As most of you know, we took a trip home to the United States in August. The timing of the trip worked out for lots of reasons: Jason was teaching at the Isle of Shoals, there were lots of birthdays and family events to celebrate, oh, and it's also HOT in Israel in August. Ironically, it was cooler in Israel than New England for much of July so we got the best of both worlds. We arrived in the middle of a rain storm and couldn't believe how excited we were to see rain and green (so green it almost hurt to look at)! That storm ushered in weeks of glorious summer weather. Warm, but not oppressively hot, cool nights, dry air. Just what summer in New England should be.
If we mentioned everything we did, this would be a loooooong post. Let's just say we packed a full summer into a few weeks! We are forever grateful to the friends and family that hosted us during our stay. You know who you are and we are so thankful that we have all sorts of wonderful, gracious, giving, and patient people in our lives.
We spent a lovely week in western Massachusetts visiting family (conveniently most of our immediate family lives close to one another). It was a week full of birthdays, dinners out, hiking, visiting everyone we missed, and cheddar cheese. Yes, cheddar. We may have overdone it a little about the time we started dipping Cheez-its into Cabot spreadable cheddar.
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| Goldstein family trip to Tannersville |
The following week, we set off for New Hampshire. It was so great to see everyone again. We both worked hard, but left plenty of time for camping, hiking, visiting, and ice cream! We even managed to go to all the restaurants on our list! One highlight of our NH visit was that we managed to squeak in our annual camping trip to the White Mountains. We had a fabulous time and it was a perfect way to relax amidst all the running around.
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| Hiking on Blueberry Mt. |
Jason spent a fantastic week teaching at the Isles of Shoals. He's been doing it for several years and it is always something he looks forward to in the summer. Jason also had the opportunity to give a talk for a lecture series on board the Piscataqua. The boat, called a gundalow, is a reproduction of traditional sailing barge used in NH to bring goods up the many rivers to growing towns and cities. It was a beautiful evening to be on the water, he had a very interested crowd and gave a great talk about lobsters (and other creatures as well).
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| On board the Piscataqua at sunset |
We feel so lucky that we were able to keep so many of our summer traditions this year. We were both ready for a little break and, by the time we left the US, ready to come back and continue our adventure!
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| Adventures in Israel - driving a Smart car to the airport. Somehow we managed to fit all our bags! |
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