In the ‘Cradle of Civilization’ we expected to see well researched antiquities from the Canaanites, through Hellenistic and Roman Periods, through the Crusades to the Fall of the Ottoman Empire. What really surprised us though is the frequent NEW findings by amateur archeologists, even in the midst of our visit to Haifa. Local spelunkers just found coins from Alexander the Great in a local Israeli cave, and amateur scuba divers unearthed a huge cache of coins just offshore from the Caesaria ruins (above, halfway between Haifa and Tel Aviv).

A wonderful museum, with displays that put these artifacts into context is the Archeological Museum at the University of Haifa. We lucked out and got our friends’ son JJ, a diver and reclamation/preservation specialist to give us a tour of his labs there, and the Museum. A Phoenician sailing ship crashed on the reef near Caesaria, and lay there protected by salt water and sand for over 2000 years. JJ and his colleagues had to bring it up without exposing it to air as it disintegrates if not immersed in polyglycolethalene solutions, until all the sea water is slowly replaced with the absorption of this waxy solution. Unfortunately, the team is stymied with recovered rope; it just doesn’t respond the same way, so the lab has tiny shreds of rope in experimental solutions for the time being.

The Phoenicians (Canaanites from 1200 BCE) were the ultimate maritime trade specialists. They were known to the Greeks and Romans as, “The Traders in Purple”; they hauled cargo in large and small loops all around the Mediterranean basin, but called western Lebanon their home, and Tyre their capital. Because archeologists recovered an intact keel, and the lower planking and cross beams, the bottom third of the original sailing ship above is on view. Not only did they painstakingly preserve an unusually designed anchor (below, exhibit photo), they made models and repeatedly dropped them in water…..to find that they always landed right side down for anchoring!

JJ’s instruction really expanded our appreciation of Caesaria and Akko, the two archeological sites we visited. We enjoyed being students again at the edge of the Sea, observing the march of civilizations before us in touchable form. I am sure I would have enjoyed that History of Western Civ class at Stanford a lot more if I could have listened to lectures in the Hippodrome and the Coral Palace at Caesaria, and the Ramparts at Akko with the ocean lapping at the ruins.

Israel not only offers the “Old and Older”, but the caves throughout the country, especially on the slopes of Mt. Carmel near Haifa, also offer hikes to caves with prehistoric remains. The Tabun Cave (above) was our favorite;  turn north across the wadi to view the largest intact fully exposed fossilized reef in the world, and turn south to view limestone bell caves and a collapsed karstic cave revealing a perfect wall of civilization (above). Here, evidence was gathered that confirmed that Neanderthal and Homo Sapien Sapien coexisted in this area and controlled fire earlier than expected.

Notice I did not say “peacefully coexisted” because DNA and other evidence from other caves in Israel and a 2.5 Million year old jaw found recently in Ethiopia suggest that Homo Sapien replaced Neanderthals due to several factors: 1) Neanderthals were driven out by Homo Sapiens; 2) Homo Neanderthal females mating with Homo Sapien males produced sterile offspring so Homo Sapien is not a Neanderthal evolutionary descendant; 3) both of these forms of early human descended from the same source of DNA;  4) Neanderthals required far more calories to survive than Homo Sapien putting them at risk; 5) Neanderthals did not adjust to cooling temperatures turning the forests into grasslands, requiring new “planned” hunting techniques the collapsed chimney in the cave above was used by Homo Sapien to drive herd animals in to their death and butchering inside the cave; and 6) Neanderthals never developed sufficient tool use from rock and bone to allow them to evolve to smaller teeth in favor of tool use,  and therefore derive nutrition from a greater source of nutrients.

As Steven turns 60 in two months, he feels he can’t possibly be that “old”. As his elders, we know,”being old” is just a matter of perspective. After 2.5 million years of adaptation, we learn from our predecessors, “Adapt or die”. Since Steven is the most adaptive man we’ve all ever met, we know he will “Live Long and Prosper” (R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy), and quickly learn the most important lesson of wisdom and age….GETTING OLD IS FUN IF YOU DO IT WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE….that would be me!… and our friends and family!

Fortunately, he already knows, that a nap with a big dog in your lap extends your life more than any super vitamin package and anti-oxidant elixirs!

The Kingdom of Jordan has few resources to raise their citizens above the poverty level. They have no oil reserves like the Arabic countries around them, and the landscape is barren desert or arid mountains. Most agriculture is primitive, low yield farming eg. ‘plant seeds on steep hillsides, wait for rain, hope for the best.’

