Shenanigans Crossing Borders

This might sound crazy

recent posts

about

  • ¿De quién es este queso? (17/02/26)

    Today JP got up and out before sunrise, and got the dogs to walk around an old fortress lookout thingie (i’m sure there’s a technical term for it).

    Back at the apartment, we ate and packed up, hitting the road relatively early as we had a long drive back, and though the girls don’t have school, JP did have to work that afternoon.

    The drive was mostly uneventful, but going through the mountains is absolutely gorgeous.

    Stunning really!

    JP also mapped a slightly different route that took us through a lot of back country.

    The region we are driving through is Manchego country!

    That may not be the technical name, but JP doesn’t care.

    We all love Manchego cheese. If you don’t, skip reading this part…

    A quick note about Manchego:

    1. It must be made in the La Mancha region.
    2. It can be made only with the whole milk of sheep of the Manchega breed raised on registered farms within that area.
    3. It must be aged for a minimum of 60 days (30 days for cheeses weighing up to 1.5 kg or 3.3 lb) and a maximum of two years.
    4. It must be produced by pressing in a cylindrical mould that has a maximum height of 12 cm (4.7 in) and a maximum diameter of 22 cm (8.7 in).

    This is JPs favorite cheese in the world! Even the AAs like it. A lot. And if you need some, check out the koshercheeseguys, they import the good (albeit expensive) stuff. (side story – during the pandemic, JP might’ve even bought a full wheel from them).

    We stopped in the city of Cárdenas, and found a market in the basement of the municipal building.

    Definitely not sketchy!

    Here they have fresh seafood, olives, meat, produce, and most importantly: Manchego!

    1 Wheel later…

    We got back in the car and headed back home to Recas.

    Traffic was smooth, we came up on Toledo from the south side (it’s a completely different view when coming this way).

    Back home, the dogs ran around, the AAs jumped on the trampoline, and JP got back to work!

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses” (Elwood Blues, 1980)

    Okay, maybe not, and it’s only 45 miles to home, but who is keeping track?

    Three of us headed back into the city. We honestly didn’t do a whole lot, if you don’t count grocery shopping, it was nice to take our time. Watch some movies and just be the 4 of us, once Ezra got back from work and rowing.

  • Málaga on foot (16/02/26)

    Málaga on foot (16/02/26)

    Getting up bright and early, JP took the dogs down to the beach and let them run around a bit.

    This can always be a little risky, as Darth, a Shiba Inu with a mind of his own, is wicked smart, and might decide to not come back.

    JP has done this on a beach a few times with mixed results (though he’s always managed to get Darth back, it’s a gambit). Armed with a bag of treats, and having worked a lot to get Darth to come when called, it was a fun time watching the sun come up while running near the waves.

    After breakfast, JP brought the AAs back to the beach to look for more sea glass. Slathered up in sun block, and covered by long sleeves, hats, and other protective gear, we had a nice, relaxing day at the beach.

    Shame is was only 15c.

    And windy

    Brrrr

    Back to the apartment, we cleaned up, packed some snacks, and got in the van to drive to Málaga.

    Given that it’s only 30ish minutes away, the drive was easy, until the very end, where you are on S-turns through neighborhoods, and everyone is on your bumper.

    Beautiful but scary.

    We got into the city and found a garage to park the car. Being the first time we valeted the car, of course, JP walked away with the keys in his pocket (he unfortunately does this a bit too often), and the valet called the office because the car gets angry and beeps a lot (R2D2-style cussing) and stops working if the key isn’t present 😦

    The garage is miraculously close to the kosher restaurant (right next store). Arriving just before closing (we had 45 minutes to spare), we picked up food for dinner. Talking with the owners, a lovely brother and sister from Venezuela, we learned about the community, their history in Spain, and the neighborhood.

    After we got our food, we headed out onto the main streets of Málaga, looking for some boba. We also found a k-pop star or 2 (maybe?)

    Walking back towards the car, we stopped in a little mall, and lo and behold, there was a piano. But the sign on it said only play if you’ve talked to management.

    Sadly the AAs aren’t keen on JP breaking the rules, so he skipped playing, and they instead walked the beautiful streets of Málaga, picking oranges off the trees right along the street

    That’s legit a thing here.

