A couple of weeks ago, the news reported that there was snow falling on Mt. Hermon.
Since our youngest four children have never seen snow, I resolved that we would take them to experience it for the first time.
My husband agreed to take a day off and join us, which was amazing since I wouldn’t have done a trip like this on my own – and everything is much better with him around.
We set out, without directions since the army was scrambling the GPS to the area for security reasons. My husband said we could drive to a northernmost city and look for signs from there, and that’s what we did.
Of course, we had no answer to the inevitable “when are we getting there?” questions that started five minutes after leaving home.
When we caught our first glimpse of Mt. Hermon in the distance, it was very exciting!
Getting closer.
And closer.
After some detours, the longest and most notable through the Druze village Madjal Shams, we got there three hours after setting out.
It was cold! We were all wearing multiple layers to stay warm.
We had a scare soon after getting there (more about that in a different post), but after taking a break for an extended lunch and to warm up, everyone was ready to get back on the sledding slopes. We bought sleds for everyone at a stand on the side of the road on the way there and the kids were eager to try them out.
After sledding down the slopes, everyone walks back up between the designated yellow dividers. Here’s my husband heading up with ds9.
We alternated sledding with inside breaks. The last time we went back out it was already 3 pm, and most people were heading home. So we had the slopes to ourselves.
Here’s ds9 at the bottom by himself.
It was icy cold by this point. There was a report of a high winds expected in the evening and they began while we were there. I didn’t even want to take my gloved hand out my pocket to take pictures.
When I took short videos of the kids sledding down, the resulting videos are very choppy due to the wind blowing the camera.
But they had an amazing time.
Ds13 claimed he was too tired to leave, so ds8 pulled him on his sled and when they got to the point there was no snow, they were both laughing and walked out together.
We were among the last to leave, and when we got to the car, every child changed into warm, dry clothes from top to bottom.
The kids couldn’t stop thanking us for taking them – again and again and again. It was a great experience for them all. (For us as parents, it was far from relaxing and lots of work, but that’s how it is at this stage of parenting.)
We plied them with food and drink during the drive home and told them that this was dinner, that when we got home everyone was going straight into bed.
And that’s what we did. They were exhausted and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.
My teens (19, 18, 16) are planning an older boys trip with my husband in a couple of weeks (none of us had ever been here until now). My husband is trying to convince them to go to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi instead, where it will be warmer, but that doesn’t have the pull of sledding and snow activities at Mt. Hermon.
Avivah
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