Pardes Hanna to Caesarea to Nes Ziona

After the jachnoon on Saturday we drove to Pardes Hanna to visit my host's grandmother.  She lives in a house that used to be part of a large citrus orchard and there are still quite a few trees in the yard.  Mangos, lychees, pomegranates, lemons and oranges though the only ripe fruits at the time were the lychees.

I'm pretty sure the above fruit is an annona, or custard fruit.  It appeared to be immature, but I had the pleasure of eating these in Costa Rica years ago and it looks pretty similar

Pomegranate trees are everywhere in Israel--even in Jerusalem in the parks.

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After Pardes Hanna we stopped at a Mizrahi restaruant for a quick lunch.  Of course, eating in Israel is never exactly quick, especially when 9 mazza (small plates) of hummus, salad, 2 types of cabbage, pickles, corn salad, tabouleh and eggplant are brought before you even order the meal.  Wait, isn't this the meal?!

We did order lamb, but by the time we were through with all of the appetizers, it was a bit anti-climactic.

We drove to Caesarea, a beautiful beach with an aqueduct leading out to the sea that was built by Herod the Great in 37 to 4 BC to bring water from the southern side of Mount Carmel, 10km to the northeast.  The aqueduct was added onto and rebuilt several times over the following 1200 years.

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Later that evening we visited friends in Nes Ziona and had a lovely dinner of homemade mini-pizzas and salad.  Dessert was the highlight, a homemade malabi (custard) ice cream flavored with rose (my favorite!)