Sunday, May 12

Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms!
Our last full day, and it was very full...
We started with the whole morning at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. It was very sad, shocking, emotional and educational going through the museum and hearing and seeing the tragedy if the Holocaust. The chIldren were visibly affected. Then we shifted gears and did a fun activity (of course involving shopping.) The students were given money and a shopping list to shop in an Israeli supermarket and to buy the picnic lunch for our group. While at the supermarket they also had time to do a final major Israeli candy and snack shopping. After lunch we visited Theodor Herzl's grave and the national cemetery. Miriam shared with us the story of Theodor Herzl, the visionary founder of modern Zionism.In the National Military cemetery we heard about national military heroes like Yoni Netanyahu and Michael Levine. Miriam also shared a very personal story about a close friend who was killed in combat and whose grave we visited.
From the cemetery we headed back to the hotel. Some students wanted to go back to the Kotel one more time and a group wanted to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, so we added that to our schedule. Finally we headed off to a very fancy vegetarian restaurant where we had a delicious last dinner in Israel. Everyone was in a great mood and when we got back to the hotel we sat together with Miriam, on the floor, with maps to review our full two weeks of travel. We then finished up our Israel scavenger hunt and ended by sharing special experiences from our trip.
We are all so appreciative of the amazing job that Miriam, our guide, did, and Ohri, our counselor. They always went above and beyond for us. The kids also enjoyed our bus driver Benno, and I am sure they will share many anecdotes about him.
Tomorrow morning we get up very early to get to the airport in time. We have a long flight ahead of us and I hope the children are able to sleep. We will see you all soon!