    Until today, nobody (amongst the 3 of us) could say we’d ever been orange picking.

    Now we can!

    What an adventure!

    Strolling through the rambla, JP spotted a store called Stradavarius (which is the name of a well known violin maker who lived in the 17th & 18th centuries). JP was so excited, he willingly offered to go into a makeup store if he could go into Stradavarius.

    Sadly, it turns out, this was not a music store, but a clothing store.

    False advertising!

    The AAs got to go into a few makeup stores and look around. Nobody stocked Taylor Swift’s makeup (phew!) and we carried on.

    Traversing through a lot of gorgeous side streets, past a ton of shops, we watched a kitty walk through the old Roman amphitheater.

    Enough walking and talking, we got back to the car, drove home, cleaned up, and watched Zootopia before passing out.

    Tomorrow is our drive back home, so we’re crashing a little early tonight.

    ¡Buenas noches!

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Stinky onion!

    Back in the stinky onion, Elyce had a doctors appointment and dragged Vered with her. Such a wonderful mother she is. Though nothing more exciting than a normal G.I. follow up, we were going from there to the suburbs to spend time with family. Not that you asked, but Elyce got the all clear on the G.I. front (except getting medications is another issue altogether).

    Here’s to hoping we will be able to order it today. Fingers crossed, but low expectations.

    New word: VI (for Vered and I)

    VI grabbed a drink from Tropical Smoothie, and Vered’s straw decided it needed blow a bubble.

    (Ok, VI sounds dumb, no more VI).

    Via the Metra, we got out to the southern burbs to spend time with Mayrav, my parents (Bubbie & Zadie), and my brother (Uncle) and my niece (cousin Zoe). Sadly my sister-in-law (Aunt Becky) was not feeling well so we didn’t get to hug her.

    We had a lovely time and just like everything else already these past few days, didn’t take many photos. But what we did take (I might get a little bit of wrath from some family, but at least you made it on the blog) 🙂 …. Sorry, not sorry, I had to post these it’s not often we capture hilarious images of our parents.

    Zaydie was excited.

    Bubbie was excited as well

    Zoe and Josh were glad to hang as well

    We even went shopping (yes, Elyce agreed to go shopping). Bubbie somewhat enjoyed this. Elyce was not really humored as shopping is not a favorite activity . You can see below that even Elyce was excited..

    After shopping, we made our way back to the city and crashed, ready for another day!

  • Playa de Caleta de Velez (15/02/26)

    The girls were on a 4 day weekend (JP got Monday off), so JP & AAs jumped in the car (more like, they packed food, clothes, and the dogs into the van – which took an inordinately longer amount of time than molasses dripping from a tree in January), and drove the 5 hours south to Málaga.

    JP got a super great deal (really cheap 1 bedroom), practically right on the beach.

    Well, close to the beach

    You could open the window, see and hear the waves

    Technically this wasn’t actually in Málaga. We were about 30km outside of Málaga, in a tiny seaside town called Caleta de Velez.

    Don’t look it up

    You’ll blink and miss it.

    Did I mention it was windy?

    So windy Inqueue moved around, not of her own volition.

    JP’s hat has an adjustable string to tie it down, and that got blown off.

    Suffice to say, wimbdy!

    We at some Italian dinner in a German owned restaurant on the southern coast of Spain.

    The equivalent of having kosher Chinese food made by a Mexican being overseen by a Jew who’s never eaten treyf (unkosher food).

    Mediocre, but they let us bring the dogs into the restaurant (a crazy thing that could never happen back home, but seems to be a constant all over Europe).

    Next we spent nearly an hour combing the beach looking for sea glass.

    Green. Blue. Red (or pink). Yellow.

    It was a fun game and the girls were happy to explore.

    By the time the sun went down, it dropped about 4 degrees (in celcius, that’s a lot), so we trundled back to the apartment, the girls got cleaned, and snuggled together as they passed out.

    JP wrote some blog posts, redid the family cards, ordered Ezra a new motorcycle battery, and then passed out!

    Hasta la playa!

    While back in the Windy City, Elyce and Vered went to Felix’s Bar Mitzvah Party. Not nearly as windy as Spain. 🙂

    Afterwards we walked around Hyde Park, took the Metra and “L” trains back home.

