Quality Family Time

One of the disadvantages in long travels is that you’re bound to run into health problems here and there. Unfortunately, we got them early in the game, and upon departure from Bryce Anat got a (very) upset stomach. So, we had to trade a camping night at Zion National Park for a Motel in Kanab, a town in Southern Utah, which you’ve probably never heard of. I know I hadn’t.
The day seemed like it was going to be a nightmare – three young kids, a sick Mom and a dead tired Dad in a Motel room, more than 100 degrees outside (almost 40 degrees Celsius) and a nowhere town with virtually nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon.
Surprisingly enough, the evening turned out to be one of the nicest so far. By 5pm it cooled down a bit. We left Anat to recover and found a lovely city park with a shaded playground, and more importantly, a water splashing area. Noga, Hadas & Maayan were running, in full cloths, getting soaking wet, cheering and laughing as children do when they truly enjoy themselves. It was fascinating to see how much they missed the swings, slides and monkey bars, in the mere week of deprivation. Dinner in a Mexican restaurant, throughout which all three of them were extremely happy, concluded a cheerful and lovely evening. By the next morning, Anat was fully recovered.
So yeah, we have magnificent National Parks on our itinerary. But this evening further emphasized to me that this trip is first and foremost spending quality time as a family.All the rest is the backdrop.
Giora

Getting into the traveling mood

First off, photos. They say one picture is worth a thousand words… We’ll try to regularly update photos in our Picasa site (http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora). The latest crop, mostly from Bryce, is available at http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora/FarewellPicnicLasVegasToBryce. However, I think that when it comes to nature and scenery the above saying is not always true. In many cases, I feel that photos simply can’t convey what the eyes see in reality, if only due the limited angle it can capture.

Anyway, today we took our first serious hike (almost 4 km) with the girls, and everybody seems to be settling into the traveling rhythm. We are still experiencing some beginning-of-trip adjustments and difficulties, which are to be expected, but we’re getting there.
We were hiking inside the canyon amongst spectacular Hoodoos - the magnificent rock formations that are the result of natural erosion. There are other places in the world with similar geological phenomena, but in few places if any the concentration of such formations is so impressive and beautiful. Add the strong colors, mostly shades of red, and you’ll get a truly spectacular view.

A few folks asked me for specific recommendations for future reference, so I’ll establish a recommendation corner. I’ll be sure to leave it at the end of posts, so that the uninterested reader will be able to easily skip it.

Bryce Canyon recommendation corner
The trail I mentioned above starts at the Sunset point, goes downhill through the Navajo Loop and ends in the Sunrise Point. It is highly recommended.
The view from Rainbow Point (the furthest in the canyon) is nice, but not nearly as spectacular as the view from the two points mentioned above.
We haven’t tried horse-back riding, but it’s available.
Ruby’s Inn campground near Bryce’s entrance is a fine one, with very nice log cabins. Like every privately owned campground it’s not as pure nature as the ones inside the National Park, but accordingly it has more elaborated facilities. We enjoyed it a lot.In general, three nights in Bryce Canyon seemed like the right choice for us.

Giora

Las Vegas to Bryce

We arrived in Las Vegas late Tuesday night, and from the very beginning did not like it one little bit (to use Noga’s expression). On the bright side, our car was waiting for us at the airport, as we hoped it would, and so we drove to the hotel. Just the initial journey through the blaring, blinging, ringing, flashing lobby was enough to give us a headache. And when we ventured outside the following morning, we found suffocating heat and dreary streets. That evening we did go out to the infamous strip, but again were not favorably impressed. Everything was oversized and tacky. The various gambling machines looked like evil contraptions, designed to suck the life out of those sitting in front of them. And the people walking down the street, reveling in the fact that they can carry their beer bottles in plain sight, reminded me of that specific glee of young children, when they manage to get away with something that is usually forbidden. So, yeah, anyway – we didn’t like Las Vegas much…

Thursday morning we hit the road, heading north towards Utah and Bryce National Park, where I’m writing from. We stopped en route in St. George, and visited the Mormon Temple, or rather the visitor center, because entry to the Temple itself is not allowed. The visitor center had very nice air conditioning, and a lot of explanations geared towards both children and adults about the main tenets and history of the Mormon church. The people were very nice, but I couldn’t help feeling what I usually do in response to any decisive religious teaching. Although I actually agreed with most of the presentation, or at least the parts dealing with being kind to others if not so much the parts about our Heavenly Father and his plans for us, I find it difficult relating to any belief so absolute that it does not leave room for other possibilities.

