Our driving continued today... this time down south. The kids enjoyed the Ramat Gan Safari so much the first time that they insisted on returning with Papi. So we headed back to Ramat Gan. Summer vacation is now in full force in Israel and not only was the Safari a bit more crowded; it was also a lot hotter. We drove through the safari twice and Adam loved seeing all his favorite wild cats. Both boys enjoyed showing Gabe around and sharing with him all the special things they saw a few weeks ago. Even through all the signs clearly stated to not feed the animals and to keep the car windows closed, we assumed those rules were meant for others. By throwing a few pretzels out the car window, we had a few very up close visitors (one even licked the window clean for us). The highlight of the Safari was also a camel ride.... after all if not in Israel, then where?
From there we headed further south through Ashdod for lunch. Andrew, Gabe and I enjoyed a most delicious shwarma lunch; Adam had to have McDonalds.... Oh well, you can take a boy out of the valley but you can't really take the valley out of the boy. Odd thing though, his nuggets came in a McFalafel box. I wonder how those would sell at the Mickey Dees in Woodland Hills?
Our next stop was Ashkelon, almost on the Gaza boarder, to visit one of Gabe's school friends (and his ex-girlfriend!) Gigi and her family. We spent time together at the beach with her and her boys Daniel and Ron. There is an infestation of jelly fish all along the shore in Israel and while the kids didn't frolick in the surf (one jelly fish sting a summer is plenty for us Starkmans), they did spend time shoveling the jelly fish from the sand. They did a great job cleaning up the Ashkelon beach!
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| Zebra |
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| Antelope |
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| Camel |
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| Monkeys and Elephants.... |
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| Gabe and a Jelly Fish |
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| Gabe and our boys, along with Gigi and her boys! |
From there we headed further south through Ashdod for lunch. Andrew, Gabe and I enjoyed a most delicious shwarma lunch; Adam had to have McDonalds.... Oh well, you can take a boy out of the valley but you can't really take the valley out of the boy. Odd thing though, his nuggets came in a McFalafel box. I wonder how those would sell at the Mickey Dees in Woodland Hills?
