A day in the life

Yesterday started out like any other day. We woke up to a near-snow-storm in Jerusalem. We ate our pumpkin bread. We watched my father-in-law (who is visiting this week) attempt to recreate "American" style coffee without a coffeemaker. First he boiled the coffee grounds in a pot, let the grounds sink to the bottom of the pot and then put the coffee in another pot on the stove to stay warm. This process only takes about 30 minutes and would be shorter if we would let him use an old sock as a strainer but I have boundaries. We then piled into our rental car and headed out of the snow storm, through some heavy rain and onto the Mediterranean coastal town of Haifa. It was cool and very windy there. We headed up the side of Mt Carmel to the Ba'hai temple and gardens. The Ba'hai "faith" is the belief that all religions and philosophies are good, and all men who have claimed to be messengers of God, are. One good thing about them is that they are a very peace-loving group of people and they also are amazing gardeners. The gardens surrounding the temple (and the shrine of the Bab) go all the way up the slope of the mountain and are perfectly manicured. We walked around and took pictures, and then left. Out on the street we continued with our day in the normal way. Everyone ate their peanut butter and jelly pitas while standing out on the street and I sat in the car and fed Baby Ben. Then we proceeded to look for the Santa Maris Monastery and Elijah's cave. We spent one hour driving in loops all over the city, following ill-marked signs, and roads that stop and veer off in strange directions. This is normal for Israel as they assume all drivers know where they are going so signs and even maps dont really matter. Finally we stopped for directions. I walked along the side walk asking if anyone speaks "anglit" until a nice man replied that he did. He gave me directions while a crazy man yelled Hebrew in my face (really a crazy man). We followed those directions and came to a place where there was no parking and no apparent street access at all. Ryan dropped us off and drove off in search of parking and we walked down to the beach where there was a cable car that supposedly took us to the monastery.

Because of hurricane level winds (give or take) the cable car was not running yesterday. We were told there was no access except by foot and our tour books also told us this. At this time, Ryan had showed up - he had off-roaded on the beach to get to us which again is fairly normal. We all got some coffee and then decided it was time to go. We also noticed that the monastery that had no car-access seemed to have a road going straight to it, so we decided on our own just to give it a shot. Somehow in 10 minutes we were able to make our way to front row parking up on the side of Mt Carmel in front of the monastery. Inside we were able to stand in a cave that for centuries has been traditionally the location of Elijah's hideout when running from Jezebel and her prophets. Just down the hill, surrounded by wildflowers and with the whipping winds, overlooking the Sea, is the traditional location of Elijah's showdown with those prophets of Baal. It is a very common experience for us here to be so fed up with the culture and crazy street signs and then to find ourselves standing on a cliff recalling the incredible intervention of God on behalf of His prophet. Elijah is a man who I have incredible respect and awe for and it was hard to believe I was standing on his turf.

When we left Mt. Carmel, we drove down the coast to Caesarea, where we had an incredible Mediterranean/Middle East -fusion non-kosher meal, while watching the sun setting over the sea and illuminating the ancient port town built by Herod the Great (the one who wanted to kill Jesus when he was born) in an orange-pink hue. After dinner, Ryan took his parents around the archeological park (in the dark) while I watched the boys roll down a grassy hill that ended at some ruins of Herod's summer home. Just as the country began to endear itself to me again, we walked out to the parking lot to find that our rental car had been broken into, and the boys leapfrog games had been stolen out of the glove compartment. The passenger side window had been shattered, and we spent two hours at the police station waiting to file a report. Thankfully, the baby (and grandpa) was asleep, and the boys were so happy to be at a police station looking for bad guys that it was only an inconvenience for me. After the police station, we drove an hour and a half home, with plastic bags in leu of a glass window, and put the boys to bed - only a couple hours past bedtime.

My emotions here in Israel must rise and fall about as much as the waves on the mediterranean on a windy day (like yesterday). But such is a day in the life of our family this year.