Eating Well

 The hotel breakfast is, in the words of one of my fellow workshop attendees, formidable.  Also, delicious!

For lunch today we went to a nearby Druze village, and the restaurant served us a variety of small plates.  The dishes here are largely veggies, especially cucumber and eggplant.  Delicious!  (And healthy, too, I think.)  The only downside is that after such a good meal, everyone was struggling to stay awake for the afternoon talks. :)

The bottom picture is the Bahai shrine and gardens from the top of the hill -- the other day we were looking up from the bottom.

Artists' Village

Good news from the home front -- James got his cast off today!  Yay!!  And Grandma Georgia arrived safely last night as well.  (And, Matthew informed me that a leprechaun visited their classroom -- he left footprints and turned the toilet water green.)

Today was an election day in Israel, so the university was closed. So we had our meeting today at Ein Hod, an artists' village, and during our lunch break we had a brief tour given by one of the artists, plus some time to wander around and enjoy the galleries, outside sculputures, and beautiful spring scenery.  It was a lovely change of pace!

For dinner we went to Zikron Yaacov.  We had a brief tour (although it was already getting dark) and then went to a wonderful restaurant, which served tons of Mediterranean salad/side dishes family style along with the main courses. Yum!

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Haifa

 Today was a full conference day. The top picture is the morning view out of my hotel window, and following ones are from the University of Haifa campus.  Our meeting place is the Rabin Observatory, the green glass building, which provides lovely views.  After lunch, we were able to go up another campus tower to see even better views of the city (although the pictures are not so great because the windows were dirty).

We were on our own for dinner, so a group of us went to find the falafel place where Helena had had the best falafels of her life last time she was here. It   was a little shop in the Christian Arab area of town (second to last picture).  Unfortunately, they were closing when we arrived, but the owner gave us a bag of falafels for free -- not hot, but still very tasty.  Then we walked around a bit and ate a real meal elsewhere. The last photo is the Bahai gardens at night.

Israel at Last

Thanks to the incompetence of United Airlines, I ended up spending Friday night in Newark, but I made it to Israel this morning. I didn't do much sightseeing yet, but the hotel in Haifa is right next to the beach, which is beautiful.

The tall building in the third-to-last picture is the hotel, and the last two are views from my room.  The hotel is a bit away from the main city, which is mostly on Mount Carmel. (I'm on the corner of the hotel, so I also have an ocean view -- very fancy!)

Writer's Workshop

 Matthew says his favorite thing in school is writer's workshop.  Here are some of their recent writings.

Top, Matthew: (translation) This cheeseburger has eyes.  I am going to eat this cheeseburger.  (I love the spelling attempts!)

Middle, Matthew:  I have a mom and dad.  I love my mom and dad.

Bottom, James:  I'm playing with my favorite toy.  I love my dad.

Thaw

 Hey, look, our icicle is almost gone!  And look, you can see some grass by the sidewalk!  Woo-hoo, spring!

(It turns out that having icicles is actually a sign that some areas of the house are not properly insulated.  Who knew?  Apparently Northerners, that's who...)

Hockey

 Mattie is still enjoying hockey (and he even got to be goalie a couple of weeks ago -- I don't think I posted the pictures yet, so those are at the bottom).

Our temperatures have finally risen above freezing!  It's lovely to see some of the snow melting and the birds returning -- hooray for spring!  (There's still plenty of snow around, but at least the piles are shrinking.)

Handsome

 The boys were overdue for haircuts!  (And no, Matthew isn't going to wear his spiked up like that, but he wanted to try it out!)

Actually Walking

James has had his walking cast for several days now, but he wasn't willing or able to actually walk very much.  In fact, the school nurse even called us and suggested that he might need some physical therapy to get back to walking.  But then today he was doing much better!  Still not perfect, but definitely getting around on his feet more than scooting.  :)