    Vered saw some interesting items under the train tracks. There has to be a sad child somewhere out there.

    Did some “window” shopping downtown, we made it back to an empty house. Mayrav and Ezra went to visit Bubbie and Zadie. That’s another day for us.

  • Coming to America or Hasta la Vista (12/02/26)

    Vered and Elyce were flying back home because Vered’s best friend was becoming Bat Mitzvah, and Vered wanted to be there.

    The airport in Madrid is HUGE! We thought we arrived with plenty of time, little did we know we would have to go down 4 sets of escalators, take a tram to another section of the terminal we were in and show our passports many, many times. And go to the far end of the terminal. Of course we are at the far end, we are always at the far end.

    Wait which passport?? Which line do we go in? The airport staff sent us to a line that was almost non-existent (are we really supposed to be in this line?). Yes, yes we are, it’s a family line. You read that correctly, Spain has separate lines for security purposes just for families. No rushing, no making people behind you angry because you are traveling with children, just a calm line where people care to help.

    We are traveling on our German passports since landing in December so it made sense that was to be used. Of course it was, up until we boarded our plane. Holding them in my hand, they sent us out of the boarding group line and to the desk. Not sure why, but it was nothing major they just looked at our US passports, told me to use them and sent us onto the plane. Okay!

    We had a rather uneventful flight, which we are not complaining about. Elyce watched 3 movies, Vered watched 4. We watched one or two of them “together” on our own seat back screens. However, Elyce fell asleep and Vered did not. The airplane food was actually edible and was enjoyed.

    CTA for the win! Why spend lots of money when you can spend less than $5 to get from O’Hare home? It was a little chilly outside but we brought sunshine back with us. So we were okay, besides we knew our winter jackets were in the house.

    Not sure which one of us was happier to get an Ezra hug.

    Unfortunately, Ezra had a double ear infection and was feeling blah the first few days we were home. However it meant we got more time with him, since he was not going to work.

    Mayrav also flew home today. Vered was very excited to not only have time with both of her older sisters but to go to the climbing gym. What a lucky girl. 🙂

    So the 4 of us were home together. (some how I didn’t take a photo)

    Back in Spain, JP is now solely responsible for the youngest Jawas!

    AAs FTW!

    Since it was only about 10 in the morning, they decided to drive into Madrid and find the synagogue, some food, and maybe something culturally interesting.

    The airport is a massive complex, and about 45 minutes from downtown, and downtown itself is a massive web of above and below ground roads. Thank goodness for GPS, but still, the city is a large sprawl of new and old, streets that weave in and out of neighborhoods, construction that sometimes appears to be at a standstill, while other times traffic that flows faster than the Niagara falls.

    Driving around the city, we couldn’t find parking (it was our first time here), and 1 garage actually told us our minivan was too big. He was very apologetic and helped me reverse out of the alley (only about 20m), and we discovered that the hospital has parking for larger vehicles. Not only that, the garage also has relatively clean bathrooms, so:

    PITSTOP!

    Next we walked a few blocks and found the Communidad Judia de Madrid (aka the Madrid Jewish Community), and asked some questions about nearby food, sabbath requirements, et al. The security here is pretty tight, and we will have to share passports if we want to come back. Most likely it will have to wait until everyone is back, because finding a hotel or airbnb in the neighborhood for a shabbat isn’t easy or cheap!

    Leaving the synagogue, we found a couple of kosher options, including the local kosher store. They had sausages, chicken, wine, soup, candy, meat, etc. We got a little of this and some of that in preparation for Shabbat and upcoming meals.

    We next walked around the neighborhood, found a cute little restaurant that was only just opening up. The owner invited us in, and was very sweet as we ordered a simple meal, talked about the global and local politics, and the world at large.

    After a lovely little lunch, we returned to the car, drove through Madrid and saw some amazing sculptures and statues, then headed back to our home in Recas.

    The house has a trampoline, so the girls unwound for a bit jumping, playing games, and getting used to the house, while JP got setup for working, and comfortable with the house. The dogs got to run around the yard and really get a feel for the space.

    He also made pizza dough for the first time ever, and did pretty well. Everyone ate well!