Up a valley near the Israeli border at Eilat, our Jordanian driver boasted about this one unique, modern area of agriculture, with pumping stations and greenhouses; in the Negev Desert due west in Israel, there were hundreds of these same size sites. Israel’s ability to wrest water and food production from this landscape is very inspiring. As were the miles of date palm groves seen in Israel, not in evidence in Jordan. Jordan remains very much a third world country; heartbreaking, really.

Jordan’s greatest resource is the residents, who are warm, charming and very hard working, many of them the aboriginal Bedouin nomadic tribes. The second biggest resource is Jordan’s World Heritage Site, Petra National Park.
Most of us first encountered it in the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

It is just so fantastic rising up out of the desert after a hike through the shady, steep walled gully called the Siq; it looks like a movie set constructed on a back lot at MGM studios in Hollywood.

Even the Siq has tombs and carvings as it was the Nabatean entry route for the spice trade. Why not advertise your camels and caravaneering businesses with life sized camels carved in the rock in the Siq? (However, I can’t look at the carving below without thinking of the little girl’s explanation in the movie, “Little Miss Sunshine” that she is called “Camel Toes” by the mean boys at school because she is ‘strong like a camel.’)

The Nabateans who carved this city out of the exposed sandstone walls carved and decorated thousands of tombs and even held off Roman invasions until 106 AD when the Romans altered the trade route to the North. That worked better than a siege to destroy the domination of Nabatean influence as the controllers of trade routes between China, India, Arabia and the Mediterranean; ultimately the Nabatean king swore allegiance to the Romans to save his city. Fortunately, the Nabateans had already incorporated Graeco-Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian styles into their carvings and they were left standing by the Romans.

However, the rise of Christianity meant the decrease in sacrifices and pagan rituals, and thus the demand for frankincense and trade in general along these routes was destroyed. The City was gradually abandoned, and lost to the West until a Swiss traveler rediscovered it in 1812.

What you see below is an example of Nabatean engineering advances; clay water pipes with widened areas and openings to reduce pressure and encourage fast flow, hidden in the rock 16 feet above the trade route in 100 BCE before it filled with silt to its current level where we walk beside it now. It saved the City from multiple sieges as water flowed from buried cisterns outside the Siq, downhill through these hidden pipes.

When you exit the Siq into the sunlight, you are surrounded by steep pitted rocks filled with caves, tombs, amphitheaters seating 7,000, small carvings, colonnades, and enormous facades carved with detailed designs.

Although the Treasury and the Monastery are in good condition the exposure to erosive wind, rain and shifting sands is destroying other parts. One freestanding arch that Sally viewed on a visit 12 years ago was three rock strings thick. Now it is one fragile rock string across. Go soon, and give the Jordanian economy a boost!
We hiked 12.5 miles and climbed 66 stories to access three high trails. Lucky we did that on our first day as the following days were impaired by a 45 mph gusting sandstorm darkened the day and wrecked visibility.

Instead we camped out at our favorite local Jordanian restaurant and ate Mansouf (yoghurt sauce chicken and rice eaten Bedouin style with the right hand) and a drinkable sweet cream of wheat dessert, sock-a-leb, and hot bread that was a chewy high gluten quick bread between a tortilla and naan.

…and then we came back for Macloub (saffron chicken and rice) and a flan like dessert…

If you go, skip the more expensive and less tasty places on the entry road. Walk up one block to FETAFEAT (next to the blue and yellow apartment building) where the locals eat like kings for $7 each. Our friend Othman and his mother, the chef will take good care of you!

Location:Petra, Jordan

We realized upon our arrival that our pre-formed ideas about Israel were based primarily on the little we knew about Jerusalem: old and religious. Eilat was a culture shock; the mix of European scantily clad bikini bods, Chasidim in wool frock coats and black hats, Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, and young Arabic families strolling together at the beach in a, “Disco/Atlantic City Boardwalk/Riviera” themed world was… bizarre and wonderful. Perhaps cosmopolitan, high tech and religious Israel needs one super relaxed, tolerant secular city (like China has always needed Hong Kong) as an outlier? Our first Shabat in Israel was so sweet and quiet among the waving date palms in our lovely airbnb host’s garden.

