Spending Rosh Hashana in Israel at a warm and incredibly beautiful home, learning the local traditions and eating delicious home cooked food, surrounded by friends with several generations of their family under one roof — this was one of the most profound moments of our entire trip.  But how did we come to be there?  I am continually amazed at how seemingly innocuous twists of fate and chance encounters can have such far reaching impacts on our lives.  Amanda and I had not planned on going to Israel on this trip but just before departing, two Israelis were thrown onto the same Super Tuk-Tuk minibus as us in Laos.  We then went to stay at the same part of the 4,000 Islands with them and their friends.  And after getting to know each other, we all decided to brave the jungle zip line treks together.  Long story short, we became lifelong friends with Or, Rotem, Danielle, Noa, and Eden and when they invited us to come visit them, we knew we had to work it into our plan somehow.

As fortune would have it,  our time in Israel coincided with my niece, Caitie’s break from the University of Oregon, and she was able to come meet up with us.  Rotem and Or were kind enough to let us all stay in their guest bedroom at their apartment on Dizengoff (often described as the “Champs-Élysées” of Tel Aviv).

I can count on one hand the number of places from this trip that I would actually want to set up residence, and Tel Aviv is absolutely near the top of that list.  The beaches are top-notch,  the restaurants and bar scenes are are varied and creative, technology entrepreneurship is second only to the Bay Area,  and it seems like you are constantly surrounded by young, friendly, beautiful people.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures in Tel Aviv as I probably should have; we were too busy just hanging out and enjoying the local lifestyle for a change.  But I think I got plenty of pictures as we traveled around Israel.