Marty’s son Todd, visited us from Thursday, Oct 4th until Friday Oct 12th.  We had a GREAT time with him. We didn’t take as many pictures as we usually do, but here is the rundown on all that we did:

Thurs 10/4 – Todd arrived mid-day and in the evening we had dinner at the Jerusalem Botanical Garden followed by a concert by the Jerusalem Symphony orchestra.

Fri 10/5 – wine tasting (at 9AM!), followed by breakfast in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, right across from the Cardo (old, excavated Roman road from the first century CE).  We all had Shakshouka, a delicious dish of poached eggs and cheese cooked over spiced tomatoes and peppers.  Then we walked all through the Old City, visited the Artist Colony and had dinner at Adom on Feingold Street.

Sat 10/6 – Todd and Marty went to morning services, then we all went to Nataf, an Isreali settlement in the Judean Hills for brunch at Rama’s Kitchen, followed by a concert at the Abu Ghosh music festival.

Sun 10/7 – we had a lovely day, capped off by a very nice dinner with Todd’s friend, Itzik’s family.  The food was delicious and the family was so very warm and gracious.  They have a beautiful home and we ate outside on their terrace in their spacious and lovely sukkah!

During the week, Marty and Todd visited Ein Karem (where John the Baptist was born and lived).  They also visited Ben Gurion University, the Air Force Museum, the Bedouin suk and the Negev Independence Memorial in Beer Sheba, rode the bikes up to Mount Herzl and around Jerusalem.

Todd is fluent in Hebrew, having spent at least two years living in Israel in his younger days. Among many things, he told us about Thursday night Challah/bakery tours, taught us how to prevent the shopkeepers from pushing us around, and showed us how to figure out the difference between cottage cheese, yogurt, sour creme and Bulgarian cheese in the dairy case at the grocery store!

Marty and Todd at the kotel (Western Wall)

Abu Ghosh concert (we didn’t know Todd didn’t like Opera!)