An Invitation!

Fridays and Saturdays are designated for traveling around the country and sightseeing. However, Ken had a very very long week at work and was on a teleconference until after 11pm so we decided to take today off. We did go for a walk down the hill and opted for the Bagel shop instead of the bakery. Hindsight this was a bad decision :-( We've been enjoying morning pasteries from the bakery for about 5 shekels. I thought we should try something new so we went inside the shop. The gal assembled two bagels with cream cheese for us and indicated it would be 18 shekels. A little higher than the bakery but we thought it would be a nice treat. We went to pay and she said are you eating here or take away. The place was totally empty so we thought sure we will eat here and asked to pay for the food. She said no, you can pay when your done. Well after about 15 minutes we finished our bagel and went to the counter to pay. She rang us up for 46 shekels!!!! Apparently it was 18 shekels per bagel and there was a phenomenal charge for sitting at that table!!!! You can imagine how happy we were. I said, you told us 18? She shrugged her shoulders and said yes I did, but then you sat down. Hmmmmm. I thought they would honor the original quote, but as we left the store I looked at the receipt Ken signed... it was for 46 shekels :-( Good thing we aren't spending any money on touristy things today. After our hike back up the hill we were totally sweaty from the humidity. Seems like it's going to be a hot day. We took showers and then took a nap. We had a rather relaxing day.

Around noon someone rang the doorbell. Who could that be? We thought about ignoring it, but curiosity got the best of me. John, the professor (from NY) that we met the other day was just walking away from our house. He wanted to know if we wanted to join them for dinner around 7pm! Their whole family gets together every Friday night (beginning of Shabbat) for dinner. One of his sons-in-law works at Intel. Sounds like fun so we accepted. We went for a short walk on the beach this afternoon and were home in time for dinner. What a wonderful time we had!!! 3 of thier 4 children live in Israel and they have 9 grandchildren (only 4 were present). They also invited a few other visitors. We had cheese and crackers and pistachios for appetizers. Then they pulled some steak off the grill for the main course. This was served with potatoes, squash, and salad. The dinner was so yummy. The best I've ate since I've been here (we need to find another invite :-). The conversation was also very entertaining. Ken and the son-in-law both work at Intel with a very distant connection to each other via the products they support, so they were able to have an easy conversation with each other. The daughter was very very kind and gave me her contact info for future coffee or cooking experience with her. Both of their sons were nice too (one was a lawyer the other a Mfg Engineer). One of their guests was actually another neighbor who was shipped out of Austria to England just before the War with her brother and sister (parents died in Auschwitz). She moved to Israel after the war. Another friend was visiting from Delaware and doing research at the University for the summer. John and Lori (our neighbors) are fabulous people (very opinionated towards each other in conversations)and wonderful hosts. The whole evening was very entertaining and it is now close to midnight so I should be going soon. Tomorrow we expect to have another relaxing day. We heard that our days at the beach are numbered as the jelly fish are coming and I don't really feel like being stung. They should be gone by mid August.