.I can't believe we're in our fifth week already, summer is really racing along.
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This past week Maya had her class trip to Park Nachshonit, a local motor/water park (link is Hebrew only, but it's pretty self-explanatory if you're curious). It's a fantastic place, chock full of water slides, go carts, bumper boats, full of the stuff of kids' dreams. It would be even better if they enforced any kind of maximum capacity regulations - crowded didn't even come close to describing the congestion. The main pool was like kid soup, with occasional drops of water between the bodies! As you can see the overcrowding didn't slow the kids down at all, though it did grate on the adults' nerves just a bit...
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.You can barely make out Maya flying out of the slide on this next one, but I'm including it so you can see how completely insane the crowding really was (I won't even tell you how many shots of other people's kids I ended up with trying for this one). During June the park is open only to organized school groups, it won't open to the general public until next week. The day we were there there was a HUGE group, buses and buses worth, of children and parents from some nearby Muslim school - the women were mainly quite traditional, wearing headscarves and long dresses. That didn't stop some of them from getting right in the water with their kids though, dresses and all.
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.We took a "break" from the madness of the pool for a bit to wait on long hot lines for a two minute spin in various boats and cars. Luckily it was soon too much for Maya (it had been too much for me after the first five minutes) and we quickly retreated back to the cool water of the pool.
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.Quite unusually for Israel I even saw one young mother with her face veiled while we were there. The sight of this woman, completely covered in a black abaya with just her eyes showing, carrying a brightly colored plastic swim ring, struck me as so incongruous that I had to sneak a quick picture. It was well into the 90's the day we were at the park and even in a sleeveless cotton sundress I thought I was going to melt. I'm a bit claustrophobic too, so I cannot bear to imagine what it must be like to be be covered in so much dark, heavy fabric.
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.As for me, I spent most of the day in the water with my daughter, and was just happy to have a cool place to pass the time, kid soup and all. (We won't mention the somewhat less than elegant entrance I made into the water, when I stepped off the edge not realizing I was standing by the deeper water. I went straight down, ass over teakettle, sunglasses and all. Just call me Grace.)
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School's out for my two this Tuesday and then summer starts in earnest - we can't wait!
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What's been on your summer agenda this week? Inquiring minds want to know...
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36 comments:
I sympathize with that woman dressed all in black. It's wonderful what she's doing for her children dressed like that! Looks like a lot of fun at that water park Robin! :) My Summer Stock is up...
I saw a woman dressed like that too last week, in a local appliance store.
Last summer a child died in that pool, and another nearly did. Within two days of each other.
Oh my goodness how fun this must have been. Excellent :)
Wonderful fun and pix, Robin, I am signing in all by myself this week because (a) Blogger's post ahead isnt working and (b)Blogger has advised me my blog is been suspected of being a SPAM blog ..I have requested a 'review' but til it happens I am forced to use a word verification in order to post new posts ..
aaaaargh. I am going to check out Wordpress ...
Love these pictures....how interesting to see the Moms in the water with the traditional clothing....can't imagine how hot they must have been.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time...kid soup and all. : )
Sorry about your fall...sounds just like something I would do. lol!
Enjoy the rest of your week-end!
At least no danger for that lady to get sunburned. Whatever her reasons - I respect them. Really nice park - lots of stuff to get a kid to fall asleep early and sleep well whole night. Love the colors - totally summer... and the kid soup and you trip to the bottom of the deep made me laugh :)
Hi Robin,
It is my first week playing your meme.
That looks a lovely water park and the kids look like they were having great fun there.
Have a nice Sunday! :-)
What a fun - and busy - waterpark! I'd never heard of it.. bummer!
Looks like you and Maya had a great day. And as for the woman in an abaya... what an anomaly. I rarely saw that when I was there. :)
Looks like everyone was having a great time at the waterpark.
I have yet to visit our local community water park this summer. My son has been having fun in our backyard with our own little pool. The week ahead should be fun. My son will be having his first sleepover and then there is a movie day planned and later in the week some activities at the local library.
Wishing you a scent-sational SSS!
Patty
It would have been worth every bit of sweating and fuming and annoyance I had to endure if I could get that look on one of my kids' faces. Maya is clearly having the time of her young life! But how you managed to keep up with her in that "kid soup" (an apt description) is beyond me.
I confess I chuckled when you said the park was only open to "organized" groups for now. Because "organized" is not even a word that comes to mind.
Regrettably, my "summer agenda" has thus far included very little in the way of traditional summer fun. Most of my free time has been spent trying to finish various projects that have lain neglected for too long. But there is a respite on the horizon -- a brief one, but a respite. I'm just gonna dammit take a weekend and get some actual summertime shots of the beach! Stay tuned...