The beach/hotel area is hemmed in by the Red Sea to the South, the Negev Desert to the North, the Kingdom of Jordan to the East, and Egypt to the West. It is a unique juxtaposition of culture.

Then put the airport, with roaring jets taking off next to the charming cafes, right in the City Center, add a lot of uzi-toting Israeli Defense personnel, then add a huge dose of relaxed, resort feeling, and lots of ice cream and shopping….you get the drift…a strange and unique kind of Israeli Disneyland.

We took a scuba refresher course at home, to ensure we would safely dive the world famous coral reefs of the Red Sea. No need to worry ourselves, our Russian Dive Masters were very professional and the equipment was in good condition. With beautiful coral reef available as a shore dive, we literally ran into other divers on the reef, especially near a popular sunken wreck. The hordes that feed fish on the reef have conditioned one particularly enthusiastic 14 inch Clown fish (Nemo’s big bruiser, dark blue cousin) to rub up against us throughout the dive cadging for food. It was a bit unnerving at first as he had huge overbite fangs protruding from his mouth.

The food in Eilat was healthy and affordable, but mediocre in the cafes. More expensive restaurants such as Eddie’s Steak House, and Fish Only, are available when you need a higher end meal, in the hotel district.

Surprisingly, in our quiet airbnb.com neighborhood up the hill with a charming garden, we found the best fresh pastries, and great sandwich shop. Sally had to wait 30 minutes for three deep, triple parked taxis to clear out of the Nevi’ot intersection to take a picture. Note for future travel: for fast food, go where the local taxi drivers stop for a quick meal!

Location:EILAT, Israel

Tonight at 5:21 PM, the sun will set here in Eilat on the Red Sea in Israel. We will light shabat candles with our portable, traveling candleholders (Todah Rabah, Ricky!) in our airbnb.com garden. We wish my son Jacob could be with us tonight, especially as it is 87 degrees F. here while he awakens in -24 degree weather in Upstate NY. However, he plans to travel here next Winter with Birthright Israel.

We are so excited to share the sabbath with an entire nation. We are grateful to be here, embracing peaceful coexistence with our neighbors. We hope you all enjoy a warm and restful Shabat with your loved ones. L’Chaim!

En route to Israel and Jordan, we elected to stop for a family visit in Essex Fells, New Jersey. First, a day in Manhattan after a red eye flight…in 16 degree F. weather with a wind chill factor bringing it down to 4 degrees F. Brrrrr!

As Californians after 4 years of drought we celebrated the snow with 1) a snowball fight in Midtown…and icicle sword fighting!

2) a trip to the top of the Empire State building with NO tourists at 8 AM after a night of snowfall,

…and 3) the search for outdoor activity to stay warm with insufficient snow to cross country ski in Central Park, but too icy to bicycle either. What were we to do? Head into deeper snow in the woods next to our family members’ home in New Jersey for a good dog walk with Sal’s brother!

In such extreme cold, our visit to the Turtleback Zoo provided lots of animals (and 0 people) out in the snow.

However, the Liberty Science Center (indoors) was thronged with kids so we camped out at the IMAX films, making us want to plan a trip to Madagascar to see lemurs and tropical birds as soon as possible.

Tomorrow we will put away the parkas and mittens, and fly to the deserts of Israel and Jordan, on the heels of another snowstorm tonight. 66 degrees and scuba diving in the Red Sea sounds so-o-o-o very enticing right now. Shalom!

Mid-November, we expected 70 degree F. mild biking conditions. Not a chance during the 4th year of drought in Southern Arizona. It was 85 degrees HOT at the border with Mexico, and even hotter climbing long, slow hills. I had never been on a supported bike trip before with a “sag wagon” to carry our luggage, and scrape us off the side of the road when we needed a lift. We were a very fun, fit, and congenial group of 5 Canadians, 3 Californians, and our 2 biking guides. Our first dinner together, we realized that 7 of the 8 of us were Jewish; what’s the odds of that? We were all over 60 years of age except for my fabulous roommate, “Gene, the Machine”, and the young bike guide Noah, both screaming up hills on  speedy road bikes. She won the yellow jersey (like the Tour de France) EVERY day. That’s Sally riding in #2 position…in the catch-up group that is. (photo credit, Gene Jones)

Having fallen from my bike and torn a ligament while training for this trip, I used the sag wagon (and the ice onboard) more than anyone else.

However, there was something about the advice I received on the first day when I asked for a ride on the killer hill, “Watch out for snakes, when you stop to wait for us”.  It made me ride more, and stop less. We met this guy behind glass at the Desert Museum.

