Neighborhood Part 2

Ask and ye shall receive LOL Here is what the road/sidewalk looks like normally.....

The only gaps between the cars are driveways.. This picture makes it look like there is still pretty good space on the road to drive but in many spots you cannot get 2 cars to pass each other - sooooooo you hope for a driveway! haha

Below is how many cars are parked in this neighborhood LOL (And malls, movie theaters, parks, etc) Owning a truck here is handy!! Do people get ticked here? Not very often. The road that runs in front of Sebastian's office is crrraazzzy - double parked, triple parked, you name it - and no one does anything about it (other than honking and cursing lol). The only explanation that I have been given is that the police are more concerned with terrorism issues to be worried about parking....between that and the 'rules are just suggestions' part of this culture, well you get the idea.

The Neighborhood

After trying to describe it I thought a few pictures would help....these ae taken during the day so there are fewer cars parked along the street (or should I say on the sidewalk lol seriously!)...and less, ahem, debris on the sidewalks. That debris can be landscaping garbage (grass, tree clippings, etc) that get thrown into piles (i.e. no bags) on the sidewalks for Friday pick up and dog poop. Yep sad to say but it seems no one cleans up after their dogs practically, even though there are bags at most green areas in the neighborhood. It can make walking with the girls difficult at times. I guess since they have street cleaners that come through every so often they figure they can.....

Walking along a street close to here this is what you see on the left & right. I took both to give an idea of the walls around the houses I have been talking about. The one on the right gives you an idea of how high most of them are...

And this is a picture of the construction across the street. It is taken from our second story and you can see the outer wall on the ground - gives you an idea of how big it is!! And yes, they start work early in the morning (and our bedroom faces into it).

We have a couple smaller parks around us as well. This is a one...There are a bigger ones but further away that we go to as well, especially now that the weather is cooling off a bit! This is one thing this area did well - there are quite a few parks around.

No that is not one of my dogs...don't know where it came from - the owner was not around. That happens frequently - you just hope they are friendly! I got chased coming back from a gym - thank goodness the girls weren't with me. I ignored it and luckily it finally stopped and took off. Another reason not to walk around with your IPOD on LOL - it will however get your heartrate up when you finally see it coming!

The following were taken 2 nights ago in 'downtown' Herzliya Pituah when we went to Moses restaurant for dinner and the Coffee Bean for frap's afterwards. These are 2 of our favourite places!!! Lucky for us they are side by side in an area big enough to keep Ty entertained as well LOL Actually there is a kick-ass coffee/frap/pastry place called Roladin that is even better than the Bean but thats another story. Nights are great here - cool & breezy.

Parting shot of Alex since she is not in any other photos :-)

Time to go make breakfast for Tyler. I have more pictures so will post another blog hopefully later today!

The Dead Sea

Well we finally got our car and wasted no time getting out for a bit! We did a day trip to the Dead Sea on Saturday, which is Sabbath here, so there was next to no traffic which was great,.....We had never been there before and with the exception of a slight detour into the West Bank (opps!!) we made it there pretty quickly and spent the day there checking it out.

Weather was beautiful and the tour buses were plentiful LOL When you walk up to the sea you notice that the sand turns to white at the waterline...keeping your shoes on is a MUST as the hardened salt is not something you want to walk barefoot on. Just as bad is the taste! I was holding Tyler where she decided to splash some water and it got in my mouth. Let me tell you I have had salt water before but nothing as awful as this!! The salt concentration is insane!! It is also oily which I hadn't anticipated. Making sure there is a place to shower afterwards is also a MUST unless you bring water with you to douse yourself with :-)

Other than that we are still unpacking stuff but, thankfully, are almost done. We took most of Thursday off from unpacking as it was Yom Kippur here. That day no one drives (it's not allowed) which means everyone takes their bikes and strollers out. We did the same :) Packed the kids up into the Charriot and took off on our bikes riding all over Herzliya, hit the pool, then continued on riding to a couple parks and then home. It was great but eerily strange. We crossed the overpass and it felt like a scene from I Am Legend - looooong highway leading to Tel Aviv and not a soul on it! It was wonderful to explore by bike and not to have to deal with the traffic - we would love it if there were more "no drive" days!!

Here are some pic's

Ice cream stop once we get there.....

Continuing our drive around the sea you see the caves in the cliffs beside you. Hopefully one time we will be able to leave the kids with a sitter and get to explore them. We also drove past the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. There's a museum there that we didn't get to check out this time...hopefully next!

Then we found a nice quiet spot to try the water...yes its true you DO float :) ty wasn't so sure about it to start with but as long as she had one of us to hang onto it was okay. Balancing is easy as long as you don't try to stand! Just need to bob like a cork!!

Look Ma!! No hands or feet LOL

Ty checking herself out post-swim

Yup you've seen it here...golden arches at the Dead Sea! (The building/hotel in behind is a Crowne Plaza)

I picked up some of the famous black body/skin mud and brought it back to the house with me...I'll let you know how that goes LOL

HAPPY DAYS!!!!

YEAAAAAAAAA !!!!! :-)

We have an appointment to get our household goods!! Next Tuesday morning to be exact!! FINALLY we will have the girls' toys, strollers, baby tub, high chair, plastic bowls, cups, plates....kitchen >>>OMG I will have my pots, pans and bakeware!!!LMAO Never did I ever think I would be so happy to see kitchen stuff :) Nevermind our TV, bikes, dog beds, etc.....

Yup next Tuesday will be a very happy but busy day!! Now if we can just find our SUV we will be set !

My days are still filled with the kids mostly (feeding, cleaning up after kids and dogs - gawd its groundhog day haha) The stock market as most of you know has been tanking and between that, the volatility, and the kids keeping me from watching it uninterrupted, I have not been doing much in it.

The yard is now done (was seriously overgrown when we got here and has not gotten better on its own!) which will be nice to enjoy now that the temp has dropped to the 70's & 80's. Just need some flowers which we have to wait for the truck to get...and Lisa..my dear sister...how I wish I could teleport her here so she could help with the landscaping! Or pot-scaping I guess I should call it as there are empty pots everywhere - its just a matter of figuring out what to plant in them! I know there must be some great smelling flowers for this area - just a matter of figuring out which!