Hanging in the Balance: The Childrens Journey....Part 2-My Israeli wanderer

Well we arrived in the land of milk and honey yesterday morning to a warm, enthusiastic welcome at the airport by Rebecca! What a sight for sore eyes, my adorable independent wanderer! She was all smiles and waves as we came through the custom doors. Lots of his and kisses later we met our guide Roy, and packed the SUV and headed north for Carmel, which was ravaged by out of control forest fires several weeks ago killing 44 prison guards. We headed for the Carmel Winery which was a tour of the famous winery followed by a wonderful wine tasting with 4 diiferent wines.Much of Carmel has been destroyed,including the Carmel Hotel and Spa which we were going to stay in. Instead we had to change plans and stay at the Dan Carmel in Haifa...a big disspointment. We then walked around the Rothschild Gardens . Jeff and I were very tired and jetlagged, head bobbing much of the day. That was until we got to the ATV's which we took into the Carmel forests and despite the desruction we had a true adventure that put the pounce in our step at least temporarily . We drove those things over boulders,in mud and through some of the bumpiest terrain I ever drove through.Our adrenaline now totally pumped up, we got dropped off at our hotel in Haifa, the Dan Carmel.It was a big dissapointment for a 5 star hotel....it was old, musty and not up to what I considered to be a 4 or 5 star hotel which I was paying for. SO , of course I complained to the hotel management,the tour company and they finally changed us to a suite....still old and musty, but at least more room.I would never recommend this hotel and I hope I don't run into the same problem with all the other hotels we booked.I was tired, jet lagged,hungry....that was just the straw that broke the israeli camels back. I must have been a raging lunatic because Rebecca and Jeff were totally embarrased. Anyway,they went out for dinner, I was just too exhausted and figured I was going to be really bad company , so I crashed and woke up 12 hours later...ready to go!