I just spent a week in Tel Aviv where I don’t expect to be back for a while. As I was staying through the week-end I got to experience the town during Shabbat.

Waking up early on Saturday I walked down to the lobby to find the two expresso machines of the hotel under wrap. I walked down the street looking for an open coffee place, one with a terrace for some people watching. Walking up Gordon street I found the perfect spot near the intersection with Frug street and sat down. The coffee was good and the people watching interesting -the Shabbat crowd is quite different as people dress up and entire families take a stroll.

Two old friends were walking, I imagined on their way to the Synagogue. They were lost in their discussion as they slowly walked by me.

Goodbye Tel Aviv

On Frug and Gordon St. – Ink and watercolor on Arches paper – 10″ x 14″

Now, just back in San Francisco, the image stays with me as a moment of peace, a moment suspended in time. This morning the first bomb in 11 years exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv; Hamas has been targeting the city with their longer range, Iranian-engineered missiles. That Saturday morning I experienced, sipping my latte on a quiet street, is now gone in all possible ways. Goodbye Tel Aviv.