Your shots will be gold in the future, Robin. Worth even the spill!
Ellivellie's comment cracked me up - 'no danger for that lady to get sunburned' - LOL!
My summer plans are waiting for the middle of July, when the Tall Ships arrive in Halifax. You can be sure of loads of pictures when that happens!
your daughter has a million dollar smile!!
love 'kid soup' ;)
so many wonderful shades of blue in all your shots
nice post, grace :)
When we were at Luna Gal last June, Arabic was a more commonly spoken language than Hebrew. I remember seeing a fair amount of fully clothed women, but not in the full black outfits like that one.
Mother in Israel's comment makes me nervous. I was just having a discussion today with friends who used to live in Israel about safety issues.
Maya looks like she is having a great time. We had our first warm day here today.
Lovely summery photos of very attractive happy children, having just the most fun a child could wish for.
Lucky Maya. Fun fun.
Lucky you you didn't fall in with the camera.
Great pics of the covered Arab women. I wonder if they are from here. Well, there's always the Burqini
http://www.ahiida.com/index.php?a=subcats&cat=20
Shavua tov.
I can't imagine wearing a burqini, but it would have to be an improvement over going in dressed in street clothes.
How frightening that a child died. I can see how it might happen, too, it's such a madhouse there. The only good thing about the closed "school" days is the fact that the parent-child ratio is basically one-to-one. I can't fathom how you could possibly supervise multiple children in that chaos, and there is literally not enough money in the world for me to ever be a lifeguard there!
Still, as long as you are able to watch your own child like a hawk they do have a wonderful time.
We have had a very rainy and cool summer here so far. But, I have been able to get out and enjoy some things anyway. I think y'all look like you are having lots of fun at the water park.
Even crowded, I miss going to water parks. Our temperature here is at 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day. After the week you have had, it sounded like you needed to cool off. I hope things are going better for you and the "problems" are all settled.
Thanks for adding my Mr. Linky:-) With our time difference, I barely can get a post up for your Sunday.
Robin, the children in question were 8-10 as I recall. I believe the parents were even nearby but apparently not near enough. :(. As you point out there needs to be some kind of maximum capacity enforced. This kind of thing happens all too often.
Great post, loved the shots!
Great pics! I love that you can actually see the water splashing around everyone!!! I think I like water parks more than my kids do! We have an indoor one at a nearby hotel and it's one of my favorite places to go. The water slide is so much fun!
I'm laughing about your grand entrance!!! I think we might have attended the same walking classes! LOL
Oh, my. I do remember those water part days. We lived about 5 minutes away from Raging Waters in San Dimas, CA, and used to go there regularly all summer long. I enjoyed the tubes floating on the "river" that wound throughout the park. (between hauling up the hills and stairs to the more exciting slides). Too much fun!
Great way to cool off and have fun at the same time! I love the colors, very summery!
Hi Robin, I have been wanting to play earlier....
I don't like over crowded places, I like places to myself...lol
Looked like a fun day though.
Umm, mama pajama, I think you've been hacked kiddo - your link, with your blog address at the top, just took me to a fundamentalist Christian website! Definitely not your usual fare.
Ha, Ha Robin you live and learn....
My lens is the (AF-S VR70/300 f/4.5-5.6g IF-ED) you and I have to be careful not all Nikon lens are compatable with our camera...:-/
It was a birthday present from my hubby...
The new Laptop was a present from Dina to Dina...:-)) lol
I love those dogs they are so affectionate....Samantha lives about a mile from me....
Hehe.. mum beat me to it, i was going to say what lens she has.
Thanks for visiting my blog. :-)
Ooh, very nice glass - enjoy!
Lovely shots,
really holiday feeling :)
When I have holiday shots
I enjoy your fun :)
Kareltje =^.^=
Anya :)
Hi Robin, Looks like a really fun day! I've been enjoying your summer stock postings and finally decided to play this week. Have a good week!
Oh man, I have anxiety just looking at that crowded pool! I cannot imagine being covered in black fabric from head to toe in 90 degree weather. Amazing!
I didn't leave my linky since I didn't put up a Tuesday pic but I love how you explain it and draw us in. Thanks!
Wow! Great Photos!
very interesting post!
♥~•*☼♥♫¨*•.Happy WW!.•*¨♫♥☼*•~♥
I spy a hat I recognize!
I was wondering if you would ;-). She LOVES it you know - this is the first, make that the ONLY, hat she's ever been willing to wear. Up until now everywhere we went she was always the one kid without a hat!
In fact, the entire box was a tremendous hit and the contents are getting a LOT of use! Maya also tells everyone she sees where she got it :-).
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