general

It all started a long time ago, when two astrophysicists met each other on an island far far away, and started a connection that will eventually result in a wedding of two families.
but this is not the story about those people,
not a story about how they met, how they fell in love...
it's not even a story about how those two families became friends, or got together for the very first time. these stories are all told elsewhere, or will be told when the time comes.
this is the story of the first time (of many!) the koesters came to israel.

we set the date to meet as many constraints as possible (school schedule, work...).
we wanted everybody to be able to come for as long as possible, and therefore decided not to let the weather be in the way of having fun, and decided on the end of August, even though it's probably not the best time to travel in Israel... but delaying everything to the fall would have meant that at least Matt has to stay behind.

we had some rough moments, getting everything together for the trip, including a tiring airline-ticket-hunt and nerve wrecking wait for Megan's passport, but we were finally all set to go.

Keren set out first to "prepare the ground" and everybody else flew over a few days later. Erin, Matt, Megan and Kevin flew together and arrived on Sunday morning, and stayed for a week. Sandy, Gary and Ben arrived later that afternoon, and stayed for almost a month, leaving just two short days after the wedding...

and this is what happened in between.