Hello again from Israel! Today is still July 5th and what a day we all had. I will get to that in a just a second. But first, let's discuss soccer a little... Today, we trained from 6:45 Am till 8:15 AM. Guess what? We had 9 balls miraculously appear at training and we would have had 10, if one of our players had decided to pump up his ball, which he has never even brought once! I thought I had seen everything in the game of soccer, but I was wrong! Bringing a ball that is totally deflated for the flight over and not having it pumped, was one for the books! Oh well, we survived, but still could not do the drill I wanted to do, as we still needed at least 10 balls to complete the drill. Maybe tomorrow?? We shall see!!

Training went pretty well, but still not there yet! We are making some progress and I am positive we will be there when it counts most...July 12th against Canada.

We will take Wednesday off as well as Thursday, as we transfer on Thursday to our permanent lodging for the games. We are off Wednesday, because we will get back after Midnight from our tours and they actually could use 1 or 2 days off, so we decided to take the latter.

Today, we started our tour by going to Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum). What a beautiful tribute to the 6 million who perished during thsi time. The building was shaped like a Pyramid, because the Great Pyramids of Egypt, were Burial sites and this was a tribute to those that had no Burial Site and it was simply stark and stunning in design and affect! The most amazing part was being able to look on computer for all that had persihed. I looked up "Goldfarb" and found well over 40 names, most from Poland, but 3 from Central Germany (Dusseldorf and Essen) and one from Lithuania. I could not locate anyone that had a listing of sons or daugters, therefore, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly which might have been related to our Grandfather. I also saw my mothers family name (Shapiro) listed as well and most of those from Ukraine and again, I could not pinpoint anyone. I think it was very important to know that at least there were Goldfarb's and Shapiro's who perished in the great atrocity. I was quite moved by this!

Next, we traveled to Mt. Herzel. This is a Burial site for all the famous people of Israel, like Theodore Herzel, who had a vision in the late 1800's and early 1900's to create a state of Israel. Unfortunately, he died before 1910 and never saw his dream come to reality. We saw Yitzak Rabin's grave as well as Golda Meir. We also saw the soldiers site, just like our Arlington National Cemetery.

Next, we went to an overlook and saw below us the city of Bethleham. We then went to Hebrew University for a Bar and Bat Mitzvah Ceremony where everyone participated during the 3 Aliyah's. It was a great and moving ceremony for all, with lots of singing and clapping. We also got to be with Aly and then we all had dinner on the patio of Hebrew University, which was very good. There was security everywhere around us. That was very comforting.

Tomorrow we have in store a very long day. We are going to the Dead Sea and Masada, where we will take the Cable Car up and them walk down. That night we will have a true Bedouin Dinner. We should return at midnight, after quite a day. Tomorrow and Wednesday are our last 2 days for touring and truthfully, we are all very tired, but happy and excited about tracing our heritage to the fullest!

Sean will upload some photos for you to view from today's journey. We hope you like them, and you are still getting quite a "Kick" from our blog! I know, for me, this is giving me so much enjoyment, just getting to tell about our times here in Israel

So, good night, stay well and continue along with our fantastic journey in Israel,

Preston and Sean from Israel