CAARI - A unique Israel travel experience: January 2017

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Community Service and visit to the Biblical Nature Reserve

Sunday, 29 January. The weather was not so great over the weekend, but that didn’t stop the CAARI group! They shopped, walked, visited friends and relatives and enjoyed a lovely Shabbat Dinner and Oneg Shabbat! Now – rested and relaxed we began a new exciting week to welcome in the month of Shvat!

Following our morning community service, we boarded the bus for a trip to Neot Kedumn, the Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel. It is located halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This unique Biblical setting allows visitors to see life as it was lived by our ancestors 3,000 years ago.

After a ‘biblical lunch’ our biblical expert, Ya'ir, guided us through this magical setting. The panorama view was extraordinary, as we could see the skyline of Tel Aviv, another view was the Judean Hills, with both Arab and Jewish communities. As we walked through the nature reserve, Ya'ir discussed the various plants, trees and shrubs and their biblical reference. For example, hyssop, which we know as tasty za'atar is mentioned several times in the Bible. Ya'ir, surprised us with mortar and pestle for us to grind the fragrant hyssop. We learned about the importance of water in the times of the Bible and the seven species – which we all can now name!

We loved seeing the blossoming almond trees, which is a sign of spring in Israel! In Israel, the almond trees are a better predictor of spring than the groundhog!

Several of the CAARI participants will be leaving tonight and 9 new participants will be joining the CAARI family!

Friday, January 27, 2017

CAARI Cooks!

CAARI COOKS! This afternoon 27 January, we visited the Dan Gourmet Cooking School where the Dan Hotel Chain trains its chefs, located in south Tel Aviv. With aprons and recipes we prepared our Italian Dinner! What fun and tastes good too! We are the CAARI Chefs of the Future!

Marcia and Marilyn at the Entrance of Dan Gourmet

Vic and Sharon eating the fruits of their labor

Joseph & Anne in their new aprons

CAARI pays attention to Chef Elad

Chef Elad teaches CAARI How to cook an Italian dish

Marcia, Hariet and Rosalie pay careful attention to the chef

Mark impliments what Chef Elad taught!

Barbara, Anne and Mary prepare tomato sauce

Arlene & Marilyn prepare tomato sauce

Mark & Elaine prepare tomato sauce

There can never be too many cooks in the kitchen

Who says too many cooks in the kitchen?

Sonya enjoys the CAARI cooking session

Elad demonstrates to CAARI some cooking tips

Sheila & Paula succeed in producing pasta dough on the first try

Preparing pasta from scratch

Connie successfully rolls pasta from flour and water dough

Arlene and Marilyn show their skill at preparing pasta from scratch

Sharon, Vic and Sonya display their pasta dough

Rosalie succeeds in rolling her own pasta dough

Arlene shows off her labor waiting for cheeses and tomato sauce

Chef Elad inspects Marks dough

Some people used surgical masks to prevent the spread of germs in the kitchen

Salad that CAARI prepared

Sharon, Sonya and Barabara discuss the cooking lesson over wine

Some of the baked goods CAARI produced

Marilyn demostrates how to drink wine with her meal

Chef Elad offers Foccacia to Arlene and Marilyn

Community Service at the Rehab Center

The first group to leave the hotel in the morning for their community service assignment is Sheila, Paula, Arlene and Mark! They work at the central medical center in Tel Aviv. They need to be at the Rehab Center early to prepare the trays and serve breakfast to the patients. CAARI is greeted with smiles and a good morning in various languages - Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish and even English. The breakfast is not like the hotels food, but the patients are happy to be served and cared for by these 4 devoted participants. Yael, the head nurse, is so grateful for CAARI's assistance every year and always looks forward to the CAARI's participation!

Touring Day - January 25 - from ancient ports to pioneer villages

King Herod knew how to build - this is an amazing place - not to mention great location! CAARI toured Caesarea with Neil, our walking encyclopedia!

Many of us had been there before and we were amazed at the new areas that had opened up. We also got a chance to see the workers restore areas around the ancient port built originally by King Herod the Great between 22-9

Then on to the Zichron Yaacov - for lunch, shopping therapy and a tour of the Ahronson House and the intriguing story of the NILI spies! Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants - Aresto. Another great CAARI day of touring The Cararea Port, Zichron Yaacov and dinner as the sun set over the Mediterranean.