I also learned that biking guides are big fat liars. In our morning meeting they would routinely describe each day’s ride as, “flat, with a few rolling hills”.  As we rode each day we learned that phrase really translates to, “very steep, long hills that will hurt like hell but won’t actually kill you”.

We enjoyed late afternoon “post-ride” tourism in Tombstone, the site of the OK corral shoot out. We grabbed shotguns and dressed up in period clothes for a photo with my two regular riding partners and best pals since 1978 from Palo Alto, CA and my new pal Gene from Sault St. Marie, Ontario.

Saguaro (pronounced “saw-WAR-oh”) National Park (featured image by David Ehrlick) makes people posture with yoga “cactus arms” because it feels like you are surrounded by tall people with weirdly long limbs and torsos. One of the best parts of a week long bike trip, besides the camaraderie and new terrain, is the fact that you get to eat like pigs for a week! This was especially true our last night in Bisbee, AZ which had galleries, coffeehouses, bars, restaurants…and chocolate infused with red chili pepper! Viva Mexico! Viva Hidalgo! …Also nice to be WALKING around town, giving our sore butts a welcome break from the saddle.

First off, let us say, “Go-o-o-o Giants!” Quite fun to come home to your home team playing so well.

Our surprising allergic response to the unusual amount of dust, pollen, and other particulate matter, seems to be the only negative to coming home. We had no personal experience of intense hay fever before….Ycch! All we need is a week of hard rain to clean off the thick yellow powder covering every surface, including parts of the Bay water itself. We look longingly at Portland weather, reporting daily rain. On the other hand, San Francisco is sunny, not too hot, and provides perfect weather for outdoor activities like free concerts in Golden Gate Park (“Hardly Strictly Bluegrass” below, grooving to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), biking, hiking, wine tasting, and garden projects.

Shortly after our concert weekend, we spent a weekend in the Victorian home and garden (shaken but not broken, after the recent earthquake in Napa) with our buddies from San Francisco and Napa. What is not to love about the wonderful Contemporary Arts collection at the Hess Winery in Napa, and a tasting flight under the pergola (below). We all like to cook, so our “potlucks” were a showcase of great local wines, charcuterie and cheeses, breads, seafood, and homegrown produce featured in salads and fruit desserts. We remedied that glorious binge by biking with pals in Palo Alto, and a welcome return to our Albany Senior Center Yoga class. We are so grateful for our pals and neighbors, and their hospitality. Welcome home, indeed!

The downside of 4 months of Arctic travel…is the weed production and the trumpet vines’ attempt to take over the Garden. Cleaning up the yard then makes too visible, the leaky, “temporary”, but 3 year ugly, DIY storage unit. Time to remedy it with the, “8′ x 10′ Cottage with Skylights” (from a kit). We failed to notice that it would be delivered in several 500 lb. boxes…to the curb…requiring much ferrying of small portions of the kit, and twice the construction time recommended. However, we can finally secure all 4 bikes out of the weather, and provide a yoga/project area we definitely don’t have in our 296.2 sq.ft. apartment. Hammered fingers and a few cuss words aside…Bring it on! What project is next? Halloween…it is really big in our Albany neighborhood. We just hope this wonderful witchy woman will step up to run in the next Presidential Elections.

What’s next? We leave in 2 weeks… for 2 months of travel: 1) a bike adventure in Northern Arizona; 2) a long visit and Thanksgiving with our family in Los Angeles; and 3) several weeks in San Francisco hanging out with our doggie pal ‘Karma’ while his peeps are in India. We will be home to enjoy Jacob’s Winter Break for a month. When he returns to Rensselaer (“RPI”) in Upstate New York, we will leave for 6-8 weeks in Israel and Jordan, visiting artist pals there and hiking in Petra. We know…a really rough life we live. So many fab places, cool people, and delightful dog-children…so little time! That is why we live in such a tiny space; it makes people, experiences, and travel become more important than owning stuff.

These last 4 months of travel, above and below the Arctic Circle, have been remarkable for amazing sights of wildlife (Dall Sheep below in Tombstone NP Canada, Yukon Territory), tidewater glaciers, Northern Lights, and lots and lots of water.

Query:  Our favorite place among ALL of the beauties in British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada, and the State of Alaska?

