Blue beach and Green line

My husband has one aunt who lives in Hertzylia Pituach and since we are staying my sister's neighborhood during or visit, one day of visiting his family was a must. We drove up the coast and marvelled at the differences between the holy city of Yerushalaim and the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv and its surroundings.
We visited with the family. The boys ran around in their spacious yard (the boys almost forgot how grass looks and feels), swung on the hammock until the fighting hit the point that if we don't move from shmoozing and looking at old photos to something else fast we will be in big trouble. When all else fails, feed the boys.
They put out a lovely spread of cold cuts, pita, rolls, salad, drinks and cake. The boys devoured the food, but were itching to get to the beach.  Wardrobe change and off we went.

The sea was blue and warm. There were umbrellas and chairs set up to rent. The kids hit the beach, collected some shells and had a great time until the jelly fish began to sting. A huge one came to the shore and I flung it onto the sand. Digging in the sand and building moats entertained the kids for a while. A few of them decided to brave the water some more. Levi enjoyed lounging around, reading and having a drink served to him on the beach, but it was time to go. On the way back up to the car we continued with our tradition of eating Angry Bird Popsicles every where we go.

We had to pack up for Shabbos in Hashmonaim at Uncle Raphy, Aunt Bettina and Cousin Rina's house. We were also packing for the next leg of our trip, up north, so I sent the boys down to the Mercaz of RBS with a few shekels to buy their own falafel dinner. Fortunately Cousin Shlomo was around to act as interpreter and guide since my kids are not yet comfortable and brave enough to order on their own.

Our GPS does not recognize anything on the other side of the Green Line. Traveling to Hashmonaim at night became quite problematic. We had verbal directions from Raphy, and we took out our handy dandy paper map. Unfortunately we missed ONE turn. We were driving for a while passing lots and lots of barbed wire, and delightful yellow signs that said "Sim Lev Yisraelim".  We came to a MAJOR check point, at which we knew we went to far. An immediate U-turn was in order. We found where we needed to be and breathed a sigh of relief. We found Hashmonaim and its guard station and left a little piece of our car at the entrance. We made it to the Solomon's lovely home where we will be for the next couple days.