Tough to beat

My husband has taught 3rd grade for the past 18 years, and even though this is now B"H a thing of the past, he knows the parshas of Va'eira, Chayei Sara and Toldos backwards, forwards and diagonally. My 8 year old is a recent graduate of this last 3rd grade class, so he knows those mid parshas of Bereshis quite well, too. So, a trip to Eretz Bereshis was calling us. It also showed up on 3 of my friends Israel itineraries and got rave reviews. The question the was, how on earth do we get there?? It is located in Yishuv Alon, which our GPS does NOT recognize. The "map" on their web site looks like it was done by my 8 year old and leaves much to be desired. We stopped off at a gas station and asked for help. We were then gifted a detailed map of Israel. Our trip back in time began with shutting off our digital maps and opening a paper one. For your reference if you were to try and drive this on your own, you take Hwy 1 towards Jerusalem (we always seem to go that way in the morning) and continue on the 1 towards Ma'ale Adumim. Don't go into Ma' ale Adumim, but look for signs to Yishuv Alon. You end up on a winding desert road for about 10 minutes until you see signs for Eretz Bereshis/Genesis Land.  FYI:www.genesisland.co.il
Once we got there we were greeted by "Eliezer" and given a brief history lesson of how Avraham Avinu go to this area from Ur Kasdim. Everyone put on tunics and was led to our camel caravan. A short ride later we were lead to Avraham's tent. We were taken to pet the sheep and goats and then the history/biblical lesson continued in play acting. It was engaging for everyone. We made our own pita, drank some tea and really had a great time and more than once encouraged to make Aliyah. Back on our camels and back to the future.

Our day continued with a trip to the Dead Sea. When we go there the thermometer read 44 C, which is 111F. Seriously HOT! 2 Shekels later for the bathrooms to change and we were all ready for our float. The beach is a pile of rocks some very sharp, so fortunately we had water shoes or sandals. The water was super warm. The kids loved it. Dovie and Eli got into the mud slathering, Bailey could have floated with me for hours. Unfortunately, Mendel with his allergies to the world was very uncomfortable in the water and ran back and forth up the hill to the showers and to the sea. Before we got there Meir insisted he wasn't going in, but he was one of the last ones to come out once he got there. After we guzzled water, we stopped off at the snack shop for Popsicles. My kids discovered the Angry Bird Popsicles that come with a toy. Bailey was so hot and thirsty, she insisted on my watermelon sorbet too.

We kept everyone in their bathing suits (which after a few moments were practically dry) and drove to Ein Gedi.  The hike to the first waterfall was very short and easy. The kids splashed around in the fresh water for a while. Then they decided they wanted to hike to the higher falls. I put Bailey in my soft carrier backpack and began the trek. It is basically tons of stairs. The heat got to Levi and he went back down to cool off (native to London he never knew such temperatures existed!). Lugging a two year old up got a bit challenging, so even though the big boys could have gone on for ages, I called them back to the second set of pools to splash around and cool off. They played in the water and made a dam (which I made them dismantle before we left, no need to ruin the land of Israel) before calling it a day.
The drive back to RBS was about two hours. My kids aren't used to drives like that with DVD players, Ipads and DS. To keep the peace we began a family game of "I spy". The added challenge was it had to be outside of the car and we had dirt as our scenery. A- automobile B- boulder C- car D- dirt... "I" almost stumped us until it dawned on me that we were in "Israel". Once back in RBS, the temp of 34C seemed pleasantly cool.