Hot Fun in the Summer Sun

45 Degrees and having a blast!

What could be better than playing in the water on a hot summer's day?

Here in Israel there seems to be an innordinate number of waterparks relative to the overall population. Within about 30 minutes drive from downtown Tel Aviv there are at least 3 (including one in Tel Aviv proper). I guess this is a result of living in a near desert climate with sunshine most of the year. Some of them even have hotels associated with them. During the recent conflict in the north of the country alot of people were evacuated. The smart ones, who had children and money, moved into them - taking advantage of built in kid friendly services. Where would you rather stay if you had some rambunctious kids in tow?

I have found that there seems to be a tradition of extravagance here when it comes to celebrating openings of companies or having employee picnics. None of your "ok, we'll meet at the park for a potluck barbeque, softball and tag".

The owners of the telecom company that I work for also happen to own a major credit card company, a national chain of florist shops, clothing chains etc etc etc... They had a subsidized employee fun day at a waterpark just north of Tel Aviv on the grounds of Kibbutz Shfayim. As a token thank you to SistR for being just that, I took her and Jesamine for a day out.

We are sensible people, me and SistR, we didn't intend to pay the extortionate prices that amusement parks charge for the smallest little thing, so we brought a healthy picnic breakfast of yogurt, cucumbers, carrots, bourekas, hard-boiled eggs and fruit; we had snacks including popcorn, watermelon and Bamba (the most popular children's snack in Israel, kids start eating the stuff as soon as they can put there hands in their mouths).

To drink there was a big thermos of coffee for the big kids, diluted apple juice for Jes and lots of water for us all. Of course we bought icecreams - what is a day out without a 'scream?

We were out of the house by 8:30 and had entered the park by 9am. This was actually self-protection on the grownups part - we wanted to be "outta there" by lunch time. Israeli children are generally completely out of control. There is a very laissez faire attitude here and children are indulged to an extent that I have never, ever seen anywhere else. Imagine a few thousand children getting wound up on sugar for four hours- the typical Israeli children's breakfast is a pita or sandwich spread with artificial chocolate spread - and allowed to run riot. On top of that the sound system is played at distorted full volume by an adolescent crew whose main job appears to be to jump up and start dancing at every opportunity. Self-protection, uh huh!

Admittedly they did import some Capoeira experts(?) from Brazil to give demonstrations and mini lessons, but in the 45 degree temperature we had that day they looked like they might just pass out!

And of course there were a few crimes against humanity committed!

The fun, of course was to try and let the water fall on you and to stay cool in spite of the sun...

...overall, I think we succeeded!

Of course, after all of that fun in the sun and acting like a 7 year old for most of the day I needed a dose of reality, so I met friends at the beach for dinner...