Day 1: Lunch with the Relatives

Our arrival in Israel is uneventful except for the fact that security is clearly understaffed and it takes nearly an hour of standing in line to get to a booth to have our passports checked. I use the term "standing" loosely because actually we spend the time aggressively pushing forward so as to avoid being run over by the Russians trying to shove pass us.  Others in line assure me this is unusual (the waiting, not the Russians).  Arriving in a foreign land is always disequilibrating (particularly after 24 hours without any sleep), but we manage to get our rental car and drive through Tel Aviv to Netanya,. There we have a delightful lunch with Roz’s cousin Sally, who is in her 80s but extremely lively and still folk dancing once a week. We are joined by her son Steven and cousins who are visiting from Toronto (Ethel) and England (Doreen).  Sally’s apartment overlooks Netanya’s beautiful long beach. The Mediterranean looks inviting, but we are both beginning to become catatonic from exhaustion and so complete our drive up to Haifa and our hotel.