Jaffa and Tel Aviv

The week before school started, we took a quick trip to Jaffa and Tel Aviv to enjoy the beaches and explore the area. We stayed in Jaffa, which is a few miles south of Tel Aviv. Our AirBnB was in a great location to easily walk to Jaffa Port and explore the city. On our first night, we walked to the port and along the boardwalk.

 We ate dinner at a famous restaurant called 'The Old Man in the Sea,' inspired by Ernest Hemingway. They served fish, of course, and the restaurant is famous for all the other dishes they brought to the table, which I think was 21 in total...as you can see in the picture. We all enjoyed sampling the different foods and the very busy atmosphere. The restaurant was packed and the servers appeared to be going full-speed all night long. It was really impressive to observe and kept the kids occupied watching all the excitement. The falafel and hummus was one of our favorites, which this part of the world is known for.

After diner, we walked watched the sunset and came across these kids jumping in the water!

Enjoying the sunset.

 Benjamin especially liked the suspended sailboats. The Jaffa port was a lively and fun place to explore.

The next two days we visited the Tel Aviv beaches. The beaches in Tel Aviv were perfectly set up for families. They had a very organized system to purchase umbrellas and chairs, and each beach had public restrooms and a restaurant. We took a taxi each day to the beach because we didn't want to give up our parking spot on the street right in front of the AirBnB. The beaches were very crowded and full of families.

The boys love the  beach and they had fun digging in the sand and swimming.

Eliza is a water lover too and she had fun sitting on the shore and playing with beach toys. This lucky girl even got to take her naps at the beach. We are so thankful for how easy going she is.  If she is around 'her people' she is happy!

We went to a different beach the second day and the waves were quite a bit bigger here.

Enjoying lunch at one the beach restaurants.

On our last day, we explored Jaffa. Enjoying a beautiful view of the Tel Aviv coastline.

Admiring the old beauty through the side streets.

They even had a small souq that sold lots of trinkets, carpets, furniture, and of course fresh fruits and vegetables.

After dinner, we ended the evening downtown Jaffa to see the famous Clock Tower, which is one of seven clock towers built in Palestine during the Ottoman period. This tower has two clocks and a plaque commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to Jordan. We were thankful for the time away, the opportunity to see another new place, and the ease of having so many places to see within driving distance of Amman.