thanksgiving in Haifa

After eventually returning back to Caitlin's and still in a bit of a foul temper (taking much after my father ;) ) Chelsea and I decided it best to go back to sleep. Later that day, we all went with Caitlin to explore her favorite vintage shop and get a hot drink in the hipster area of Haifa, Rehov Masada, all the way at the bottom of the Carmel, until it was time for the three of us to head to our Thanksgiving dinner.
Looking at the map, we could see that from where we were to where we were heading would only be about 800 meters, an easy walk, so we decided that we would save the taxifare and trek. What we forgot to account for was that these 800 meters were straight up the Carmel. I guess we thought we were mountain climbers.
At every point along the way, when we would check directions with someone, everyone tried to convince us that it was not a walking distance that we were going. Even Reber laughed when we told him we were walking. Oh well.

It took us nearly and hour and a half, but eventually we arrived. We were having thanksgiving dinner with Reber, who went to Temple Shalom with me, and friends of his in Haifa from when he used to live there. It was mainly Americans who had made Aliyah, with a few Israeli spouses. Especially luckily, the hosts of the dinner were in culinary school 
Although it was a long way from Plymouth Rock, it was a very traditional Thanksgiving, complete with corn muffins, potatoes, yams, a beautiful turkey, pumpkin and pecan pie, and of course, the football game.

After dinner, we decided to head back to Motzkin instead of staying in Haifa for the night, since most of our things were there. Even though it was just a 30 minute train ride there, due to a series of unfortunate events, ranging from a slow taxi driver, to oversleeping girls, it took us about 2 hours to finally get home. Thankfully, keys were left for me.

Although T was away for the weekend due to the happy arrival of his new niece, we were allowed to stay by the apartment for Shabbat, and so we ventured out into town to equip ourselves with food for the next couple of days before heading back to Jerusalem Saturday night, to spend Motzei Shabbes out with the usual suspects.