Walking in Tunnels, Archaeology and more!

Friday was super fun. We went to swim at Netanya and then saw Granny & Zayde for lunch.

Jonah also played in his favorite fountain in Netanya:

We had a wonderful Shabbat in Modiin. (Thank you to cousins Aaron and Ronda for lunch!)

Yesterday we met up with Granny and Zayde again. Here we are at the City of David museum:

After that we walked by this wall, which dates to the time of the Jebusites (before King David!)

We were preparing to walk through Hezekiah's tunnel, an ancient tunnel from the 8th century BCE. We each got headlamps from our awesome tour guide, Joel Weinberg, our Aunt Judy's brother.

Walking through the tunnel was fun. It was cold water, and at points it was above my waist!

From there we walked through an underground ancient sewer system, and we came out just at Robinson's arch, right near the kotel! We got a tour of the Southern Excavations, including these steps, the "Ma'alot" referred to in the "Shir Hama'alot" that we sing on Shabbat. Isaac and I raced up and down them.

We also went to the Western Wall Excavations, underground, and walked the length of the original retaining wall of the Second Temple. We were down far enough that we even saw the bedrock!

I love the cardo part of the old city. It has great hiding places! (The girl in the photo is Ziona. Her parents, Baruch and Allison Speiser, used to live in Highland Park and we got to see them in the old city.)

 I also love kissing really big mezuzas! (This one is at the Zion Gate.)

Today was a great day, too. First we went to Beit Guvrin as part of Dig For a Day and we got to dig like archaeologists in a cave:

 After digging, we put dirt in one bucket and "finds" in another bucket:

Then we sifted the dirt:

We found pottery shards, bones, and old wood, which we were told is very unusual. We also got to crawl through other tunnels, which was fun. They let me pick out some pottery which they aren't keeping, so I can take it home.

In the afternoon we went to the Ayalon Bullet Factory, where they made bullets in a secret underground factory from 1945-1949. It was really cool to see how they hid the whole thing from other people. They had a secret passageway under the laundry machine.

After that we went to the Weitzman Institute. I climbed a tree:

Jonah put a rock on the grave of Chaim Weitzman and his wife, Vera. Chaim Weitzman was the first president of Israel.

We only have two more days in Israel. I can't believe our summer trip is nearly over. Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for another blog post in the next few days.