Post-vacation

August 14, 2008 - 9:00 PM by

Just back from an in-country vacation — which is almost an un-Israeli thing to do when everyone looks to escape the country for a week or two — and I’m here to tell the naysayers that it can be done. One can vacate — or vacation — in Israel, and still feel like you’ve escaped and obtained some ‘nikui rosh‘ and cleared your head.

We rented a house in Hofit, a small beachside town of just six streets in the Sharon. It’s better known by its moshav neighbors, Beit Herut and Kfar Vitkin, as well as Beit Yannai and Michmoret just across the road. Beit Herut was founded by American immigrants in the 1933, and Hofit was established in the early 1950s for workers who wanted an agricultural lifestyle. My brother-in-law’s parents, Moshe and Lillian Goldberg, were part of that early trend, after making aliyah from Philadelphia in 1947 and buying a one-dunam lot in Hofit.

In those days, tells Lillian, who just turned 90, there were dunes all around and the sea was just a quick slide down a set of them. When Highway #2, known as the Coastal Road, was built, my brother-in-law and his brother and friends would run across the road, which was just a narrow, two-lane job. Now it’s a more major thoroughfare, but the Hefer Valley Regional Council has built an overpass, a roundabout and some sidewalks so that the people of Hofit, Beit Herut and Kfar Vitkin can still make their five-minute stroll to the beach.

beit yannai.jpg
It’s a great beach; especially at 8:30 on a weekday morning when there are just a smattering of other swimmers and surfers around and the sea is still cool from the night air. We were lucky, because the jellyfish weren’t out and the waves were intense but the lifeguards let us swim (and they didn’t go on strike, as expected). You can also walk along the coast and reach the Alexander River, a riverbed that has water all year long and a small, but significant population of soft-shelled turtles, who can be shy about coming up to the banks of the river but happily paddle through the water, their little heads bobbing up and down.
There’s a feeling of being in the middle of nowhere out there, among the dunes and the sand, but of course you’re not, not with an Aroma within a two-minute walk, alongside the famous Pancake House and the M-Haderech Mall. There’s even a local hummousiya, Abu Ya Ya (named for the owner, who is the father of Yael, or Ya Ya), which offers very decent hummous and a jarful of gummy worms for dessert.

But like any vacation, it’s about being away from home, seeing different faces and different scenery. Adventures help, and for landlocked Jerusalemites, it doesn’t hurt to be able to swing over to the beach for a quick morning or evening swim while the sun sets.

Tags: , , , , • Category: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Travel 

Comments

One Comment on Post-vacation

  1. Dan on Fri, Aug 15th 2008 10:58 AM

    2. Hope you enjoyed your vacation, I’ve been to Michmoret a few times and my cousin lives in Kfar Vitkin, the beaches there are very nice. Our favorite post-beach day restaurant in M-Haderech is actually the hamburger restaurant; it can’t compare to Black Bar & Burger in Cinema City but it’s still very good.

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