The final leg of the drive took us higher and higher up towards Bryce. The air gradually became cooler, and the landscape changed from arid desert to cliffs covered with lush green vegetation. We arrived at the campground and settled down in our cute log cabin. As the day progressed, I felt that this is the real start of our trip, with Las Vegas just being a necessary pre-beginning detour. I also had a strong sense of relief that we were escaping from the seediness, decay and sleaziness of Vegas towards life and light awaiting us in the open landscape of blue skies, majestic cliffs and tall trees.

Anat

Taking off

It's that weird feeling which wraps you just before a big transition in life. The sadness of leaving people and places you love, mixed with the anticipation and excitement of what's coming next. Everything feels so surreal.

This is our last night in Pittsburgh. I don't think I fully grasp it yet.

This is a major event in our lives, amplified by the tough decision to leave the US and build our future in Israel.
3.5 years are a substantial chunk of life for everyone. For Noga, less than 8 years old, it means most of what she remembers. Not to mention 5 year old Hadas and 16 month old Maayan. Noga is having a very hard-time, and at times it is heart breaking for us parents to see. I hope that traveling as a family and spending a lot of quality time will help her overcome the difficulties.

We finalized all the farewells, and there were many of them. We hugged and kissed and said goodbye to all the people who made us part of a fabulous social network here in Pittsburgh. I truly believe that we were lucky to meet so many wonderful people. And we'll miss all of them.

All the technicalities are behind us, our apartment is emptied and our luggage is packed. We were lucky to have the comforts of an amazing home (thanks a million Einat & Yoni!!) instead of camping in our living room for several days. Even our mini-van is expected to be waiting for us in Las-Vegas when we get there tomorrow night. We took an ambitious risk with that, but I'll spare you the gory details.

Let the journey begin...

Giora

Packing stuff. A lot of stuff.

We started packing today. Considering that on Friday the shipping company is coming to pick up all our stuff, you might think that starting to pack on Wednesday is last minute. However, in light of the weird feeling an empty-house-full-of-boxes induces, postponing that as much as possible was the right thing to do. Noga was really sad when she got back home today, realizing that it had turned into a bunch of boxes in her absence. But I guess this is inevitable when transferring one's life across the ocean. At least both Anat and myself have already finished working, so the whole ordeal is not too hectic. And yet, it's almost unbelievable how much stuff we have accumulated in our 3.5 years here. There is certainly a liberating feeling in throwing away or giving away a lot of the unnecessary items we own.

While speaking with several people, it occurred to me that some of you are unaware of our next steps. So here goes. We'll be leaving Pittsburgh in a few days - after shipping our belongings to Israel, we'll ship ourselves to the western US. We'll spend about 80 days hiking and camping in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and California.

In early September we'll fly out from San-Francisco to Israel and start a new phase in our lives, in Haifa. After a few weeks of settling down (mostly helping the girls to get used to the new environment), we'll start our new jobs. Anat is going to be a faculty member in the department for learning disabilities, which is part of the school of education of Haifa University. I will be working for Google, in the Haifa office. We've rented an apartment in Ramat-Begin neighborhood, and Noga, Hadas and Maayan are enrolled in the relevant schools.

But frankly, all this seems very distant right now. I'm much more focused on all the beautiful nature attractions we're about to visit starting next week. We'll keep you posted...

Giora

Dual Citizenship

My green card was confiscated yesterday. At this time I'm not allowed to leave the United States. That is, at least until I get my US passport :-)

Yep, I was sworn in yesterday, and you are now reading lines written by a US citizen. Just in the last moment, before returning to live in Israel... The oath ceremony was very interesting - more than 250 immigrants, from 64 nations, becoming Americans. You don't see similar events in many places around the globe. I should admit that for me it is more a matter of technical convenience than an exciting and emotional day, but it was obvious from the faces of my fellow new citizens that this wasn't the case for most of them. And for what it's worth, I'll be able to freely travel in the future without ever needing to renew a green card or to apply for a US visa.

Giora

Here we go again...

At last, we too have established our presence in the blogosphere :-)

We are leaving Pittsburgh in three weeks, and embarking on a three month adventure in the Western United States. In early September, we are returning to Israel, to open the next chapter of our life in Haifa. We hope to use this space to keep in touch with all the important people in our lives!

Anat, Giora, Noga, Hadas & Maayan