Good Morning Tel Aviv!

So I woke up bright and early this morning to a fantastic view of the mediterranean out the hotel room's wall-sized window. Got in last night on time, schlepped back to the hotel and walked down the street with Daddy for some hummous and tabouleh, YUM! After what felt like 24 hours of plane food and candy, my our meal was a masterpiece that could have come straight from Richard's kitchen.
First thing on the menu today was breakfast, our favorite part of Israeli hotels! I got seated between a couple on one side, and two old ladies on the other side, all four American. Do you think they seat us all in the same place to keep us quaratined or something? The proceeded to talk across my table, bonding over the fact that they all used to live in West Orange, NJ, and now all had places in Boca Raton. My lord, the American-Jew stereotypes are painfully true. They were all very civil, except one of the old ladies was the biggest pain in my ass, and I didn't even talk to her. I swear, if you look up kvetch in the dictionary, her picture is there. First is was the coffee: decaf, not regular....no decaf is gross, bring me regular. Then food...she couldn't get up (just finished a stint in the hospital...hip?) so she made one of the hotel ladies get her danishs. Those weren't right, so her friend (just as old and crotchity as her) had to get up to get her OTHER sweet rolls. Those weren't good either. I could have killed her. The whole time, she was yammering on about her woes in the thickest New Jersey accent you can imagine. Not the first thing you want to hear on a jet-lagged morning.

Anyhow, after my Boca-infused breakfast (more on the food later, that will be a happy story), I went for a stroll through the Carmel Market (outdoor food and good market) and down Sheinken St, which is the fancy shopping street in Tel Aviv. I avoided buying for now, just scoping out the wares for the time being. On the way home I did however buy some fantastic cherries and dried dates, and some fresh nuts for snacking. Everything looked so good! Then I laid by the pool for a couple hours. I had to go out and buy new "sun burn" oil, because the stuff Daddy has here really is for sun burns. No SPF. He made fun of me for buying 15, but hey, I want no lobsterness on this trip...After Miriam's recent run-in with the sun sans lotion, I am well aware of the troubles that lie therin and I am not looking for touble.

That is all for now, I nice semi-eventful first day, just as relaxing as I would hope!