Monday, June 29 Tel Aviv

Our first day on our own began with SLEEP.  We slept and slept and slept.  Marci's cousin Donna (spelled Dana in Hebglish) came over and we enjoyed brunch on the beach in front of the hotel.  We headed back so Marci could meet with Estee and Renee, two of her girlfriends from elementary school who visited for a few hours.  We headed out, then, for a walk along Ben Yehuda St., with Rebecca clinging to a few ads for clothing stores she found in the tourist magazines.  One shirt later, we headed for more window shopping, a stop at Max Brenner's Chocolate for a rather obnoxious collection of assorted chocolate desserts plus hot chocolate.  Marc enjoyed...cold...refreshing...bottled water.  (They had sugar free chocolate two years ago..but alas).  We headed over to the port for dinner with Margalith, a friend we met years ago on a cruise around South America with our friends from Princeton, Sunny and Herb.  Marc left early to get back to the hotel to meet his 5th cousins, the Nemlichs, for a brief visit. Thanks to this computer, I actually had a copy of my family history on the hard drive and we spent some time reviewing our relations and determining that Rebecca and Shayna now know their 6th cousins.  That is inspiring!

Tomorrow, back to Jerusalem!