    Buenos noches!

  • Recas or bust! (11/02/26)

    Leaving Dos Rius relatively early (we were out by 0930, which has to be a new record for us), we made our way from Barcelona to Madrid. Our home for the next 3 weeks is going to be a little town south of Madrid, just north of Toledo, called Recas.

    Truthfully, it’s going to mostly be JP and the AAs home, as Elyce and Vered will only spend 2 nights total here.

    The drive was mostly just long.

    One gas station where we stopped, JP saw the unbelievable 5 L virgin olive oil, for 39.95 Euro. That’s about 60% cheaper than anything we’d seen, stateside or in France or Germany. I guess the Spaniards have been selling olives to the Italians for centuries, and there’s a reason it’s so good here!

    Overall the drive was uneventful, and we got into our apartment relatively early.

    Our host lives in Madrid with her family, but the house we’re renting is where she grew up. Her parents still live in the upstairs apartment, and we’re staying on the first floor. It’s approximately 900m^2 , and there’s a lot of outdoor space (pool – but it’s empty because it’s still winter, trampoline, ping pong table, etc). Indoors it’s 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.

    The dogs can run around outside, the grounds are fully enclosed, we get a remote control to open the gate and park the car inside the yard (we’re the only ones doing that, as the parents don’t drive).

    Getting in, we unloaded, got to work and school, then ran to the grocery and picked up some quick stuff to make dinner.

    Later, JP drove out to a nearby town to get gas, because of course this town doesn’t actually have a diesel pump.

    While out, he got blocked in by a parade of tractors. Turns out, farmers drove from all over the country-side into Madrid, in their tractors, to protest the government trying to force them to inject something into the cattle to reduce methane.

    We’re talking thousands of tractors, from farms all over, driving into the already congested city.

    The city is 45KM away.

    That’s about 1,5+ hour drive for these guys going 20 KPH.

    But they did it, and made their point!

    Eventually JP got home, back to work, got everyone to bed, and now we’re ready for sending Vered and Elyce away for a few weeks.

  • Super exciting JP, boring Elyce (13/02/26-14/02/26)

    Super exciting JP, boring Elyce (13/02/26-14/02/26)

    Subtitled: Carnivale en Toledo

    Friday was a standard working day for JP, but he managed to get the girls to clean, he cooked up a few meals for Shabbat, and brought in the sabbath with trampoline jumping, dogs running around, and a Lord of the Rings movie!

    Most of the sabbaths, we’ve been able to get to a syngagogue, however there is absolutely nothing within walking distance of Recas. JP and the girls made due with trampolines, dog walks, eating, and more trampoline. And thanks to the Hadar publications, a bit of Torah study was achieved!

    After Shabbat, JP somehow convinced both girls to get in the car and drive to Toledo. It’s only about 17 minutes from door-to-door, almost all highway driving, and it’s dark out.

    Driving through the countryside, you don’t see much, until the highway bends and then, suddenly, the castle and old city of Toledo shows up. At night, the old city is glowing in a beautiful way, full of history and cautionary tales.

    It was also jam packed and clogged.

    WTF

    It was supposed to be a sleepy night. Quiet and calm. Easy to get in and out.

    Just getting into the city took forever (ok, maybe it was only 15 minutes, but it feels like a long time), and we honestly had no clue where we were going.

    Right off the highway, though, is a really cool sculpture (Escultura ecuestre de Alfonso VI) that has Hebrew, Spanish

    Somehow JP drove in enough circles and hairpin turns up steep, steep hills, only to find the road narrowed so much, we had to pull in the mirrors on both sides to squeeze through.

    Honestly, it was probably for the best that Elyce wasn’t with us. This would have sent her into conniptions.

    We managed to find a parking spot in a garage at the bottom of the hill, and then we rode an escalator (actually it was several escalators) up to the old city. The view was gorgeous (albeit dark), as you looked out over the northern part of the city.

    Inside the old city, there was a lot going on, and we walked from the edge into the center, where there was a massive Carnivale celebration happening. Lots of people dressed up in costumes, it was like Halloween! Some costumes were very clever, others were mildly entertaining, and some were just trite.

