I'm Hooked

So, to follow up on my question from last post - is it worth it? I guess you all could tell me I told you so, but, I'm hooked. Despite a sprained ankle and many boutiques being closed by the time they got there (damn the sprained ankle!) we had a really good time. And it really does make a difference to go away.

Some cool things we saw:

• A cow running away from home down to the river, as we ate dinner (steak) across on the opposite bank. Can cows swim if they fall in?
• Lots of junk art galleries. What is it with artists who make things out of junk? Its a cool idea, but it gets a little tiring. I do like the wallhangings made of old plow equiptement though.
  
• The best humus and pita in the north. Ben had my salad, I couldn't get enough servings of hot fresh pita. The guy thought I wasn't so normal....
• Mt. Tabor. Wow, now that is a mountain. Very impressive.
• Lots of beautiful Arab cities. Call me sheltered (bigoted? I'm really not..), for some reason I thought Arab cities were run-down shanty towns. Maybe except for Abu Gosh. But some cities up there were really great. What an eye opener.
• Great place names. Mutzmutz! Lots of inspiration for our baby name, and lots of driving time to discuss it. No, its not Mutzmutz.
• A very not-cool thing we saw: Multiple parents (could they have been teachers!??) smoking on a school trip. Very uncool. Ben reminded me that 30 years ago, it would have been the middle schoolers smoking instead.
• Yummy jams and jellys for decent prices.
• The Kinnerret. Some day, when we make a million, I'm going to buy a beach house on the Kinnerret.
  

I can't believe how little I've been around this country. After spending 4 summers here, 2 years in seminary, and almost 8 years since then, I'd never been to Afula. Why would I ever need to go to Afula? But we got lost in Afula and I'm so glad that we did. I've seen a lot of mountains, trees, deserts. I want to see every more Afulas.

Now I'm torn with bringing Eden next time and just going ourselves again....I want to show all this to her also!

As could have been expected, Eden had a great time at her grandparents. They had a pizza slumber party with Sarah and Hila, I guess you can't beat that.

Completely separate note - recently, pairs of pigeons have been visiting me on my windowsills at work (perks of a corner cubicle). They look like they are so in love, and it really brightens my day. Their twitterpated! I love to watch them, and wish I could hear what they are saying. I sometimes think that I have a tendancy to get depressed in the spring....twitterpated birds do make it better somehow.