On the way and initial arrival

This is Deborah Graf writing - with a few comments from Becky and Daria -
We will try to remember as much as possible, so much has happened in the past day and a half...

Becky was very pleased to have the task of schlepping Count Zinzendoll in her backpack for the whole trip.  He came out first at Newark Airport to eat some delicious Subway food.
We left at around 6:30 pm from Moravian Seminary (thanks to Becky's Aunts and Daria's Aunt Joy and mom.

Newark airport is not the most exciting place to spend 3 hours while waiting for a plane that was 45 minutes late in taking off.  The food on Lot airlines was "interesting" as Becky puts it.  (basically long pieces of bread with some meat...)  There were a LOT of children on that plane - traveling families and many older kids traveling alone.

Arrived in Warsaw - 8 hour layover... I went into town while the others stayed at the airport.  (Euro 2012 is going on, so there were lots of directions for tourists and lots of English speaking people!)

Back on the plane to Tel Aviv.  Going through security was not as bad as we imagined.  Becky went first because she brought along the paper with all the traveling information (thank God.)  All the luggage arrived quickly and mostly in tact (except for the zipper on Daria's pink suitcase.)  As we waited outside, we got to see the sunrise.

It was a relief when Deborah Appler came to pick us up. (She only got lost once on the way.)  Luckily all of our luggage fit into the dusty blue Mazda.  Drove through Tel Aviv and up the coast of the Mediterranean.  Got to the kibbutz.

Let us tell you - this is "kibbutz deluxe" - complete with the cleanest swimming pool you will find in Israel (thanks to the kibbutz's production of swimming pool cleaning machines, which is their bread and butter.)

The place we are staying is cool - two rooms - one up and one down.  Thank God for air-conditioning because the sun is very intense, even in the morning.

We got to eat breakfast (every morning they have beautiful vegetables like fresh cucumbers and peppers and tomatoes along with boiled eggs, yogurt, and cereal.)  Then had some welcome downtime.

It was Shabbat so there were not a whole lot of things going on.  Luckily we had electricity the whole day (we were warned we might not have any in the afternoon.)

One thing I will not forget is:  Drink Drink Drink!