    We did find our gelato shop, and armed with frozen milk sugar ice, we went back to the central area and watched a great band with lots of dancers, acts, and songs. It was entertaining, but it as also late. After being in Toledo for an hour, we headed back to the car and back home.

    All in all, it was a fun adventure.

    ¡Buenas noches!

    Meanwhile back in Chicago, Elyce and Vered enjoyed a slower adventure. We are not sightseeing in a place we have not been. We are home and “relaxing”. Maybe that’s not completely true, but it’s close. Grocery shopping, more grocery shopping a and school work, talking with siblings was most of Friday morning. After lunch we packed an overnight bag and headed to Hyde Park.

    This was a planned surprise for all of Vered’s former classmates. Only a handful of people knew we returned earlier. Huge Thank you to MFP (some day I will write her name out completely but does any one outside her family call her by her first name?), Stefanie (I think I spelled it wrong), Julia, Linguini, and the cat/kittens. We had a lovely quiet and relaxing Shabbat dinner.

    Saturday morning we got ourselves up and out to celebrate Felix’s Bar Mitzvah. SURPRISE to all of Vered’s friends! None of them knew, not sure Felix knew (Stina and Reed did) either. Thank you to all for keeping it a secret. Vered was so happy to see everyone. Felix did a fabulous job! After Shabbat we got a ride back home. Also very much appreciated and super unnecessary.

    Vered, Ezra and I watched a movie. My father would be so proud Ezra got Vered into Bond, James Bond. 🙂

  • Picasso Cubed (10/02/26)

    One of the craziest parts of being in Spain, after almost 2 months of being abroad, is being in a country where you understand, and can be understood by, everyone!

    Well, at least JP could. With nearly 30 years of Spanish, JP was in his element, and everyone was happy to talk, chat, share news and suggestions. Overall, just a refreshing time

    JP got out early with the dogs and saw the steam rising over Dosrius! The town is a cute little place, with plenty of side-streets that all lead back to the main church.

    While walking, he found a guy who listens to his radio every morning, chilling, looking over the main “circle/intersection” of Dosrius.

    I guess if I’d been working for 2-3 hours and wanted to take a break and watch the sun rise and the town come alive, this would be the place to do it.

    We struck out early enough to sit in some fun rush our traffic. Today was our day to visit the Pablo Picasso museum.

    If you want a place that gives you his history, the evolution of his art, and the ways in which his artistic mediums changed, this is it.

    Almost the entire complex of buildings (it seems like 6 were all stitched together) were dedicated to Picasso and his art. There were some other artists highlighted and listed, yet they weren’t a distraction, more like an enrichment.

    Through the entire exhibit you can see why Picasso is a master.

    Just incredible!

    In the gift shop we even saw the piece that inspired Eema’s needle point.

    After our museum tour, we walked through some parts of Barcelona, scoring some tasty strawberry gelato.

    We walked through squares that held some old cathedral, and ventured around some artsy, overpriced shops.

    And then the rumbly tumbly hangry children needed fooooooooood!

    Stopping in the equivalent of a food court, we saw beautiful displays of fish, meats, household goods, baked goods, etc. We bought one of the best baguettes and had them slice it. Then we grabbed a couple wedges of sliced Manchego cheese, and this was an incredible snack for the ride home. The below shots are of some incredible looking, non-kosher sea food. The displays were beautiful!

    Back at the house we ate, worked, built a fire, drank some cider, and relaxed. Tomorrow was another early morning and long drive, so let’s go!

    Our neighbors made sure to say good night!

    ¡Buenas noches!

  • Au Revoir y Bienvenido! (08/02/26-09/02/26)

    Au Revoir y Bienvenido! (08/02/26-09/02/26)

    Leaving early in the morning, we just wanted to burn rubber and get away from this apartment.

    We also wanted a macaron!

    Good luck finding patisseries open Sunday morning. JP had mapped a couple in Lyon, but nothing was open.

    We did find a Braille memorial. Turns out, there’s a big braille memorial here.

    Instead he found something, we stopped and loaded up on sweets, and then left France

    Well, we drove

    And drove

    Stopped for some food in Montpellier and met ET, the Mario Bros, and a tiny, itty, bitty car

    Arriving in the town of Dos Rius, we were greeted by our host, a lovely musician and previous occupant of our AirBnB. He grew up in this house, and there was definitely a complete element of people still living here.

