The Grand Canyon

While Jon was lecturing in Jerusalem today, the boys and I went to the Grand Canyon (yes, you read that correctly). The Grand Canyon is the largest mall in Israel, and luckily for us, it's located in Haifa, about 15 minutes away by bus. The name is a cute play on words: "kenyon" is the Hebrew word for mall, the mall is pretty grand, and it's actually located at the bottom of a canyon, although it doesn't quite live up to its American namesake. There are close to 200 shops and kiosks, a food court and restaurants, movie theatres, and even a little amusement park, so it's like having our own little Mall of America right here in Israel.

First we had lunch at the food court. I couldn't decide between kosher Chinese, kosher Japanese, or kosher burgers (I love it here!) and decided to go with the Chinese. The boys wanted pizza from Sbarro's. Yes, we traveled 6000 miles so they could eat the same food they get at the mall at home (although of course they don't offer sausage or pepperoni here. You can, however, get corn and olive pizza if you want.).

We did some shopping and then we went to the movies ("Monsters vs Aliens," in English with Hebrew subtitles). The funniest part of the movie was the intermission halfway through -- a 5-minute break followed by very loud bells warning the audience that the movie was starting again. Apparently this is typical in Israel, because we could hear it happening in the other theatres.

After the movie, we stopped at the supermarket on the first level (MOA could use one of those), and then caught the bus home. Another fun day in Israeli paradise for the Garons.