Answer:  The rain forests, carpeted with thick moss, with towering fern-filled dripping wet canyon walls, the result of year-round creeks and non-stop fog and rain in Alaska’s Tongas National Forest.

Forest Park, Portland Oregon

We did not complain one bit about the unusually wet and cool summer this year in the Far North.  As Californians in our 4th year of drought, we value moisture as much for its role in agricultural production as the quality of the air we breathe.  Driving south towards home, we knew we would really miss the lush, moist, and drippy green forests, even though it meant a welcome end to the horrible mosquito and gnat infestations common everywhere in the North.  These do not end in August as rumored, but continue into the “Third Hatch”, if there is sufficient moisture.  They keep breeding until the snow falls or it reaches 10 degrees below zero…and that is not a great time for us to be traveling without chains.  Soon to be remedied.

Forest Park Trail, Portland Oregon

Lucky for us, we call Portland our second home.  What is the appeal, besides…moss?  Is it because of our warm and supremely hospitable pals residing there?  Is it the Big City sophistication paired with a water culture because it sits on two rivers?  Yes, and…..

It offers the residents all of the following benefits: 1)  the largest per capita percentage of bicycle commuters outside of Europe;  2) the  University student population (Reed, U of P, Portland State, OSHU, etc.), and coffee/art house culture for 40+ years;  3) an intense fresh/local food scene rivaling San Francisco and Berkeley (in one day we watched (and ate) fresh mozzarella being made in a high end grocery, and ate noodles being hand stretched and cut nearly table side in a 12 seat Korean Restaurant (above));  and 4) the preponderance of ‘Urban Villages’, small neighborhood identities that reminds us of our home town of Albany, CA, an urban village by the San Francisco Bay.  Best of all, hikes in Portland’s city park (above) with draping moss, creeks, and dripping fern canyons, rival the Tongas National Forest in Alaska…without the added 1,780 miles of driving for access!!

In an hour we can be at the glaciated, volcanic Mt. Hood (above, Downtown Portland with Mt. Hood) for year round winter sports, or bodysurf in the Pacific Ocean in an hour.  Do you want big winds and hot weather for sailing and kite surfing? or perhaps 90 dramatic, cascading waterfalls?  The Columbia River Gorge, just upriver from Portland, has it all plus one of the most interesting small museums we have ever visited.  The Maryhill Museum of Art is a converted mansion built by Sam Hill, who came to the Gorge to build a Quaker community.  It failed, and he never furnished the mansion built for his daughter; it remained empty of furniture until European Royalty pals he had rescued during the War, furnished it with furniture from their castles.  We enjoyed riverside camping nearby, with a view of the Sam Hill’s full size ‘Stonehenge’ memorial, the first American memorial to WWI soldiers.

The museum has some great, odd exhibits like chess sets, the largest exhibit of Auguste Rodin “draft” pieces in plaster of his famous sculptures, like ‘The Kiss’, ‘The Burgers of Calais’, and ‘The Thinker”).  It also exhibited political cartoons as featured below, and an amazing rotating exhibition of “Theatre De La Mode”, miniature haute couture fashion display (featured image).

At the end of WWII, when Paris was stripped of luxuries due to the Nazi occupation, the Haute Couture fashion houses needed a way to “strut their stuff”…but not using full size samples on a runway.  Instead, in 1945 Nina Ricci and her son Robert utilized a fashion presentation used in the Middle Ages, and put the miniaturized designs on 27-inch wire armatures  with lovely vague Plaster of Paris heads, in lush sets, with tiny, beautifully crafted accessories: hats, gloves, purses, and shoes.  Over 100,000 people attended the opening in Paris.  The fashion houses that displayed there included Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Balmain, Cocteau, and Cartier, and they agreed to send these dolls to London, Milan, New York, San Francisco and other European cities with hopes that a collaboration would revitalize the fashion industry. American houses copied the designs with mass produced affordable fabrics and began the American “ready-made” fashion industry.  In 1990 the doll collection was exhibited at the Louvre in Paris.

The Maryhill Museum of Art has one of the largest collections of “Theatre de Le Mode” dolls, and half of the pieces at any time are out on loan to curated exhibitions worldwide.  After the War, the resurgence of fashion helped lift the spirits of women worldwide who had endured wartime losses, injuries, rationing, nightly bombing, and the destruction of much infrastructure.  I can tell you just thinking about a pair of shoes in a 9D size like these tiny accessories would lift MY spirits in those circumstances!