Ezuz and Ashkelon ... by Hannah

Shalom Y'all,

Tommy and I are now in Jerusalem ... actually, right outside of Jerusalem in a small town called Maoz Tzion. We plan to spend several days here in the area, and will then go to Tel-Aviv/Yafo.

Here are a few of the last pictures we took in Ezuz.

Ruins ... I think they are from the past hundred years or so.

There was a hole in one of the walls.

Naomi and me ... on the morning we left ... she got up early to see us off :)  Love you Naomi :)

The rest of these are from Ashkelon.

The Mediterranean. 

We really enjoyed swimming in it.

Tommy and his friend Uriel ... they had several in-depth conversations while sitting on the rocks.

This is a bakery in Ashkelon ... we used to eat here sometimes when we came to the shuk (marketplace). Tommy and I visited this area on Friday morning, and had borekas for breakfast! Borekas are pastries that have different fillings - cheese, mushrooms, corn, potatoes, etc. Very yummy :)

This is the old part of the city.

Count the cranes! These are jokingly called the state bird of Israel :)

Israelis work hard to keep things beautiful ... especially city landscapes.

See the tall grey tower? This is a water tower, and is right down the street from the house that we lived in as a family.

A pretty bush.

Taking a break! Tommy and I did A LOT of walking on Thursday and Friday.

A clock tower ... near where we used to live.

A street sign ... Tsfanya is the Hebrew word for Stephen.

Domino's! This shopping area is a short walk from where we lived.

Supersol ... an Israeli grocery store where we used to do our shopping.

Ha'Atsma'ut ... the Hebrew word for independence. We lived one street off of this street :)

In the same vicinity ... a Masonic lodge.

The house that we lived in.

When we lived in Ashkelon five years ago, Tommy bought a huge Israeli flag, and hung it in the tallest tree in our backyard. The house that we lived in was on a hill, and you could see the flag from quite a distance. The original flag is no more, so Tommy bought another one and we took it to the house!

See how big it is?!

The tree house where my younger siblings spent lots of time playing :)

Tommy was concerned he might be too big to climb the tree now :)

The birds did not appreciate Tommy's intrusion. There were probably 15 or 20 of them flying around Tommy's head, screaming at him!

Compare this picture with the one below that was taken five years ago :)

The back of the house.

This is my bedroom window ... we children performed several plays while we were living here, and "our actors" would jump out of this window to come in the back door to the living room, which was the stage area :)

 These berries form a sort of hedge in the back yard ... very pretty flowers.

This is the marble column that my sister Ruthie found on the beach, and we rolled it up to the house one night. It weighs hundreds of pounds ... my father and brother could not lift it, so we used a hand-truck to pull it home. It was a couple miles to bring it from where we found it to the house.

Some of the pottery that we collected when we were here as a family ... there was so much on the beach.

We really enjoyed this house ... the way that we were led to it was a huge blessing ... and we had a lot of good times here.

The friends that we stayed with ... Moshe and his sons Uriel (far right) and Eyal, and his mother ... we called her Savta - Hebrew for grandmother :)

Saying good-bye at the bus stop.

Tommy and Uriel.

I plan to post pictures of our visit to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi soon!