Israel. Day 5. 80 Degrees Fahrenheit.

We woke up this morning around 830 with big plans for the day. I was scheduled to be at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (the JNF high school I recruit for) at 10 am. Tzvi was going to walk around the marina a bit and then head to Tel Aviv so we could all meet for lunch and then spend the afternoon exploring. That was the plan. 

We made it down to breakfast around 915 but I wasn’t too hungry and didn’t have time to eat so I just got coffee and then left to get a cab to take me to Hod HaSharon.

Tzvi: Hallie and I had a nice breakfast. Hallie had some pancakes and juice. I had a full plate of Israeli breakfast foods - tuna, boreka, hummus and salad. It was great. I wish I could have breakfast like this in America. I also had an omelet that a man was making in the middle of the buffet area. The breakfast was in the Herbert Samuel restaurant, but it’s a totally different chef and team between breakfast and dinner - the Herbert Samuel restaurant is really the dinner team, the breakfast just uses the space. 

After breakfast we got the stroller from the room and I said we were going to walk to the mall. That’s when Hallie said, “I want to go to the pool.” I was a little surprised but said ok, we could go look at the pool. The pool is on the roof with seating overlooking the marina and the ocean and is rather beautiful. Once we got up there, Hallie said she wanted to go in the pool and wanted to sit on the chairs. It was warm and sunny and she was pretty adamant so I said sure and we went back to the room to change. 

We then spent the next couple of hours in the pool and laying on chairs. It was great. That’s when we decided to just scrap the plan and I told Steph to come back here to the hotel so we could do this for the rest of the day.  

Steph: My morning was pretty uneventful. Campus looked the same as when I was there in November. I met with Mordechai, the head of school, who I hadn’t met with in November. Then I said hello to some of the staff. Nice visit. Then I headed back to the hotel, changed into a bathing suit and joined Tzvi and Hallie at the pool.

Around 1 o’clock Tzvi went back to the room and ordered room service but asked them to deliver the food to the pool.  A woman came with a big foot cart that she parked next to our seats. I had a Roquefort salad, minus the Roquefort cheese, plus tuna. We ordered Hallie a cream cheese sandwich and French fries, and surprisingly she actually ate the sandwich and liked it.  Win. We also got a delicious fruit salad.

We went back in the pool and swam for a while longer. Hallie loved splashing around in the pool. At one point we tried ordering iced coffees with khalua but we just ended up with iced coffees, which were still good. Hallie got a cold milk with whipped cream.

Hallie really didn’t want to get out of the pool, but around 3 she was getting tired so I walked her around for a few minutes and she fell asleep in the stroller. Then I came back to the pool and we swam and laid there until 5 when the pool closed. 

The pool wasn’t that crowded, but there were a few people. There was one group of Israeli women who were pretty loud.  There was also a group of seminary girls in black dresses and black stockings who were also kind of loud and at one point see playing Jewish music out loud and then realized that no one else wanted to hear it. At one point they saw people jet skiing and jumped up and said, “oh my God we have to go jet skiing.” Then they started frantically googling  and calling jet ski places, and when it was all in Hebrew they held their phone out to a random Israeli walking by and just said “what are they saying?” Yuck.  We also saw a frum couple that first came up to the pool with him wearing a big kipa and her wearing a skirt and long sleeve shirt. Then they left and came back ten minutes later, him with no kippa and her in a skimpy bikini.  Then there were a couple of older women discussing their schvimkleits.

At 5 we walked into the marina to Golda, an ice cream shop. We asked about nuts and they said only one flavor had hazelnut. So we tried a bunch of flavors, and then Tzvi asked another question and the guy said that all of the flavors have “nut cream” and he didn’t know what kind of nuts. At that point Tzvi had already tried one of the flavors and it seemed pretty unlikely that there were actually nuts in it, but the guy was insistent so I got a cup with two flavors and Tzvi got nothing. I had a Hershey’s cookies and cream flavor (it seems that they are big on that here) and some chocolate lotus. Both very good, but the whole thing was just annoying because I only got it because Tzvi was getting it and then he didn’t even get it.

After that ordeal, I went back to the room and Tzvi went to the spa to use the sauna and steam room while I gave Hallie a bath. Then we switched and I went to the spa while Tzvi got ready.

Around 630 we went downstairs for dinner at the Herbert Samuel restaurant in the lobby. As noted above, the restaurant uses the same space for breakfast, but it’s amazing how they convert the breakfast buffet into an open kitchen. Like everything is actually cooked right there in the same space that they set up breakfast. Pretty amazing. 

This was the kitchen set-up for dinner:

Contrast that with the morning breakfast set-up. Pretty cool transition.

We started by ordering wine. Tzvi knew what he wanted but I had to try a few first. We immediately ordered Hallie a plate or chicken and potatoes, which came quickly and was delicious. To start Tzvi and I shared two appetizers. The first was a large piece of whole roasted cauliflower served on mushroom purée with balsamic reduction and a poached egg. It was delicious.  The second appetizer was a veal short rib tortellini, which were basically two huge pieces of pasta stuffed with veal and surrounded by mushrooms and peas. I need to find another word for delicious.  The chef also sent us a raw yellowtail appetizer with some sort of gel and chili peppers, which Tzvi ate and said was really good.

For the main we shared the chateaubriand for two. It came as four pieces of steak with a giant roasted marrow bone and more crispy potatoes.  It was so good, and it was cooked so perfectly that Tzvi and I actually liked it cooked the same way. Usually I like my meat more well done than Tzvi, and this was a little rarer than I usually order but was still perfect. 

For dessert we all shared the sorbet which was a scoop of mango and a scoop of raspberry over a finely diced fruit salad. I don’t usually care for sorbet but this was good. We also shared a dessert of date cake served over some kind of cone type crisp and sesame brittle with two scoops of tehina ice cream. It was really fantastic.

After dinner we came back to the room and put Hallie to bed. She actually went to sleep easily. Then we took a bath and went to sleep.

Perfect day.