Chol Hamoed Pesach Trips - 2011

Although this years Chol Hamoed Pesach had only one full week day, I still managed to fill every moment of the time I had with the traditional holiday adventures. In previous years, my brothers and I would make a point of visiting the same places, and we would find pleasure in following what resembles a sort of Chol Hamoed field trip seder. This traditional itinerary would allow us to find pleasures in the simple things of life, and it would also result in less of a heartache in deciding exactly which excursions would maximize our holiday spirit. Naturally, it is the pictures taken to document the journey that make the outings much more worthwhile.

I enjoy snapping photographs of scenic discoveries, and this year was no different than any other year. However, this year there were certain pictures that I had to have in order to feel as if I had fulfilled the Positive Commandment of enjoying my holiday of Pesach. Having concrete goals is very important, and it can save a lot of storage in both your camera and hard drive if you are certain of which pictures are absolutely necessary. On the first day of Chol Hamoed I woke up bright and early and my two younger brothers and I prepared the car for a ride to the Bronx Zoo. The Bronx Zoo is not one of our traditional Pesach points of interests, but it has been a long time since we had been there and my brother just happened to really want to go there for some unknown reason. I was not terribly excited to be in an outdoor park on a pretty chilly day, but with my camera in hand I was all eyes. Immediately upon arrival I began carefully observing and photographing the various animals in there various habitats. I was very busy taking pictures, and it didn't even occur to me at first that I was really looking at live wild animals that are rarely seen in New York City.

These tigers are really large and it looked really cool the way they seemed to engage in peaceful dialog.

Not all animals are as peaceful, and one of the most thrilling sights of the day was this bear fight. A true grizzly sight.



On a more beautiful note, we witnessed a peacock open up and show its true colors.



We also witnessed a gorilla stand upright like a human.



A last but not least, I believe this is the celebrity Egyptian Cobra that escaped the zoo a few weeks ago.



Although the Jews never returned to slavery in Egypt, this Egyptian Cobra (now named MIA by its fan club) was not as fortunate to remain free.



On the next day of Chol Hamoed we did not have much time to do anything exciting. I am assuming most people were probably at a loss when it came to fun ideas for a Friday afternoon. However, this is where the concept of traditional visits to holiday destinations came in handy. On the second day of Chol Hamoed I went with my father and my two younger brothers to visit our families favorite tree.



Although this may look like any ordinary tree, we have visited this amazingly cool climbing tree almost every single Pesach Chol Hamoed since I was about 11 years old. Aside from being an awesome tree, visiting this tree year after year has turned an ordinary walk in the park into an amazing adventure.

And finally, today we made our yearly trip to the annual international car show in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center. I am not extremely knowledgeable of cars, but this place is really worthy of an annual visit. I first took a look at some of the normal cars, and inspected all the various gadgets. It is interesting to see how many different ways it's possible to adjust a drivers seat. Once I felt as if I had been sitting in enough cars that I felt as if I was just hoping into a taxi, I made my way to the expensive and extravagant automobiles in order to have some fresh footage for this years trek.

Here are the cool and expensive Ferraris and Bugatti.



This was just some weird looking car that I found very amusing.



Almost every automobile manufacture at this year's show was demonstrating some kind of battery powered car or hybrid. Here is an example of a hybrid from Mitsubishi.



This was pretty cool. The car used in the Transformers movie.



And here is what we came to see: We caught a glimpse of the widely publicized Chevy Volt (an electric and gasoline car).



Today ends another great year of Chol Hamoed trips. I feel very accomplished with the photos that I have taken, and I think this has been a successful Chol Hamoed. I hope to have as much productivity on all subsequent years to come.