Birthday Cakes And Reflections

Twenty one was a pretty good year.

It was a year full of new people, places and adventures. Wars were waged against unsuspecting enemies (mainly insects) and fears were conquered.

Blogging isn't always easy and sometimes it feels like a bit of a chore but I'm glad that I have the memories there to look back on. I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I do. 

Here's to another year of making memories.

Thanks to all of the wonderful people in my life that make every day a new adventure and put up with me and my shenanigans.

You guys are pretty great.

Chez Danziger

While we were staying in New Jersey we stayed at a luxury resort called "Chez Danziger".

The resort is situated on lovely grounds with many trees and flowers in the gardens. There is an outdoor pool and you can bird watch through the dining area while eating breakfast. 

Rooms were a nice size and had very comfortable beds. 

The staff was very efficient and accommodating. 

Each morning there was a breakfast buffet with fresh coffee, fruits and yogurt. The fruit was delicious but I would recommend avoiding the pineapple and possibly the blueberries. You should probably just ship them to Israel (please see shipping info below)....  

They also have two highly trained peanut butter sniffing dogs so if you're not big on sharing, I would recommend not opening any jars of peanut butter during your stay.

Overall, I would give it a 5/5 star rating. 

Good food, great company. 

Would love to stay again sometime soon.

The Mad Mans Old Stomping Grounds And Manhattan

The Mad Man took us into Brooklyn to spend the day with Grandpa Jordan and show us around his old stomping grounds. We got a tour of the 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment that he and his three siblings grew up in and were regaled with tales of his youth.

When the grand tour of the apartment was over and we had finished our brunch of bagels and lox, we drove to Sheepshead bay.

My father wanted to take us over the bridge that he had crossed on his way to the beach as a kid. As we were walking towards the bridge big gray clouds started rolling in and it began to drizzle.

The light drizzle turned into quite the shower and we ended up heading back to the car for cover. Once we were in the car we headed back to the apartment to hang out for a bit and then on to dinner at an italian bistro on Kings Highway.
 

After dinner we headed back to  the apartment to look through some old family photos and say our final goodbyes.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to head into Manhattan for another adventure. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant with some very close family friends that we hadn't seen in a long time.

After lunch we went to the Museum of Natural History to find some dinosaur bones and watch a movie about the creatures of the deep sea.

We found some dinosaurs

And some distant relatives

We stayed at the museum until closing time and were eventually kicked out by the security guards. After leaving the museum we made our way to our cousins apartment for a delicious deli dinner and to say our goodbyes before returning to our luxury hotel.

The Longwood Gardens

During our stay in Philly we drove out to the Longwood Gardens to visit Pierre du Pont's estate. The estate is about 1,077 acres of meadows, woodlands and houses (including a massive greenhouse that spans 4 acres). 

We walked through the meadows to a small farmhouse at the edge of the fields and saw lots of flowers on the way.

This picture is from about halfway through the meadows. If you look REALLY closely you can almost see the teeny tiny farmhouse in the distance...

After traversing through the fields to the teeny tiny farmhouse we walked around the giant greenhouse full of exotic flowers and plants. 

When we were done smelling the flowers we piled into the car and to our home away from home in Philly to rest our feet and start packing up to head back to NJ the next morning.

Philly In Photos

Philadelphia is a pretty cool city.

Here are some pictures of interesting things that I found while walking around the city...

Pretty pink bike

Cool street art 

Mosaic puppy (by Isiah Zagar) 

On our way to find Penns Landing

The waterfront

The Ben Franklin Bridge

A Rainy Day At The Zoo

We were treated to a VIP visit at the Philadelphia Zoo. The VIP visit included a behind the scenes tour with the big kitties.

The nice kitty lady introduced us to some of the cats and told us all sorts of interesting facts about them!

Jutai the jaguar
Fun Fact: Jaguars have powerful jaws that can easily crush your skull!

Maya the snow leopard
Fun Fact: The snow leopard has the longest tail in proportion to the length of its body out of all kitties.

Dakota the puma/mountain lion
Fun Fact: I don't remember the fun fact that the kitty lady told us... :-|

After visiting the kitties we walked around to meet some of the other animals at the zoo.

Batu the orangutan

Primates

Some time after seeing the monkeys my camera battery died and it started to rain. We sought refuge from the rains in the Avian Center and met some of the birds there.

Ned

All in all it was a pretty awesome day!

From Israel To Rome To Possibly The Worst Traffic In History

Last Monday morning we packed our bags and headed to the airport to fly from Israel to Rome and then on to America.

Waiting at the airport.

The flight to Rome was pretty short and we entertained ourselves with the exceptional in-flight entertainment provided by the airline. 

In-flight entertainment

We landed in Rome, walked out of the airport and found a shuttle to take us to our hotel where we stayed during our 13 hour stop-over to get some shut eye before our early morning flight to JFK. Some of us were feeling a little restless after spending most of the day sitting in the airport and on the plane, so we went exploring.

The Mad Man, Timmy and I took a late night walk down to the beach where we could smell and hear the sea but not actually see anything. We stayed and enjoyed the cool salty breeze for a while before heading back to the hotel to get some rest.

Early Tuesday morning we got up and gathered our things to head back to the airport for flight number two. Having checked our luggage all the way through to our final destination, it didn't take long for us to get ready and we had some time to spare before the shuttle arrived so we walked back down to the beach to get a better look at the sea.

The Crazy Lady and I braved the sand and stuck our feet in the water. There was an older Italian man there that tried to tell us something or other but unfortunately, neither of us know Italian so we're not entirely sure what he was telling us. 

After enjoying the view for a while we headed back to the hotel to get on the shuttle and to the airport. 

It was a long and fairly uneventful flight to JFK. Getting out of the airport went pretty smoothly once we adjusted ourselves to the language. It's been a while since we've been in an English speaking country and it was weird asking for directions in English.

My uncle was waiting for us at the airport. He stowed our luggage in his car and then absconded with us kids, leaving my parents to find their way to the rental car place on their own.  On the way to the car we learned that a dump truck had caught fire under an overpass on the New Jersey Turnpike earlier that day causing some major traffic.

A drive that would normally take an hour and half ended up taking three and a half hours. As we sat in what the news report described as "possibly the worst traffic in history" we caught up on the Danziger's latest news. 

We also got a rundown of who would and wouldn't be at the wedding. As well as some helpful tips and tricks such as, who we should and shouldn't hug and how to differentiate between family members and the waitstaff. 

After the educational drive we arrived at the Danzigers and spent the next few days in NJ. Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed to Philadelphia where the festivities would be taking place on Sunday evening.

The wedding was beautiful and it was great seeing the family. I refrained from hugging the waitstaff so it was a success all around. We're hanging out in Philly until tomorrow morning and then heading back to the Danziger's in NJ.

Herein ends today's update. 

More updates to come. 

Maybe.