    DVDs, a library, comfy furniture, a piano (hallelujah), a swimming pool (brrr), and a couple of fire places.

    We got comfy and JP almost immediately built a fire.

    In the morning, JP took the dogs on a long walk and discovered the remnants of an old fort. He probably should’ve turned back, but it was definitely the road less traveled, and the dogs always love good long walks!

    Leaving for the morning, we drove first to a nearby town Mataró, and went right to the beach.

    This may be the most tragic part of the trip so far. Though the girls had a great time running around, and sea water, and beach time, Ayelet also lost her camera 😥

    Lesson learned, pay attention to your belongings.

    From Mataró we drove out to Barcelona to get some lunch. There’s a kosher shop, and we wanted to walk around a bit, so JP found some parking garage, and we did just that: walked around.

    There’s a lot of artist shops, kitsch stores, and whatnots.

    The food was ok, but the seagulls attacking people for their food in the open-air food court was way more entertaining. Sadly we watched at least one person have their entire meal snatched by the birds.

    By the way: birds aren’t real (dot com)

    We left Barcelona to get back in time for work and school.

    Hasta la vista!

  • You Lyon to me? (06/02/26-07/02/26)

    Ever hear an ass bray?

    No, not JP or his bad jokes.

    I mean, a real donkey, braying at full blast, in the mountains of France, at 7 in the morning?

    No?

    Let me tell you, it’s amazing. It is like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

    One summer JP lived across the street from a zoo and could hear them feeding the lions in the morning. This had nothing on that.

    Holy wow are they loud.

    Like Indy-500-practicing-for-carburetion-day loud (this might only be something someone who grew up close enough to the track would understand).

    The beautiful mountain top town of Courzieu is so damn beautiful!

    We originally were planning to leave on Thursday and hightail it Barcelona on Thursday, but we decided to stay in Lyon for Shabbat (a larger Jewish population here v. in Barcelona). So we booked a weekend in the part of Lyon known as Villeurbanne (Urban village?)

    Everyone packed up, JP worked the morning (Fridays are US hours), and at noon we left the mountain top (sad panda face) and drove into town.

    It’s about 45 minutes into Lyon, and en route we stopped at Hyper Cacher to stock up.

    This was our first kosher stop since Berlin, and it was really nice to load up on wine, some deli meat, and chicken.

    Strangely enough, the vegan/vegetarian diet is ok, but once in a while it’s nice to eat a salami!

    The meat here is fantastic! They even have a version like peperoni, and something else that’s really, really red. I think some of this actually comes in from Strasbourg, so that’ll be a town we visit another time.

    JP made sure to call the bank before we checked out!

    At the apartment, we discovered some less-than-pleasant features (bathroom ceiling had a hole in it that was taped over, but falling down), and a lack of amenities (dish soap, sponges, hand towels). Needless to say, we got in, unloaded and unpacked

    Elyce is amazing and cleaned a lot of the kitchen to make it usable, then cooked a bunch of food while JP finished the workday. Sadly the girls weren’t quite as helpful as they could’ve been.

    For Shabbat we opted to not go to Friday night services, leaving that for Saturday morning.

    This shabbat was probably the most sincere, lovable, and incredible Shabbat we’ve had yet!

    We managed to get out and to the synagogue relatively early.

    Security checked our bags, and then JP stayed downstairs while Elyce and the girls went upstairs.

    Davening was heavily in the sephardic tradition, and today was a Bar Mitzvah, so we got to experience it. And this shul was packed!

    Unlike our previous synagogue visits, this one was brimming with families, energy, excitement. The rabbi gave a speech, the bar mitzvah boy gave a speech, and then a special rabbi from another synagoge gave another speech. Shame it was all in French and we didn’t understand a lick of anything. But it was still awesome!

    After services, there was a lovely kiddush with deli meat, herring, pickles, sandwiches, sushi, tuna thingies, egg thingies, sodas, whiskies, spiked lemonade, and even vodka with redbull. JP poured a drink for a random stranger, talked at length with the rabbi, and helped bring food out for Elyce (who was a bit overwhelmed by this all) and Avital (who was reacting to the sesame in the air).

