Hiking the Waterfalls in En Gedi National Park

      This is Ron again, Michelle has graciously allowed me to blog about the hike I took with Jonathan today at the En Gedi Nature Reserve and National Park.  It's been a while since J-bird and I have enjoyed a father/son day out, so I decided to take him to the Dead Sea for some fun in the sun.  We got an early start and were on the road before 7:30am (I know that sounds early, but we had all been up for an hour and half by then).  Between the movie I played for him on the portable DVD player and his nap which followed, he didn't make a peep during the 1.5 hour drive.

      We arrived at En Gedi National Park before the crowds and started our hike up Wadi David.  En Gedi is located on the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on earth at 1,388 feet below sea level, and it's noticeably warmer than the beaches of Tel Aviv.  Shortly into our hike, a hyrax (eye-rex) crossed our path and Jonathan kept calling it a 'meow'.  Close enough, little buddy.

About 10 minutes in, we came across the first of 5 waterfalls.

 A few minutes later and we were at the second waterfall.  The water looked cool and refreshing, but I planned on taking a dip towards the end of our hike. 

 Waterfall # 3 was calling our name, but we kept going.

The scenery changed quite a bit as we made our way towards the last two waterfalls.  With Jonathan in the backpack, I had to do a little ducking here and there to keep him from trimming the bushes.

Waterfall #4 was almost too tempting to pass up, but we enjoyed the view for a few minutes before pushing on.



The 5th waterfall was the largest and carried the name of the wadi and the path; David.

It's hard to see in this picture, but off in the distance is the Dead sea and the mountains of Jordan (to the east of Israel). We took the path to the right and continued up, making our way to the top of the waterfall.

Once at the top, we had no view of the waterfall but we did visit 'Dodim's Cave' and finally took our break.  There's one way in and out, which required climbing (now we're talking!).  Here's a pic of the family before us going down.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a pic on the way down.  Although it may look a little unsafe, I was 100% comfortable with the decision to go down with the backpack.  After all, a 7 and 9 year old just climbed down before us with no problem.

A view of the hand/foot holds to get down to Dodim's cave.

My favorite picture of the day, Jonathan taking a break while ejoying his peanut butter crackers in the cave.  He didn't want to walk in the water, but he did sit on my lap for a bit and we both had our feet in.

We hiked to one other spring on the trail before calling it a day.  Jonathan proved he's a trooper and ready for more hikes, he didn't even mind the diaper change in less-than-ideal conditions towards the end.  Well done little buddy.

Soreq Cave

A couple of weekends ago we took a trip to the Soreq Cave, known for its concentration of stalactites in the Judean hills not far from Jerusalem.

 

Stalactites are secondary minerals that hang from the ceiling of limestone caves. The corresponding formation on the floor of the cave is known as a stalagmite.  These grow at an estimated 1cm every 50 years.

Kaitlyn was not at all happy to be there.  The entire drive there, she told us that she didn't want to go into the cave.  We kept trying to convince her how fun it was going to be.  When we first went in, she started to really protest being there.  I didn't think we'd get much further and I'd have to go back out with her, but once Ron told her that Dora had been in the cave and there was nothing to be scared of, she started to realize it was all really cool.

It was pretty neat to be in the dark, humid cave and knowing that some of the stalactites around us date back some 300,000 years.

Some of the stalactites found in the cave are four meters long and meet stalagmites to form stone pillars.

Some of the stalactites continue to grow as water very slowly drips down.  The two photos below are what they refer to as "Romeo and Juliet".  The stalactite (from the ceiling) has dried up and will no longer drip down, meaning this particular stalactite and stalagmite will never meet. Awww.

After spending some time in the cave, we went to a town named Abu Ghosh for some lunch.  Ron was very happy to see a sign that read "Lebanese Food Restaurant" so that's where we stopped.

Kaitlyn and Jonathan loved the falafel and we all enjoyed a yummy middle eastern lunch. 

It was a great day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Just before St. Patrick's Day, Kaitlyn made this masterpiece:

Then on the day, the kids got a visit from the leprechaun!  This year they woke up to see the mischeif left behind by the little wee little man. 

He left clues for the kids, which led them to a treasure.

Hope everyone had a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kaitlyn and I made this valentine for Ron last night.  I had to scan and share it because we were SO impressed with her handwriting.  The "To Daddy" and "I love you" were traced, but she wrote her name completely on her own!  I couldn't believe how well she did. 

She also drew a picture of the family for the first time and we were also super impressed.  :)

Hope everyone's having a great Valentine's Day!

Happy Friday!

• I'm loving work!  Getting out of the house, putting on nice clothes and getting to work with some pretty cool folks has been a nice change of pace. 
• The first week was rough because the kids were sick, but thankfully they weren't really miserable.  They were still full of smiles, but the smiles were accompanied by lots of runny noses, nasty coughs and fevers.  Kaitlyn's was eventually diagnosed with bronchitis, but thankfully they are both better.
• Even though I'm gone three days of the week, Ron still gets a better reaction from the kids when he walks in the door.  I've just come to terms with the fact that he's their favorite right now.  When they were younger I was the preferred parent. I'm sure that had something to do with mammary glands, but my day will come again!
• I thought this was hilarious:

• Madonna is opening her 2012 World Tour in Israel in May.  There is a new Facebook page urging Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to strike Iran until after the show.  Ha! 
• After watching a story on some of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials, Ron decided to reenact one of his favorites.  We're a bunch of dorks!
• I bought Jonathan a baseball cap a couple of weeks ago.  It's from a store called e.p.k.  Not sure what it stands for, but it was on super sale and actually small enough to fit him. He hated it at first, but now loves it.  And he looks so cute wearing it! :)

• I'm not running like I should be.  Ron and I are officially registered to run the 10K of the TLV Marathon and neither of us have been training.  Of course, he could probably run the half without training.  Work has definitely made finding time to run much more challenging.
• Another challenge: taking all the pictures and blogging like I resolved to do at the beginning of the year.  Having said that, here is a super long Friday Photo Dump to make up for the last couple of weeks when I didn't do them.  And for once...it's actually being posted on Friday! :)

Have a great weekend!