get him to leave.

Running and splashing!

We built a sand castle.

Sand castle all done, yay!

Naturally, time to destroy the sand castle! Wait a second, this is stronger than expected.

This is one awesomely strong sand castle.

The perfect platform for some sand jumping!

Weee!!

Woohoo!!

Multi shot.

Last pic: dance party with Super Safta!