    After leaving the synagogue, we stopped nearby in a large plaza to let the girls run around and let off some steam. The Jawas immediately started growing a group of new friends while playing tag, and though nobody understood each other, it was fun to watch children being children.

    About 15 minutes into sitting in the sunlight and recharding our Sabbath batteries, a family of 5 from shul walking by said hello and Shabbat Shalom (friendly greetings on the Sabbath). 2 minutes later, the husband came back and asked if we had lunch plans.

    We didn’t

    So they invited us back to their home

    JP stopped to walk the dogs and feed them while Elyce and the jawas went back with the wife and other children.

    Getting back to their apartment, we helped setup an impromptu meal, and spent the rest of the day learning about each other, their lives, children, families, etc.

    This was, by far, the most hospitable shabbat we’ve ever had!

    Near the end of Shabbat, we all went back to another synagogue where we had afternoon prayers, then a food break (the 3rd meal), and then the evening prayers.

    We then went back to our new friends’ home, collected everyone, and then bid each other farewell after exchanging contact information and taking photos. We will absolutely stay in touch and come back! And they are certainly welcome to visit us anytime in Chicago!

    Sorry, didn’t ask permission to post the adults faces.

    Back at the apartment, we prepped for our departure. We had a long drive and we didn’t want to stay in this apartment any longer than necessary.

    Shavua tov!

  • How is Elyce doing?? (05/02/2026)

    Some people have asked, and it feels appropriate to give an update.

    How does Elyce feel?

    This is a loaded question.

    Emotionally, I am spent, excited, intrigued, reluctant, afraid, happy and everything else.

    Physically, it is a bit of everything as well.

    Looking at me from an outsiders’ perspective, you would think I am 100% recovered (never having dealt with a life-threatening neuro-invasive disease 17 months ago). For context, in September of 2024, I was stricken with West Nile Virus, and developed Meningoencephalitis (it is a serious, often life-threatening inflammation of both the brain parenchyma [functional tissue in the ole noggin] and its protective membranes [aka meninges]). I suffered from super high prolonged fevers, severe headaches, stiff neck, and altered mental status. I spent 6 weeks in a hospital and remember none of it.

    The doctors said recovery from West Nile could take between 6-18 months.

    17 months later and I am not 100%.

    My new normal is not 100% of before.

    • My balance is still a little off
    • My vision still has its moments
    • I get dizzy if I move too fast,
    • I struggle to recall some words (though it is not clear if this is part of the recovery or perimenopause?),
    • Lack of focus
    • Loud noises for any length of time cause my body to shut down. (I know the youngest three children don’t help this).

    Am I relying on JP a lot? Yes, I am.

    Is that causing stress? Yes it does.

    Are we making it work? Yes we are!

    We are in a partnership and this is what you do.

    Sometimes the jokes and humor may be a little crass…sometimes annoying…sometimes dark. But we are both here to support each other, and though he hates to admit it, he likes making sure I can still ensure I can put up a fight!

    So…why did we still decide to travel?

    Why not?

    The doctors didn’t care (well, maybe the G.I. does). And JP was able to negotiate travel while working (digital global nomad).

    But most importantly: we have talked about this for years, and we are finally in a place where it is actually possible.

    So we are doing it.

    Is it tough being not fully capable? You betcha!

    I have not worked out, like truly worked out in a gym, for nearly 17 months. And I am feeling it.

    I am stiff and slow moving, but still doing it.

    Are the memories we are making worth it?

    1,000,000%

    I wouldn’t give this up for anything.

    We love the small towns we have been staying in.

    They are much easier for me to function, taking walks, being able to hear what is happening around me (no more hearing aids [for now]) and working on regaining the parts of my life that were temporarily lost.

    We know that it’s a long road to recovery and the fact that I felt I could travel says a lot.

    Not every day is great for me (physically or mentally). There are bad days and worse, good days and mad. Yet almost every day I notice something that in the Fall/Winter of 2024/2025, in the throes of my initial hospitalization and immediate recovery, activities I could not do, things that I can do now. This is a reminder of how far we have come.

    Every day is a blessing, even if it is hard to see it in the moment.