Traditionally Israelis go out on Yom Haatzmaut and hit the trails, see the sights, bask largely in nature. The weather is beautiful today. 

We went out with friends to his on Gan Emek HaEla up to Shaaraim, an old archaeological site dated to King David and is thought to have been the location of one of his palaces... Because Israelis traditionally go out and hit the trails before having a bbq celebration, there is always lots of traffic on Yom Haatzmaut, and popular sites can fill up very quickly. We try to avoid the traffic by going out a little buit earlier, and doing things closer to home. Shaaraim is right outside Bet Shemesh, and you can even see RBS D from the archaeological site. We accomplished our goals and did not sit in traffic, had a lovely hike and saw some people, though it was not crowded when we were there.

Befitting the day, the trail marker for our tiyul was blue and white...

and on our way out to the tiyul, just as we were heading out of Bet Shemesh, we spotted an eagle doing the air force's regular Yom Haatzmaut and performing a flyover... The Air Force flyovers are canceled this year due to the situation with Iran, so the eagle made sure we did not miss out...

Happy Birthday Israel!

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and (if you watched to the very end you will see), he's a mentsch too!

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