Old City Akko is a tiny fishing village slash crusader fort, about half an hour outside of Haifa. Over the past thousand years, there has understandably been a great deal of development outside of the ancient walls, but the tourist attractions are all in the Old City itself. I rose bright and early to walk… Read More Solo Travel to Akko, Israel
Haifa’s a neat town. Traveling alone, I wasn’t looking for bars or a music scene—just beautiful scenery, the sea, and museums. Given that, it’s possible to see everything in a day, provided you’re traveling alone and don’t have to worry about potty breaks and naps and mealtimes like you do when traveling with children. I… Read More More Solo Travel in Haifa, Israel
Traveling alone is a surprisingly communal experience. After years of relying on Bertrand’s charm and ability to make instant friends, I found is startlingly easy to find good company and conversation while exploring Northern Israel on my own. When Bertrand abruptly left for Benin with the girls after his father passed away, I found myself… Read More Visiting the Bahá’í Gardens in Haifa, Israel
The photo above is of Jasmine skipping down the narrow passage ways of the Old City on our way to mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as the sun rose above Jerusalem this morning. Easter is my favorite religious holiday. I find it beautiful that Christians all over the world are today celebrating… Read More Happy Easter from Jerusalem
Over the weekend, I woke up early and dragged our family out to Bethlehem. Like Ein Karem last week, it’s a quick inexpensive excursion that didn’t require a lot of advance planning. It was more of an adventure than expected—both Google and Apple Maps failed us completely. No route available to get from our house to… Read More Our first trip to the West Bank — Biblical Bethlehem
My husband and I worry about the effect of our Foreign Service lifestyle on our children. Raising expat kids is a real challenge! Will they grow up rich with experiences, polyglot, and appreciative of all that they have? Or will they grow up spoiled and entitled, used to having the world at their feet? We hope… Read More Seven Ways to Keep Life Balanced while Raising Expat Kids
Saturday afternoon, we’d finished puttering around the house, and didn’t really want to waste a beautiful afternoon indoors. It was also late enough that we knew the kids wouldn’t last long, and we didn’t want to commit to a long expensive excursion if a breakdown were eminent. With small children, it’s easy to get caught… Read More Ein Karem – a Tiny Oasis in West Jerusalem
Friends of ours invited us to join them on a trip to the Negev to see Israeli’s national flower, the anemone bloom. The flowers bloom only for a few short weeks after the rainy season, before disappearing until the next year. After over a month cooped up in Jerusalem, we were happy to get out… Read More Darom Adom Southern Anemone festival in southern Israel – Watching the Desert Bloom
One of the best kids’ activities in Jerusalem is the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, and I was tired of my coworkers’ surprise when I told them, “No, we haven’t been to the zoo yet.” So on Sunday morning, we got up, picked up the house, packed a lunch, and dragged the kids to Jerusalem’s zoo. It was… Read More Sondjos at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo
We finally had a spare moment to be tourists in Jerusalem, and we took advantage of the free afternoon by visiting the Mahane Yehuda market in downtown Jerusalem. We spent the afternoon shepherding our kids (the only kids at the market who weren’t in strollers) between vendors and trying to keep other shoppers from tripping… Read More The Shuk in Jerusalem – Mahane Yehuda with Kids